Posted Date:January 25, 2010
| Author: | William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Operational Implementation Guidance - Implementation of 2010-2011 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules
In Dear Colleague Letter P-10-01, posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site on January 13, 2010, we provided schools with the payment and disbursement schedules for determining Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) awards for the 2010-2011 Award Year.
As described in the Dear Colleague Letter, the maximum 2010-2011 Pell Grant award for a full-time student with an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) of 0 is increased to $5,550. The maximum EFC that a student can have to be Pell-eligible for 2010-2011 continues to be 4617. For additional information, please refer to Dear Colleague Letter P-10-01.
We have begun the work needed to modify our systems, Web and software products, technical documents, training materials, and publications to reflect the minimum and maximum Pell Grant amounts for the 2010-2011 Award Year. At this time, we want to provide schools with high-level information about the impact on the Central Processing System (CPS) and the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System and our anticipated implementation dates related to these systems.
Impact on the CPS
Because Congress had not established the 2010-2011 Pell Grant award amounts when we began processing Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSAs) for the 2010-2011 Award Year on January 4, 2010, we used the 2009-2010 maximum EFC of 4617 to establish Pell Grant eligibility on Student Aid Reports (SARs) and in Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs).
As a result of Congress’ determination that 4617 will continue to be the maximum Pell-eligible EFC for the 2010-2011 Award Year, the CPS does not need to reprocess 2010-2011 SARs or ISIRs in order to recalculate 2010-2011 Pell Grant eligibility.
On January 16, 2010, we updated the CPS with the new minimum and maximum Pell Grant award amounts in order to ensure accurate estimated Pell Grant awards display on 2010-2011 SARs and confirmation pages for 2010-2011 FAFSA on the Web applications. Financial aid administrators should note that estimated Pell Grant awards printed on 2010-2011 SARs and FAFSA on the Web confirmation pages before January 16, 2010 did not reflect the Pell Grant minimum and maximum award amount changes established in Dear Colleague Letter P-10-01.
Note for EDExpress Users
EDExpress for Windows 2010-2011, Release 2.0, scheduled for release in March 2010, will add Pell Grant, Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) functionality for the 2010-2011 Award Year. The Pell module will include 2010-2011 origination and disbursement functionality for the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) programs. Release 2.0 will include functionality needed to support the new Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules established in Dear Colleague Letter P-10-01.
EDExpress 2010-2011 Release 1.0 users should note the Packaging module's Package and Repackage processes use the 2009-2010 schedules to calculate Pell Grant awards. Release 2.0 will update the Packaging module to use the new 2010-2011 minimum and maximum Pell Grant amounts. Until Release 2.0 is available, Packaging users who want to manually add or adjust Pell Grant awards according to the new 2010-2011 Award Year limits must use the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in Dear Colleague Letter P-10-01. After Release 2.0 is available, packaging users who already packaged students using Release 1.0 should repackage those students using Release 2.0 to ensure an accurate Pell award.
Note for ISIR Analysis Tool Users
The 2010-2011 ISIR Analysis Tool, which will be available through the FAA Main Menu of the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site in May 2010, will reflect the 2010-2011 minimum and maximum Pell Grant award amounts established in Dear Colleague Letter P-10-01.
Impact on the COD System
During the period March 26-27, 2010, we plan to implement COD System functionality that supports processing for the 2010-2011 Award Year. We will implement the 2010-2011 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in the COD System during this release. Detailed information about the March 26-27, 2010 COD System update will be provided in a forthcoming electronic announcement on the IFAP Web site.
Note: We will add the 2010-2011 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules to the 2010-2011 COD Technical Reference in a forthcoming update.
Contact Information
If you have questions regarding updates to the CPS, EDExpress, or the 2010-2011 ISIR Analysis Tool, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.
If you have questions regarding the implementation of the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268 or by e-mail at CODSupport@acs-inc.com.