Federal UpdatePresenter: Rosemary Beavers

National Association of Sigma UsersJuly 24, 2003

Student Aid Programs

Direct Loan and Pell – FSA provides funds to students through schools, and schools report individual disbursements to FSA

Campus-Based – FSA provides funds to students through schools, and schools report aggregate disbursements to FSA

FFELP – private lenders provide funds to students through schools

FSA Products and Services

National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Common Origination and Disbursement

System (COD) Federal Student Aid Handbook Campus-Based Reporting System Schools Portal Financial Partners Portal

FSA Modernization Goals

Integrate & Simplify Systems and Processes Enable our systems to seamlessly work together Integrate our systems through reengineering, replacement, and

retirement Improve Service and Access to Federal Student

Aid Focus on the needs of customers Be easy to do business with

Increase Program Integrity Restore trust and integrity to Title IV student aid program Eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse

Reduce Costs Do more with less…serve more with less Protect the public’s money

FSA Annual OperationsFiscal Year 2002

• 12 million aid applications• 8 million aid recipients• $56.5 billion delivered in total of new federal aid• $32 billion delivered in consolidation loans• 34 million inbound and outbound customer service

phone calls• 25 million Direct Loan borrower payments processed• 20 billion hits to FSA web sites• 41 million pieces of mail sent out to aid applicants

during the most recent annual cycle

Distribution of AidFiscal Year 2002

2002 Aid Type (in Billions)

41.6, 74%

13.7, 24%1.2, 2%

Loans Grants Federal Work Study

Student Eligibility: FAFSA

1.7 1.9 2.43.2

4.25.7

7.48.6

8 7.9 7.57

6.3

5.7

4.9

4.6

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04

Award Year

In B

illio

ns

Electronic Paper

WE PROCESS OVER 600,000 APPLICATIONS IN A PEAK PROCESSING WEEK

Student Eligibility: FAFSA

Electronic Process Electronic process reject rate is

less than 2% Electronic process, including

changes, can be usually completed in 72 hours

Paper Process Paper process reject rate is about

8% The paper process, including

changes, typically takes a minimum of 10 to 15 days

12 million submitted FAFSA forms 60% are completed electronically Use of the online change process has increased nine fold

over the last four years (3% to 26%) 8.3 million changes are made to previously submitted

application by schools and applicants

COD Record Processing YTD – as of July 15, 2003

Originations (#) Originations ($) Actual Disbursements (#)

Actual Disbursements

($)

Direct Loan PLUS 232,929 $1.6 billion 421,227 $1.5 billion

Direct Loan Subsidized 1.8 million $5.8 billion 3.1 million $5.4 billion

Direct Loan Unsubsidized 1.3 million $4.6 billion 2.2 million $4.2 billion

Pell 5.3 million $15.8 billion 11.4 million $11.5 billion

TOTAL 8.7 million $27.9 billion 17.1 million $22.6 billion

COD Record Processing YTD – as of July 15, 2003

Originations (#) Originations ($) Actual

Disbursements (#)

Actual Disbursements

($)

Direct Loan PLUS 41,293 $403.9 million 545 $1.5 million

Direct Loan Subsidized 395,975 $1.6 billion 30,151 $56.5 million

Direct Loan Unsubsidized 260,174 $1.3 billion 18,928 $44.1 million

Pell 335,396 $1.1 billion 59,370 $67.4 million

TOTAL 1 million $4.3 billion 108,994 $169.5 million

Common Record – FSA, CommonLine, and PESC

Shared Goal of developing an XML Higher Education Standard.

Shared Lessons Learned (Technology and Implementation)

Working with Electronic Standards Council (ESC) as they develop the Common Record: CommonLine.

Provide Project Management assistance to PESC as they developed the Academic Transcript schema and the CommonRecord: CommonLine schema.

Common Record – Current State

Negotiations with CommunityPESC

• Academic TranscriptESC

• Common Record CommonLine

XML Framework 10-31-03

Common Record Estimated Implementation Schedule

02-03 Common Record – COD v 1.0g

03-04 Common Record –COD 2.0c(changed all tag names)

04-05 Common Record –COD 2.0d(+2 new tags – 6 old tags)

05-06 Common Record – ISIR 1.0aAlign with standard

Common Record – COD 3.0Align with standard

(XML Required)

06-07 Common Record – ISIR 1.0a (XML Required) Common Record – COD 3.0a

07-08 Common Record – ISIR 1.0a Common Record – COD 3.0b

COD Changes for 2004-2005

COD will accept Phase-In Participant records in 2004-2005

All schools must be Full Participants using the XML Common Record in 2005-2006

Reminder: EDExpress users are Full Participants beginning in 2003-2004

COD Changes for 2004-2005

COD will accept and process all Campus Based award and disbursement data from Full Participant schools for the 03-04 and 04-05 award years and forward

Campus Based award and disbursement data will be viewable on the COD web site

COD Message Class Changes for 2004-2005

Full Participants will have the option of using message classes that are specific byProgramAward YearProgram and Award YearGeneral (e.g. COMRECIN, COMRECOP)Receipts

The 04-05 COD Technical Reference draft published in August will contain specific message class names

SAIG Transmission Header Changes for 2004-2005

SAIG has increased the variable field on the SAIG Transmission Header from 26 characters to 50 characters

The SAIG Transmission Header will be populated with the entire Document ID for Full Participants and the Batch ID for Phase-In Participants

If a school uses the variable space for other data on the incoming record, COD will not overwrite this data with the Document ID or the Batch ID

Pell Changes for 2004-2005: Record Layouts

The following data elements will not be required on the Common Record for the 04-05 award year and subsequent years: Academic Calendar Code Payment Methodology Code Weeks of instructional time used to calculate payment Weeks of instructional time in program’s definition of award year Credit/Clock hours used to calculate payment Credit/Clock hours in this student’s program of study’s academic year

If a Full Participant school submits data in these tags, the COD system will not edit or store the data and will not return these tags on a Full Response

These tags will continue to be edited and stored for Phase-In Participants and will be returned in the Acknowledgement

Pell Changes for 2004-2005:Verification Initiatives

Two new informational tags will be added to the Response block: <CPS Verification Indicator><CPS Highest Transaction Number>

<CPS Verification Indicator> will be returned in response for Pell actual disbursements if the student was selected for verification on any CPS transaction number and the school did not report ‘V’ or ‘S’

Pell Changes for 2004-2005:Verification Initiatives

<CPS Highest Transaction Number> will be returned in response for Pell actual disbursements if a CPS transaction number higher than the one reported by the school exists

A Verification Status Report will be sent to schools monthly indicating those students selected for verification by CPS that schools have not yet verified (QA schools excluded)

Direct Loan Changes for 2004-2005

Anticipated Disbursement information is required to establish all Direct Loan awards.

The sum of the disbursement information (anticipated and actuals) must be equal to the award amount

COD web site will be modified to allow more than one disbursement to be created when creating an award

Direct Loan Changes for 2004-2005

If a school submits a decrease to an award amount without adjusting the anticipated disbursements, and only anticipated disbursements exist on the award, COD will recalculate anticipated disbursements for the school

COD will begin recalculation with the highest disbursement number

If actual disbursements exist, new award amount can not be less than the sum of the actual disbursements (edit 41). Anticipated disbursements will not be recalculated

Direct Loan Changes for 2004-2005

The Direct Loan Program will not process pennies

The Common Record allows Full Participants to report pennies in the Award Amount tag

If a school submits pennies in the Direct Loan Award Amount, the COD system will truncate the cents to the right of the decimal

COD Timeline

2004 – 2005 Development Schedule:

Requirements Complete June 2003Design Complete August 2003Development Complete November 2003Testing Complete February 2004School/Vendor Testing February 2004System Start Up March 2004