Publication Date: August 31, 2001
Author: General Manager: SFA Student Channel
Summary: Year-to-Date ISIRs Process Change
Posted on August 31, 2001
TO: Financial Aid Administrators
FROM: Jennifer Douglas, General Manager Students Channel, SFA
SUBJECT: Year-to-date ISIRs Process Change
The purpose of this network message is to describe the changes the Department of Education (ED) is making to the process to receive a file of Year-to-date (YTD) Institutional Student Information Reports (ISIRs).
Why Is This Change Being Made?
At the end of September 2001, ED will move to the use of the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) for sending and receiving data over the Internet. As a result of this change, ED will pay for all costs relating to the creation and transmission of all data, including YTD ISIRs. You will no longer receive a bill from Title IV WAN for any transmissions of data nor will you incur any other charges relating to data received over the SAIG.
The cost of creating and transmitting YTD ISIRs to users is expensive for ED. In an effort to control and help reduce the overall cost of processing student financial aid, ED has decided to make the YTD ISIR request process an exception-based process. You will need to request and receive approval from ED before a YTD ISIR file will be created for your destination point.
What Does This Mean to You?
FOR 2000-2001: Through September 28, 2001, you can request and receive a file of 2000-2001 ISIRs containing YTD information (from cycle startup in January 2000 through the end of correction processing in August 2001). You make this request using CPS On-line query, which is accessed through EDConnect. You will be required to pay for both the processing and transmission of this file through the SAIG billing process. After September 28, 2001, no further YTD requests for 2000-2001 will be processed.
FOR 2001-2002: Through September 28, 2001, you can request and receive a file of 2001-2002 ISIRs containing YTD information (from cycle startup in January 2001 through whatever has been processed at the end of September). You can make this request either using (1) CPS On-line query, which is accessed through EDConnect, or (2) FAA Access to CPS via the Web, which you can access at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FAA/faa.htm. You will need your SFA-provided PIN and stable data entered by your Destination Point Administrator to access the site. You will be required to pay for both the processing and transmission of this file through the SAIG billing process.
After September 28, 2001, the YTD ISIR request option will be removed from FAA Access and from CPS On-line Query, which will be discontinued completely at that time. To get a YTD ISIR file after this date, you will need to submit your request to SFA Application Processing staff for review and approval. The staff will review the requests for those destination points that have had catastrophic loss of data due to a computer malfunction or other disaster.
FOR 2002-2003: After CPS startup on January 2, 2002, all YTD requests will be reviewed by SFA Application Processing staff and handled on a case-by-case basis. Only those destination points that have had catastrophic loss of data due to a computer malfunction or other disaster will be approved to receive a YTD ISIR file.
How Will This Work?
If you determine a YTD ISIR file is necessary to recover from loss of ISIR data for a particular processing year, contact Angie Iwanicki, SFA Application Processing, at 202/401-0791, or at angeline.iwanicki@ed.gov, with the following information:
- Your Full Name
- Destination Point Number and Name
- E-mail Address
- Phone Number
- Processing Year for Data (For example, 2001-2002)
- Federal School Codes or State Agency Code to be Included In the Request
- Start and End Date Range of data being requested (For example, CPS Startup through June 1)
- Information Detailing the Reason for Your Request of Year-to-date ISIRs
Angie will review your request and communicate to you SFA's decision as to whether a YTD file will be processed for your destination point. If your request is approved, CPS/WAN Technical Support will enter the request based on the information you have provided. YTD requests will be processed on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. You will receive the YTD data in the message class, YTD0*OP, where * identifies the processing year (either 2 for 2001-2002 or 3 for 2002-2003).
How Can I Prevent the Need for YTD ISIRs?
First, make sure Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) Enrollment has your destination point set up to receive ISIRs at CPS startup each year. If your system is not ready to import these records at startup, you can leave the files in your mailbox until you are ready to use them. Alternatively, you can download the files and save them in a directory until you are ready to use them.
Second, ED recommends you archive all the ISIR files you receive from CPS for a processing cycle in a specific directory that is backed-up regularly. This will allow for the recovery of your ISIR database within your own system (regardless of whether you use EDExpress or some other system). The OP files that contain your ISIRs are:
MESSAGE CLASS DATA CONTAINED IN MESSAGE CLASS
EAPS0*OP ISIR Data - Electronic Applications
For 2001-2 & 2002-3, ISIR Date - Electronic Corrections
CORR0*OPFor 2000-1 and prior ISIR Date - Electronic Corrections
years, SARR0*OPESFN0*OP ISIR - State Agency / Non Resident
ESFR0*OP ISIR - State Agency / Resident
FDRF0*OP ISIR - State Agency / FDR
SARA0*OP ISIR Data - Automatic
SYSG0*OP ISIR Data - System Generated
Archive these files using a medium (such as a network directory or zip drive) that will allow you to reimport these files into your system in case of data loss.
Who Can Answer My Questions about This?
If you have any questions regarding this process change, please contact CPS/WAN Technical Support at
800/330-5947 or via email at CPSWAN@NCS.COM.
If you have technical questions about our SFA systems and software, you may want to subscribe to our email list serve, SFATECH. For more information about SFATECH, including how to subscribe, look online at www.ed.gov/sfatech/listserv.html.