Maintained for Historical Purposes

This resource is being maintained for historical purposes only and is not currently applicable.

Y2K Testing with the CPS

PublicationDate: 8/6/99
Summary: Y2K Testing with the CPS
Author: PSS - Program Systems Service

TO: All Destination Points
FROM: U.S. Department of Education
RE: Y2K Testing with the CPS
Date: August 6, 1999

The US Department of Education is pleased to announce the start of the
second Year 2000 (Y2K) School Test Window with the Central Processing
System (CPS). This test window runs for six weeks, beginning August 9,
1999 and ending September 20, 1999. We strongly urge you to take
advantage of this opportunity to test with the CPS to ensure that you will
be able to submit Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data
and FAFSA Corrections to CPS and receive Institutional Student Information
Records (ISIR’s) from CPS in the next millennium.

Instructions for completing the CPS Y2K testing procedures can be found on
the ED web page at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/b2a.html. The Y2K
test consists of entering twelve test FAFSAs. These test cases are in
Adobe PDF format and may be downloaded from the ED web page athttp://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/cpstest.html.

STATE AGENCIES: You can request a copy of the Y2K ISIR file from CPS by
calling the Customer Service number below. You can use this file to
ensure your system can handle dates in the year 2000.

SCHOOLS: PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING:

1. Your destination point must be operational for Electronic Applications
with the Title IV WAN to participate in the CPS Y2K School Testing. If
you are unsure if you are operational for Electronic Applications, please
call Title IV WAN Customer Service at 1-800-615-1189 to find out. Be
ready to tell your destination point number and Federal School Code Number
to tell the Customer Service Representative so they can quickly assist
you.

2. To make your Y2K test data unique, you must enter your Federal School
Code as the first six digits of the SSN on each test case. (If your
Federal School Code begins with a letter and your system will not accept
non-numeric data in this field, enter the number 9 instead of the letter).
For the last three digits of the SSN, use the sequential number between
001 and 012 written on the test case. All 12 records must be submitted
together in a single batch.

3. Set your system date to February 29, 2000 and transmit the data to CPS
using the input file message class YR2K00IN. CPS will retrieve and process
the Y2K message class once per day.

4. CPS simplified the Y2K school test process for this second test
window. Now, two dates will be validated rather than all data on each of
the 12 test FAFSAs, as was done in the first 6-week testing window. These
date fields, the TRANSACTION RECEIPT DATE and APPLICATION RECEIPT
DATE, must have a valid date format and a value of February 29, 2000 to pass the
test. If you enter 02/29/2000 as the date that the FAFSA was completed and received
on the 12 test FAFSAs, and transmit them to CPS with the system date set to
02/29/2000, then the date fields mentioned above should have a value of 02/29/2000.

5. Output files will be generated by CPS in response to your submission
and transmitted to you via the Title IV WAN. You may receive an error file
(message class Y2KE00OP), a Y2K discrepancy file (message class Y2KD00OP),
and/or a Y2K ISIR file (message class Y2KA00OP).

6. You will receive the error file if your destination point is not
operational for electronic applications, if you submit a file containing
less than 12 FAFSAs, or if the file you submit is not in the correct
Electronic Application format. (See the EDE Technical Reference, page
3-57 for the Electronic Application layout.) You will receive the
discrepancy file if CPS can not validate the dates within all 12 of the
test cases. You can submit test files as many times as necessary during
the six-week test window until you pass the test.

7. When you receive the Y2K ISIR file, you will have completed the Y2K
testing successfully.

8. Transmission of the Y2K error, discrepancy, and ISIR files will take
place during prime time to avoid interference with production data
transmissions.

If you require assistance, please contact CPS Customer Service at
800-330-5947, option 2, or via email at CPS@NCS.COM. You will not be
charged for CPS Y2K test-related calls or emails.