| PublicationDate: 8/1/97 Summary: 98-99 EDExpress Changes Author: CPS - Central Processing System (CPS) To: All EDE Destination Points From: CPS Customer Service RE: 98-99 EDExpress Changes Below are our plans for the 1998-99 version of EDExpress for Windows which includes the general changes and specific enhancements to the Application Processing, Packaging, and Direct Loan modules. Our goal is to communicate plans and decisions as soon as possible so that you have plenty of time to make changes to your systems and procedures. Keep in mind, though, that the changes to EDExpress described in this letter are preliminary. We are still early in the software development cycle for 1998-99. As we move into the testing phase, there may be changes to the enhancements described in this summary. We will communicate any changes, should they occur, as soon as possible. EDExpress Application Processing Changes Changes to FAFSA Data Elements We expect a few minor changes to the questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). These changes will affect several EDExpress import and export records, including the ISIR and electronic application record. They will also affect data entry screens and printed reports. The expected changes, pending approval by the Office of Management and Budget, follow: Deleted the question "For how many dependents will you (the student) pay child care or elder care expenses in." (Question 37 on the 1997-98 FAFSA). Combined questions 20 and 21 on the 1997-98 FAFSA into one yes/no question: "Will you have received a high school diploma or earned a GED before the first date of your enrollment in college?" Removed "day" from the date requested for three questions on the FAFSA: "Date you became a legal resident ..." (Question 12); "Date your parent(s) became legal resident(s)..." (Question 50); and "Date you expect to receive your degree/certificate" (Question 31). In 1998-99, applicants will only provide month and year for these questions. Deleted housing code option 4, "with relative(s) other than parent(s)" (Questions 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, and 103). NSLDS Record Several important enhancements to the financial aid history data received from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and the NSLDS report printed by EDExpress will be made. The following are among the changes planned: Pell Grant payment data will be added to the record and printed on the NSLDS report with information about disbursements made to the student for the 1998-99 award year. The code (OPEID) of the school making the disbursement, the disbursement amount and date, and the transaction on which the disbursement was made will be reported for up to two disbursements. In addition, the remaining amount to be disbursed and the percent of the scheduled amount used will be reported. Schools will be instructed to access NSLDS directly for additional Pell Grant data when the student has more than two disbursements. A "Discharged Loan Flag" will be added to note if any loan was discharged due to disability or death (loan status codes of DS, DI, DD, and DE). If this flag is present, a comment will be triggered and the SAR C flag will be set. A flag to denote that Loan Satisfactory Repayment Arrangements have been made for loan status code DX will be added. A flag to indicate an Active Bankruptcy for loan status codes BK, DB, and DO will be added. Flags are being added to the record to identify when data fields that have changed since the last transaction. A "#" sign will print next to the changed area field on the NSLDS report. The "#" sign will be displayed in the following sections: Overpayment, Defaulted Loans Flag, Discharged Flag, Loan Satisfactory Arrangement Flag, Active Bankruptcy Flag, Aggregate Amount for FFELP/Direct Loans, Perkins Loans, Pell Payment Data, and each loan in the Detail section. The report will be reformatted to combine the two sections titled "Most Recent FFELP/Direct Loans" and "Defaulted Loans" into one section titled "Loan Detail". If a loan detail record is a defaulted loan, it will be identified with a loan type of D in the ISIR record layout. Up to twelve loans will be displayed in the Loan Detail section. These loans will be sorted by the Loan Begin Date then by Outstanding Principal Balance. The "Current Holder" column on the report will be changed to "Contact" and the "Region Code" will be changed to "Contact Type" and will include for each loan either the 6-digit school code, lender code, Federal Direct Loan Program servicer code, ED region code, lender servicer code, school servicer code, GA code, or not applicable. In addition, a contact point for each overpayment reported will be provided. And, information about who to contact for each defaulted loan will be included in the comment text. The Overpayment field will contain "N" for no overpayment, "Y" for an overpayment, or "S" for satisfactory arrangements made to repay the overpayment. In the Aggregate Amount section, Consolidated Loans "Pending Disbursements" will be deleted. In the Perkins Loans section, "Expanded Loan Flag Option" will be changed to "Expanded Lending Option." Users will be able to print the NSLDS data as a stand-alone report in EDExpress. Changes to Batch Number We will be modifying the batch number that appears in the header and trailer records of files sent to, and received from, the Central Processing System (CPS) to help us better manage your data. This change affects software vendors and schools that develop systems to handle CPS data files. The structure of the new 23-digit batch ID follows: #XY999999CCYYMMDDHHMMSS where, #X = Batch type Y = Processing Year ('9' in 1998-99) 999999 = Valid 6-digit Title IV institution code CCYYMMDD = Date batch submitted in century, year, month, day format HHMMSS = Time batch submitted in hour, minute, second format Those familiar with the 1997-98 batch number structure will note that a time stamp has been added; the batch sequence number has been deleted; and century has been attached to the date field. Removal of VOBE VOBE (Volume Oriented Batch Entry) will be removed from EDExpress, based on user feedback. Schools who have used a system other than EDExpress to enter electronic applications have been required to edit the entered records using VOBE. In 1998-99, that requirement is dropped with the removal of VOBE from EDExpress. Schools that have been using VOBE will still be responsible for ensuring that the data conforms to the specifications as provided in the EDE Technical Reference and that the data are accurate prior to submitting electronic applications to the CPS. Otherwise, the CPS will reject erroneous applications. Optional Update of Demographic Fields A setup feature will be added to EDExpress to allow you to indicate whether the student's demographic data (name, address, telephone number, date of birth, etc.) should be updated when you import a subsequent ISIR for a student. In addition, you will be able to print a report comparing original and updated field values when importing ISIRs. In the 1997-98 software, if you receive different information on a subsequent ISIR, the demographic data are not updated automatically. You need to retrieve the record and update it manually to reflect changes. Other EDExpress Changes We are making numerous minor enhancements to EDExpress based upon comments we have received from users. These enhancements are listed here: Expanded the Last Name range selection criteria from 1 character to 3 characters to assist schools with large databases in narrowing their selection when printing reports, exporting records, etc. Added a new intermediate EFC calculation field on the ISIR record called FTI that corresponds to the definition of income required on the FISAP report. This value will be printed on the ISIR and SAR. Moved the Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA) functionality from EDExpress to the Pell Payment software. Added a field to the demographic data screen that allows schools to track the transaction number of the ISIR used to make payment to the student. Enhanced the List - Entered Corrections report to display the values of the fields being corrected. Added the capability to optionally print the Certification Page for ISIRs. Modified the software to display the highest transaction for an ISIR when the user clicks on the SAR/ISIR tab. (In the 1997-98 software, the 01 transaction is displayed.) Added as a setup option the ability to define the number of copies of Document Tracking letters that print each time Document Tracking letters are printed. Added a new installation option that allows the system administrator to reset their database. EDExpress Packaging Changes A priority field will be added to the budget setup screen to allow users to prioritize the order in which the budget database is searched when assigning budgets. The first budget where the student meets the selection criteria will be used to package that student. A button will be added to Packaging system setup to disable the signature block on User-Defined Letter and Document Tracking letters. We will expand the SAP Code listing from 5 to an unlimited amount and will double the description length from 25 to 50. We will expand acceptable character fields for SAP Code Descriptions to include: %, and add the acceptable character definitions to the help text. The default on the maximum EFC field under award methodology will be modified from 00000 to 99999 so that users will not be forced to enter a value if they choose to use the maximum or not set a value. We will add "not enrolled" (5) as an enrollment status choice on the academic year profile setup screen in order to control the awarding of all funds. An "Award Letter Received" check box will be added to the awards tab screen. If the box is checked, then award letter will no longer print in batch mode. If not checked, award letter will print until the Maximum Number of Award Letters is reached. You will also be able to update this field using the multiple entry function. Modified software to allow documents to be added after records have been packaged only if documents being added are NOT required for Packaging. Users will be able to manually change the Packaging Status to "P" (Packaged) without using the Process|Package menu option. However, it can only be manually changed to "P" if Packaging Status is equivalent to "U"(Unpackaged) or "R" (Ready to Package). Removed Borrower Based Academic Year field from Packaging Import and added it as a field to update in Packaging multiple entry. Added Print option to batch packaging that will indicate students who have been packaged. The option will be a yes or no response to the question "Print List of Packaged Records?". Created a new packaging report which will print all students in the packaging database without regard to Packaging Status. The Packaged Students By Fund Code report will now print the name of the fund for those funds showing zero (0) values in order to allow for a better view of the distribution of funds. Users will be able to print out their entire Packaging Setup. The report type will be labeled "Packaging Setup". We will add a print option to the Packaging Import screen for printing a list of all imported records. The option will be a yes or no response to the question "Print List of Imported Records?". All packaging options under the Process menu will be greyed out until the Packaging Status is "R" (Ready to Package) and a dialog box will display listing the missing fields required to make the record ready to package. A value of "Z" will be added as a default indicator to allow the user to override default status of "Y" in order to originate loan after importing the Packaged record(s) into the Direct Loan database. Modified the Packaged Students by Fund Code, SSN, and Name reports to include a "Suspended Student Indicator". Users will now be able to print packaging records in batch mode with a warning indicating that this print process may be slow. We have added a "current date" field to query field choice listing so that users will not have to create the same query daily for comparison against date fields in the database. This current date field will be available in all modules of EDExpress, not just Packaging. We will add the Packaging Change Field Number layout to Packaging print. We have added a column to the Packaging List Reports-Fund Code, SSN and Last Name to indicate the student's Packaging Result (Accepted, Declined or Suspended). EDExpress Direct Loan Changes A new Direct Loan School Account Statement process will be implemented. The Loan Origination Center (LOC) will send a new message class to schools containing a code identifying the Department of Education (ED) Servicer to which a student is assigned when his/her loan is booked. The servicer code will be displayed under the loan tab. A batch level reject code was added to the Direct Loan header record. When the LOC is unable to process a file, e.g. due to a duplicate batch, the acknowledgment file will contain the reject reason. EDExpress will print the reason code on an edit report. Users will be able to delete actual disbursements transactions if they have not been batched. When adding new loan records manually, the school code will default to the most recent loan record. Added a Stafford only and a PLUS only option to the Browse utility. Removed the "19" prefill from all date entry fields. Added a filter to all grids that can be browsed (selection capability). Moved LOC defined import message classes to global user- defined import message classes. Added academic year begin and end date to the loan origination record. Users will define the academic year as part of the disbursement profile setup. Entrance Interview flag will be an importable change field. Former HEAL participants can have higher loan limits on unsubsidized loan records. Zero dollar adjustments can no longer be allowed except when necessary to correct certain rounding problems. Added edit: Anticipation completion date may not be more than 10 years greater than the loan period end date. Increased the display size of the drop down lists in combo list boxes on entry screens. Added a verification function that will enable schools to resend change records for loan amount approved/requested and cancellations. Promissory note manifests will have a secondary sort by first name when the last names are the same. The Print Sequence # for the latest promissory note accepted by the LOC will be displayed under the loan tab. When multiple loan records exist for a student, you can choose from a list to determine which promissory note to print. Software will print the Default Override flag on the PLUS Prom Note/Application. When printing promissory notes from single print with the Combine Sub/Unsubsidized option, users can choose which loan records to combine. Reconciliation Measurement Report will provide net disbursement amounts and totals. Total number of borrowers will be added to the loan list totals. Disbursement Status will print on the disbursement list. Added a year identifier to the EDPMS drawdown file layout. We continue our efforts to improve EDExpress and respond to the concerns and needs that you, our customers, have expressed in focus groups, at conferences, and other forums. Please continue to communicate with us about other system changes you wish to see implemented. We are committed to supporting you in the delivery of aid to your students. If you have any questions, please call CPS Customer Service at 1-800-330-5947. |