SFA Information for Financial Aid Professionals
U.S. Department of Education
| PublicationDate: 6/4/99 Summary: Student Financial Aid Year 2000 Project Status As of 4 June, 1999 Author: PSS - Program Systems Service As of 4 June, 1999 The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) is proud to announce that OSFA programs systems, which deliver and administer student assistance, are Year 2000 ready. However, this achievement alone does not assure the delivery of student aid. Trading exchange testing with our large population of OSFA customers will further reduce the risk of a Year 2000 failure in the delivery of student assistance. OSFA encourages each institution (school or agency) to test their data exchanges with the following systems during the windows of opportunity listed below. Testing plans and test cases can be found at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/b2a.html.
Please note that the first window for Pell Origination testing has been changed to June 21 through July 23. This testing window change is a result of additional Y2K acceptance testing being performed on the newly developed system. As you see from the schedule above, the first test windows for institutions to test with National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and Direct Loan Origination System (DLOS) closed May 21, 1999, institutions and agencies are encouraged to test with these two systems when the second test windows open on July 12, 1999. Institutions and agencies who have successfully tested will be acknowledged on the Departments Y2K Web site. The preliminary Year 2000 Student Financial Assistance Business Continuity and Contingency Planning is another milestone accomplishment OSFA has completed. Our preliminary plan can be found at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/reports.html. This plan provides OSFAP business continuity should any portion of the student financial assistance business processes experience a disruption due to a Year 2000 problem. The plan identifies eight core business processes and numerous key sub-processes, normal and emergency levels of performance, potential failure scenarios, and a variety of risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans addressing potential failures. Review by the Office of Management and Budget is in process. OSFA has posted this plan to the Web site for community review and input. OSFA encourages institutions and agencies to review our plan and develop similar plans to ensure their ability to continue student financial assistance delivery and other core business functions associated with their mission. OSFA is conducting outreach to our financial aid community partners on Y2K assessment, testing, and contingency planning. OSFA held a focus group in Puerto Rico, and ten others are scheduled through August. In conclusion, OSFA wants to ensure that the student financial assistance community will not be disrupted on account of the Year 2000 problem. The SFA Year 2000 project team may be reached via email at: |