Summary: FY 2005 Official Cohort Default Rates Distributed on 9/10/07

Publication Date: September 10, 2007

Author: Sybil Phillips, Director, Portfolio Performance Management, Business Operations

Summary: FY 2005 Official Cohort Default Rates Distributed on 9/10/07

Posted on 09-10-2007

On Monday, September 10, 2007, the Department distributed the FY 2005 official cohort default rate notification packages.

For eligible domestic schools enrolled in the Electronic Cohort Default Rate (eCDR) process, delivery was made to the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) destination point designated by the school. In addition to the FY 2005 "official" cover letter, the Department sent out the "FY 2005 "draft" cover letter as well. The two cover letter files, message class SHDRLROP, will therefore contain separately, the "official" and "draft" notification letters. To differentiate between the two letters, please pay careful attention to the subject line of each letter. The two letters may help schools compare their "official" vs. their "draft" cohort default rates.
Each eCDR package contained (1) two cover letters (message class SHDRLROP), (2) a reader-friendly loan record detail report (message class SHCDRROP), and (3) an extract-type loan record detail report (message class SHCDREOP).

Domestic schools not enrolled in eCDR will not receive notification packages from the Department but may download their cohort default rates and accompanying Loan Record Detail Reports at www.nsldsfap.ed.gov.

Eligible foreign schools were mailed a notification package. Foreign schools that have one or more borrowers in repayment are provided data files as an encrypted Portable Document Format (PDF) file on a CD-ROM. A letter with the password needed to access the data on the CD-ROM is provided in a separate package. These PDFs were encrypted with Adobe version 7 encryption, so some older versions of the reader may have problems decrypting the file. If you have an older version of the Adobe Reader, please upgrade to version 7 or newer to enable viewing of these documents. The current version, Adobe Reader 8, can be downloaded from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Please note that if a technical problem caused by the Department results in an inability to access the data, schools have five business days from the receipt of the CDR notification package or password notification letter (whichever is the latest) to notify Default Prevention and Management at the email address given below.

Time periods for challenging the FY 2005 Official Cohort Default Rates under 34 C.F.R Part 668, Subpart M begins on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 for domestic schools. For foreign schools that were mailed a hard copy notification letter along with their Loan Record Detail Report (LRDR) on a CD-ROM, followed by another letter indicating a password needed to decrypt their Loan Record Detail Report (LRDR), the time period begins on the date that the CDR notification package or password notification letter (whichever is the latest) is received.

In order to complete an adjustment or appeal, you may need data managers contact information. Click on a new link entitled, "Numerical Data Managers" from the home page of the Cohort Default Rate Guide at http://www.ifap.ed.gov/DefaultManagement/finalcdrg.html where you will find a list of the data managers identified by a three-digit code found on a school's loan record detail report. When you click on the code or state (if no code exists), you will be directed to the data manager list that contains the name, address, telephone numbers, e-mail and website information for a particular data manager. If the Department revises a school's cohort default rate based on its adjustment or appeal submission, the revised cohort default rate will be available on Default Prevention and Management's (DPM) website at http://www.ifap.ed.gov/DefaultManagement/DefaultManagement.html

Any school that did not have a borrower in repayment, during the current nor any of the past cohort default rate periods, will not receive a FY 2005 official cohort default rate notification package. These schools are considered to have no cohort default rate data and no cohort default rate.

For additional information regarding the school cohort default rate calculation or the adjustment/appeal processes, please refer to the Cohort Default Rate Guide at http://www.ifap.ed.gov/DefaultManagement/finalcdrg.html. If you have any other questions, please send an email to: fsa.schools.default.management@ed.gov or call the Default Prevention and Management hotline at (202) 377-4259.