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Summary: Federal Pell Grant 2007-2008 Award Year Initial Authorization for Advanced Funded Schools

Publication Date: May 15, 2007

Author: William Leith, Acting General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid

Summary: Federal Pell Grant 2007-2008 Award Year Initial Authorization for Advanced Funded Schools

Posted on 05-15-2007

We have processed the Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) Initial Authorization for the 2007-2008 Award Year, for schools that receive Pell Grant funds under the advanced funding method. A school’s Initial Authorization, known in the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System as Current Funding Level (CFL), was determined based on a percentage of the disbursement data submitted and accepted during the 2006-2007 Award Year. Shortly, we will generate an Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA) that lists the amount of a school’s Initial CFL for the 2007-2008 Award Year and send it to the school’s Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailbox in the message class PGAS08OP.

An Advanced Funded school can view its Initial CFL on the Funding Information screen on the COD Web site. A school will be able to view and draw down 2007-2008 Pell Grant funds in the Grant Administration and Payment System (GAPS) on Monday, July 2, 2007.

As an Advanced Funded school submits actual Pell Grant disbursement records, the COD System will apply the total accepted and posted amount for each disbursement to the amount of the school’s Initial CFL. Only after the Initial CFL amount has been reached will the school’s CFL be increased to cover additional accepted and posted disbursements. A new ESOA will be sent to the school each time its Pell Grant CFL amount changes.

Notes:

1) Advanced Funded schools that had less than $8,600 in disbursements for the 2006-2007 Award Year will not receive an Initial CFL. These schools will receive a CFL once the COD System has accepted and posted actual disbursement records. A new ESOA will be sent to a school each time its Pell Grant CFL amount changes.

2) Schools that participate in the Just in Time pilot and schools that receive funds under the Reimbursement, Heightened Cash Monitoring 1 (HCM1), or Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2) funding method will not receive an Initial CFL. These schools will receive a CFL once the COD System has accepted and posted actual disbursement records. A new ESOA will be sent to a school each time its Pell Grant CFL amount changes.

3) As explained in an Electronic Announcement posted on April 4, 2007 , there will be no Initial Authorizations for the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) programs for the 2007-2008 Award Year. Schools will receive a CFL under one or both of these programs based on the accepted and posted actual disbursement records that they submit to the COD System. A new ESOA will be sent to a school’s SAIG mailbox each time its ACG or National SMART Grant CFL amount changes. In addition, a new or revised authorization will be available in the GAPS.

At this time, we want to remind schools of the following disbursement-related information:

  • During the period May 11-12, 2007, we updated the 2007-2008 COD System with the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules. As explained in an Electronic Announcement posted on May 1, 2007 , this additional COD System functionality supports the processing of Pell Grant awards for the 2007-2008 Award Year. Although schools were temporarily delayed in the submission of 2007-2008 Pell Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records to the COD System, the COD System will now accept and process these records.
  • Note for EDExpress Users: As explained in an Electronic Announcement posted on April 25, 2007 , we plan to post EDExpress 2007-2008, Release 3.0, an upgrade version that will incorporate the 2007-2008 Pell Grant changes into EDExpress Global, Packaging, and Pell functionality, on May 18, 2007. Until a school has upgraded to Release 3.0, the school should delay its creation and submission of Pell Grant origination (and corresponding anticipated disbursement) records in EDExpress 2007-2008. For complete information about how to better prepare for the implementation of EDExpress 2007-2008, Release 3.0, refer to the April 25th announcement .
  • A school may submit common records that contain anticipated disbursement information for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards. As explained below, until June 21, 2007, the DRI value in these records must be equal to “False” in order to be accepted by the COD System.
  • The COD System will accept actual disbursement records for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards beginning June 21, 2007.

    o Prior to June 21st, the COD System will reject all actual disbursements (DRI value equal to “True”)

    o Beginning June 21st, Advanced Funded schools may submit actual disbursements for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards. As a reminder, actual disbursements can be submitted up to 30 days before the disbursement date.

  • As noted above, a school will be able to view and draw down 2007-2008 Pell Grant funds in the GAPS on Monday, July 2, 2007.

If you have any questions about the update to the 2007-2008 COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/4PGRANT (800/474-7268) for ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com.