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(GEN-96-07) (GEN-96-07) Incorporation of the Student Status Confirmation Report (SSCR) into the NSLDS to centralize and fully automate the enrollment verification process.

DCLPublicationDate: 3/1/96
DCLID: GEN-96-7
AwardYear:
Summary: Incorporation of the Student Status Confirmation Report (SSCR) into the NSLDS to centralize and fully automate the enrollment verification process.


March 1996

GEN-96-7


Dear President:

In 1994, the US Department of Education (Department) began using
the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) to track and
monitor all student loan borrowers and grant overpayments. The
Department has incorporated the Student Status Confirmation Report
(SSCR) into the NSLDS to centralize and fully automate the
enrollment verification process. The new SSCR process will benefit
the entire student loan community: students, schools, lenders,
guaranty agencies, and the Department.

Current Schedule for the New SSCR

In April 1996, all schools will receive an electronic SSCR file
from NSLDS via the Title IV Wide Area Network (TIV WAN).*1*
It is critical that your school sign up for the TIV WAN in order to
receive your file; NSLDS will not generate any paper SSCRs. (A
magnetic tape option is available to those who need it.) This file
will contain enrollment information on Federal Family Education
Loan (FFEL) borrowers and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan
(Direct Loan) borrowers that the Department believes are currently
attending your school, or who have recently left your school.
Please refer to the Student Status Confirmation Report User’s Guide
that will be distributed to all schools for detailed information
about how to read the file and the exact data elements contained in
it. You will have until JULY 15, 1996, to update the SSCR and
return it to NSLDS through the TIV WAN (or via magnetic tape if
that is the option you chose).

This first issuance of SSCRs by NSLDS will be the same in all
respects as future ones except that for this first time, a much
longer period is being allotted for schools to respond. This
process is mandatory for all schools.

During this process, guaranty agencies will continue sending SSCRs
to schools as before, requesting enrollment verification for FFEL
borrowers; and schools will be expected to respond. However, once
NSLDS takes over the SSCR process, guaranty agencies will no
longer send SSCRs to schools, as the agencies will receive
enrollment verification directly from NSLDS. (The effective date for
this change, now expected to be September, 1996, will be announced
in a forthcoming Dear Colleague letter.)

Clarification of an NSLDS Data Element Appearing on the New SSCR

The date that corresponds to the Enrollment Status Code “F”
(full-time) is defined as the date on which the student most
recently began uninterrupted enrollment on a full-time basis.
The date that corresponds to the Enrollment Status Code “H”
(half-time or more, but less than full-time) is the date the
student dropped below full-time, or if half-time is the original
status, the date on which the student most recently began
uninterrupted enrollment on that basis. The date that corresponds to
the Enrollment Status Code “L” (less than half-time) is the date the
student dropped below half-time, or if less than half-time is the
original status, the date on which the student most recently began
uninterrupted enrollment on that basis.

For example, if a borrower is a third-year full-time student and
has maintained uninterrupted full-time enrollment since the
beginning of his first year, the date that would correspond to the
Enrollment Status Code of “F” would be the beginning of the
borrower’s first year in school. This is a change from the current
definition of “Enrollment Status Effective Date.” The change is
needed in order to improve the servicing of student loans.

Because the Department is sensitive to the fact that finding the
necessary data to satisfy this new definition may, for the present,
be difficult for you, we are recommending the following:

- If a student’s current enrollment status is the same as
the status reported to you on the SSCR and the status effective
date shown on the SSCR is a date in the past, do not change
the status effective date unless you KNOW it is wrong. In that
case, please provide the correct date.

- If no enrollment date is shown on the SSCR and you cannot
provide the actual date that status began (as defined above),
please supply the date the current enrollment period began.

Note Regarding the Error Notification File

When NSLDS receives your updated SSCR file, we will process it
and return an Error Notification File to your school. The Error
Notification File will not contain entries documenting successful
updates; only errors will be reported. (This may change in the
future.) The trailer record in the file will, however, show COUNTS
for both successes and errors. The Error Notification File will serve
as proof that your school returned your SSCR to NSLDS.

If you have any questions regarding the SSCR process, please call
the NSLDS Customer Service Center at 1-800-999-8219.

Sincerely,


F. Lynn Alexander, Director
NSLDS Division


*1* The cover letter to the SSCR User’s Guide that was recently
distributed to Direct Loan schools indicated that they would receive
an SSCR at the end of February, with an updated SSCR due back to
NSLDS by the end of March. Based on advice from the NSLDS
School Advisory Group, this will not occur; the first SSCR any
school receives will be in April, as described in this letter.