Posted Date:February 18, 2009
Author: William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid
Subject: Processing for Formatting and Printing the TEACH Grant SAS
In September 2008, we implemented additional functionality to support the processing of the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program. In particular, we implemented the TEACH Grant School Account Statement (SAS). In order to allow delivery of the TEACH Grant SAS as soon as possible after the implementation of the TEACH Grant Program, we limited the format option of the SAS to Comma-Delimited with Headers. This format option was selected over the other options because it was considered to be more universally readable by schools with any database or spreadsheet software.
In this announcement, we provide assistance for a school that currently does not have the technical support to work with the Comma-Delimited with Headers format of the TEACH Grant SAS. If a school has experienced no issues with the Comma-Delimited with Headers format, the information we provide in this announcement will likely be unnecessary.
Note to EDExpress Users: The TEACH Grant SAS can be imported into and printed from EDExpress.
If a school that currently does not have the technical support to work with the Comma-Delimited with Headers format for the TEACH Grant SAS has not yet created an alternative method for working with it, we suggest using a spreadsheet or database program to format and print the TEACH Grant SAS. The following instructions describe a process for doing so using Microsoft Excel:
Open Microsoft Excel.
From the File menu, select Open.
From the Open dialog box, click on the drop-down menu labeled Look in:. Navigate to where the TEACH Grant SAS files are saved. If a school is unsure where to locate its report files, check the EDConnect setup or check with the appropriate IT staff.
Click on the Files of Type drop-down menu at the bottom of the Open dialog box. Choose All Files (*.*). A school should now be able to view a list of all files in the folder chosen from the Look in: drop-down menu.
Choose the most recent TEACH Grant SAS file from the list. The message classes for the TEACH Grant SAS are THSM09OP (for a monthly detail file) and THSY09OP (for a Year-to-Date detail file). A school can identify the latest report based on either the file Modified date or by choosing the highest numbered file extension.
Click Open.
From the Text Import Wizard Dialog, under Original Data Type, choose Delimited. Click Next.
Under Delimiters, click the checkbox next to Comma. Click Finish.
After following these instructions, a school will be able to view the TEACH Grant SAS as a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. The school can update the formatting as desired to view or print it. In addition, all of the section and column headings will be included in the body of the TEACH Grant SAS.
Some schools have requested that we consider adding additional format options for the TEACH Grant SAS. We are currently evaluating options for these additional report formats, but will be unable to provide them for the 2009-2010 Award Year. In the meantime, we hope these instructions will be helpful as an alternative method for formatting and using the current comma-delimited TEACH Grant SAS.
Contact Information
If you have questions about the formatting instructions or about the TEACH Grant SAS, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com.