| PublicationDate: 9/23/98 Summary: Year 2000 Compliance Author: ODAS - Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary - SFA Posted September 23, 1998 TO: Financial Aid Administrators FROM: Diane E. Rogers Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Student Financial Assistance Programs SUBJECT: Year 2000 Compliance Dear Colleague: The subject of potential Year 2000 ("Y2K") computer problems and their correction is increasingly on the minds of both Government officials and leaders of private industry. As with many other areas of our national life, the Title IV Federal student financial aid delivery system is substantially dependent on computer systems and thus faces serious Y2K challenges. I want you to know that we at the Department of Education are doing everything we can to ensure that the delivery of Federal student aid and related public services will not be disrupted by Y2K computer problems. This is the first of a series of periodic messages updating you on the Y2K status of the Department's student financial aid data systems. The Department has had an extensive Y2K conversion effort underway for many months, and I am happy to say that we have made rapid and significant progress on all of our mission critical data systems. Eleven of the Department's 14 "mission critical" data systems are directly related to student financial aid. Of these, o Three systems have been renovated, validated, and implemented: the Postsecondary Education Participants System, the Direct Loan Origination system, and the Campus-based Programs system; o Five systems have been renovated and are progressing well through the validation process: the Direct Loan Central Database System, the Direct Loan Servicing System, the Central Processing System, the National Student Loan Database System, and the Title IV Wide Area Network. o Work on all but one student aid system will be completed by the end of January 1999. The FFEL system conversion work is expected to be completed by March 1999. We recognize the importance of testing our renovated systems with our partners. In early 1999, the Department will conduct "end-to-end" systems testing of the mission critical student aid systems, which will include our external partners. Between April and September 1999, the Department will make available additional testing opportunities to postsecondary institutions and other external partners as they complete work on their own Y2K system renovations. The Department has also launched extensive Y2K contingency planning efforts and will have a plan for every critical and noncritical system by March 1999. In our student aid area, I can assure you that Y2K contingency planning has received the highest priority. We have established Department-wide Y2K contingency planning teams which will assess our student aid business processes, develop alternative procedures that would be utilized in the event of significant data systems failures, develop trigger scenarios, as well as test and rehearse the alternative procedures. Listening to the ideas and concerns of the student aid community is a vital part of this process. The teams will be soliciting your contingency planning ideas in the near future. |