Publication Date: September 2003
Author: General Manager: FSA Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services
Summary: Pell Grant Processing Deadline for the 2002-2003 Award Year
TO: Financial Aid Community
FROM: COD School Relations
RE: Pell Grant Processing Deadline for the 2002-2003 Award Year
This is a reminder that under 34 CFR 690.83, schools must submit student payment data by September 30. Therefore, the deadline for electronically transmitting records for the Federal Pell Grant 2002-2003 Award Year is Tuesday, September 30, 2003. This deadline was previously announced in a Federal Register dated August 15, 2002 http://www.ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/FR08152002.html). Your transmission must be completed by midnight (local time at your destination point) on September 30, 2003 to meet the deadline.
After September 30, 2003, Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) will only systematically process downward adjustments to previously accepted award originations and downward adjustments to previously accepted disbursements unless at least one of the following conditions exists:
a) The studentwas in a Potential Overaward Project (POP) situation during 2002-2003 award year.
b) The Department has approved the school for an administrative relief request or extended processing beyond the September 30 date.
o Administrative relief may be granted if the Department or one of its operating partners made an administrative or processing error which prevented the school from meeting the September 30, 2003 deadline oran event, such as a natural disaster or other unusual circumstances beyond the school's control prevented a school from meeting the deadline.
o Extended Processing may be granted for the following regulatory exceptions:
§ Schools making eligible late disbursements under 34 CFR 668.164(g)
§ Schools who are eligible to request unreported funds based upon a program review or initial audit finding under 34 CFR 690.83
Please see section below regarding Administrative Relief and Extended Processing for additional details.
Reconciliation Tools
COD offers two files that provide you information to help in either the year-end or ongoing reconciliation process. The first is the Year-to-Date File that contains detail origination, disbursement, and summary information on all your Pell Grant students at a transaction level. In addition, schools or servicers may request a reconciliation file. These files can be requested from the COD web site or by submitting the appropriate award year batch data request message class to COD via SAIG. You will receive the requested report in the corresponding award year format. You no longer have to call COD School Relations to request these reports.
In addition to these tools, you also should use the COD web site www.cod.ed.gov. The Pell Person Information screen allows you to view the activities of other schools with respect to originations and disbursements for individual students enrolled at your institution.
Administrative Relief/ Extended Processing
Requesting
You can request administrative relief/ extended processing via e-mail to sfa.administrative.relief@ed.gov or via the COD web site, www.cod.ed.gov, on the ”Request Post Deadline Processing” tab located on the left hand side menu under the School Information tab. In requesting post deadline processing include award year for which relief is requested (ex. 2002-2003), the requestor’s name, email address, and phone number. Also required is the reason for the request, a description of the problem in detail, the date by which records will be submitted and, if the request is by email, the name of the school and six-digit Pell institution number,
Once the request has been submitted, the Department will either approve or deny the request by e-mail. Important: Do not submit records to COD until you have received this approval e-mail.
If necessary, a school may request post deadline processing multiple times for the 2002-2003 award year until the February 2, 2004 deadline.
Please note: We must RECEIVE your request for 2002-2003 Administrative Relief/ Extended Processing no later than February 2, 2004.
Processing in the Pell Post Deadline Period
If approval for administrative relief or extended processing is granted, you can submit student data through your system’s normal batch/document process or you can create awards/originations and disbursements via the COD web site. Phase-In schools will receive acknowledgements for 2002-2003 post deadline processing data entered through the COD web site. This is a change for Phase-In schools that ONLY applies to post deadline processing. Phase-in schools that enter post deadline processing data through the web will receive either a: student year to date acknowledgement (#Y), origination/award data acknowledgment (#P) or disbursement data acknowledgment (#W), depending on the option chosen by the school at the time the data is entered through the web.
Editing in the Pell Post Deadline Period
2002-2003 records received after September 30, 2003, will be edited to determine if the school has been granted administrative relief or extended processing permission to submit records beyond that date.
A school may receive one of the following edits if the school has not been granted administrative relief/post deadline processing:
Full Participant Edit 43/Phase-In Edit 399 (New Award Amount or Award Increase Received After End of Processing Year and Institution has Not Been Granted Administrative Relief) has been added. This edit identifies a new award amount or award amount increases sent after the end of the processing year, September 30, 2003.
Full Participant Edit 71/ Phase-In Edit 417 (New Disbursement Increase, or Payment Trigger to “Y” Received After End of Processing Year and Institution Has Not Been Granted Administrative Relief) has been added. This edit identifies disbursement records that will reject after the award year has ended.
If you have any questions about this announcement or Pell Grants processing by COD, please call 1-800-474-7268 or e-mail codsupport@acs-inc.com. If you need access to the COD web site, refer to the posting on IFAP at: http://ifap.ed.gov/cod/0318Schoolaccess.html. Also, please consult the COD Processing Updates posted daily to the COD Web site for ongoing information about COD processing.