Publication Date: November 21, 2006 Author: G. Kay Jacks, General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid Summary: HERA Operational Implementation Guidance (CPS, COD System, EDExpress Suite) -- Issue Alert: Fix Implemented on R2T4 on the Web to Correct Data Edits for Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford Loan Field on Post-Withdrawal Tab Posted on 11-21-2006 Federal Student Aid wishes to alert schools and other institutions that we implemented a fix to the Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) on the Web site to correct a data entry issue on November 5, 2006. This issue only impacted users submitting Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford Loan data on the Post-Withdrawal tab for students with a withdrawal date on or after July 1, 2006. We originally alerted you to this issue in an electronic announcement posted on October 11, 2006 to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, located at http://ifap.ed.gov.Issue Background R2T4 on the Web was updated in August 2006 to implement changes resulting from provisions of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (the HERA), Pub. L. 109-171. Among other changes, the HERA provides that schools must now contact borrowers and receive an affirmative response prior to making a post-withdrawal disbursement of loan funds. This change was effective July 1, 2006. New data edits covering this HERA provision were added to the Post-Withdrawal tab for students with a withdrawal date on or after July 1, 2006. These data edits include the following two conditions: 1) If the Response Status is "Response Received" and the "Amount of post-withdrawal disbursement accepted" field value is blank or zero, the edit will prevent amounts greater than zero from being submitted on the Post-Withdrawal tab loan fields for Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford, Subsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford, FFEL/Direct PLUS (Parent), FFEL/Direct PLUS (Graduate Student), or Perkins loans. 2) If the Response Status is "Response Received" and the "Amount of post-withdrawal disbursement accepted" field value is greater than zero, at least one of the loan amounts entered on the tab must also be greater than zero for Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford, Subsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford, FFEL/Direct PLUS (Parent), FFEL/Direct PLUS (Graduate Student), or Perkins loans. We discovered these new data edits were not working correctly for the Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford field if you ONLY entered Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford Loan award data (and not other loan types as well). In this case the loan amount entered in this field was not being taken into consideration by the Web site when you submitted data entered on the Post-Withdrawal tab. This issue prevented you from submitting accurate data entered on the Post-Withdrawal tab if the student record you were entering ONLY had Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford Loan award data (and not other loan types as well). Issue Resolution As of November 5, 2006, this issue is fixed on the R2T4 on the Web site and will no longer occur. In the October 11, 2006 electronic announcement, Federal Student Aid provided two workarounds: 1) Postpone entering Post-Withdrawal tab data for the student(s) in question until the fix was implemented on the R2T4 on the Web site. 2) Enter all of the data on the Post-Withdrawal tab EXCEPT the "Amount of post-withdrawal disbursement accepted" and the "Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford Loan" amounts and submit the record. Once the data was submitted, we advised you to click "View Printable Page?", print the Post-Withdrawal Disbursement Worksheet for the student, and complete the remaining fields in the calculation manually on the hardcopy report. We also recommended that you track your use of this temporary workaround by adding an entry to the Notes tab for the student record in R2T4 on the Web. If you followed either workaround noted above, you can now update the student's Post-Withdrawal tab with the correct information for the "Amount of post-withdrawal disbursement accepted" and the "Unsubsidized FFEL/Direct Stafford Loan" and submit the record. R2T4 on the Web will now calculate these records correctly. We regret any inconvenience this issue may have caused you. If You Have Questions If you have any questions regarding R2T4 on the Web, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov. For other questions about the HERA, contact Federal Student Aid's Research and Customer Care Center (RCCC) at 800/433-7327, 202/275-5532 (fax), or by e-mail at fsa.customer.support@ed.gov. |