Publication Date: September 5, 2006 Author: G. Kay Jacks, General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid Summary: Pell Grant Processing Deadline for the 2005-2006 Award Year Posted on 09-05-2006 The Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) Program regulations at 34 CFR 690.83(a) establish the deadline by which a school must submit student payment data each award year. The data must be submitted to the Department of Education (the Department) by September 30 following the end of the award year in which the Pell Grant is made. As required by regulations, and consistent with the notice published in the Federal Register on June 7, 2005 (70 FR 33134), the deadline for electronically transmitting Pell Grant records for the 2005-2006 Award Year to the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System is Monday, October 2, 2006. To meet this deadline, a school's transmissions must be completed by midnight (in the school's local time zone) on October 2, 2006. Note: The deadline is on Monday, October 2, 2006 because September 30th is on a Saturday this year. We provide information in this announcement in the following order: Tools to Assist Schools with Reconciliation Prior to October 2, 2006 Tools to Assist Schools with Reconciliation Prior to October 2, 2006 There are two Pell Grant Data Requests available to schools as they complete both the year-end and ongoing reconciliation processes. The Reconciliation Report is a student summary of processed records. The Year-to-Date (YTD) Record contains detailed origination, disbursement, and summary information at a transaction level. To assist schools with final reporting before the October 2, 2006 deadline, we are going to send a Reconciliation Report for the 2005-2006 Award Year to the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailboxes of all Pell Grant reporting schools with at least one funded 2005-2006 disbursement. We will begin sending the Reconciliation Reports to the reporting schools on September 7, 2006, and schools will receive the reports over the next week. Each report will- Include information for all Pell Grant recipients at all attended campuses for the reporting school; Upon receipt, the Reconciliation Report can be downloaded and then viewed, printed, or imported into a spreadsheet for comparison with the school's data. For example, this file can be imported into a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel (XLS). Since the file is not in XLS (spreadsheet format), the spreadsheet program will automatically prompt the user to convert it by following the directions displayed. Once the file has been imported into a spreadsheet, the column widths and data formats must be reviewed and adjusted to meet the user's needs. Note: The format of any dollar value data element will need to be updated to numeric with two decimal places. After a school completes a comparison of its data and the data in the COD System, the school must resolve all discrepancies by either updating the school database or submitting updates to the COD System by the October 2, 2006 deadline. To assist in the resolution process, a school can request a YTD Record. A YTD Record can be requested for one given student or for all Pell Grant recipients at the school. The YTD Record contains detailed origination and disbursement data at a transaction level. This detailed information can assist in the determination of the appropriate resolution. A school can request a YTD Record via the COD Web site or by submitting the batch data request for the appropriate award year message class (PGRQ06IN) to the COD System via the SAIG. The school will then receive a data request acknowledgement and the requested report in the corresponding award year message class (PGYR06OP) via the SAIG. Note to EDExpress Users: To identify discrepancies, a school can use EDExpress to run a comparison between a YTD Record and the school's Pell Grant database. For more information about using the comparison feature, refer to the EDExpress 2005-2006 Desk Reference for Pell under the "Software and Associated Documents" link on the Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site. Additionally, a school can use the COD Web site to view current award origination and disbursement information in the COD System. If the school has a student in a Potential Overaward Project (POP) situation, the Pell Person Information screen on the COD Web site allows the school to view the activities of other schools with respect to originations and disbursements for that student. For information about accessing the COD Web site, refer to the Electronic Announcement posted on February 1, 2006. Acceptance and Rejection of 2005-2006 Award Year Data After October 2, 2006 After October 2, 2006, the COD System will- Accept and process decreases to previously accepted 2005-2006 award originations and decreases to previously accepted 2005-2006 disbursements; and Note: Unless one of these situations applies, the COD System will reject originations and disbursements of new 2005-2006 awards or 2005-2006 award amount increases and return COD Edit 43 (New Award Amount or Award Increase Received After End of Processing Year and Institution has Not Been Granted Administrative Relief) or COD Edit 71 (New Disbursement Increase, or Payment Trigger to "Y" Received After End of Processing Year and Institution Has Not Been Granted Administrative Relief). Requesting Administrative Relief or Extended Processing for 2005-2006 Award Year A school can request Administrative Relief or Extended Processing for the 2005-2006 Award Year as follows: Through January 31, 2007 for natural disaster or other unusual circumstances, or an administrative error made by the Department. If necessary, a school also can request additional extensions of an initially approved period through May 1, 2007. Upon request, the Department may grant- Administrative Relief if an administrative or processing error made by the Department or one of its operating partners or an event, such as a natural disaster or other unusual circumstance beyond the school's control, prevented the school from meeting the deadline; or Extended Processing if the school may make a late disbursement in accordance with 34 CFR 668.164(g) or may request unreported funds based upon a program review or initial audit finding in accordance with 34 CFR 690.83(d). Note: In the case of a late disbursement, a school must determine if it needs the Department's approval to make the late disbursement. The school should refer to the Department's guidance in Dear Colleague Letter GEN-05-13 (September 2005). This Dear Colleague Letter explains the conditions under which a school needs the Department's approval before it makes a late disbursement of Title IV aid and the procedures for requesting such approval. When applicable, a school must request and receive the Department's approval to make the late disbursement in addition to requesting Extended Processing. A school should request Administrative Relief or Extended Processing via the COD Web site or via e-mail when it is ready to submit the data to the COD System as follows: Via COD Web Site Log in to the COD Web site and complete the following steps: 1) Go to the School Information screen. Via E-mail E-mail the following information to the Department at fsa.administrative.relief@ed.gov: School's Name and 6-Digit Pell Institution Number Note: We encourage a school to submit an Administrative Relief or Extended Processing request via the COD Web site. This method is more efficient than the e-mail method and results in a faster response to the school. Following receipt and review of a request for Administrative Relief or Extended Processing, the Department will e-mail the requestor that the request has been approved or denied. The school may not submit 2005-2006 data to the COD System until it has received the Department's e-mail approving the request. Upon receipt of the Department's approval, the school can submit data through its normal batch/document process or can create awards/originations and disbursements via the COD Web site. The school will receive acknowledgements for 2005-2006 post-deadline processing data entered via the COD Web site. Contact Information If you have any questions about this announcement, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/4PGRANT. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com |