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(General) Subject: G5 Phase 3 Implementation March 4-14, 2011 -- Impact to Federal Student Aid Processing and on Funds Availability for Title IV Programs

Posted Date:February 18, 2011

Author: William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid

Subject: G5 Phase 3 Implementation March 4-14, 2011 -- Impact to Federal Student Aid Processing and on Funds Availability for Title IV Programs

During the period of March 4-14, 2011, the Department of Education will implement Phase 3 of G5. This was explained earlier in a January 7, 2011 letter that was mailed and e-mailed to all grantees and payees from the Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. This letter includes instructions for requesting funds in advance of the G5 outage in the “Guidance for Drawdown of Funds During the G5 Phase 3 Transition” section. The functionality being implemented in G5 Phase 3 has minimal impact to school users. However, the service outage associated with the G5 Phase 3 implementation will impact school users in a number of ways.

Please review the following information to determine how processing at your school will be affected.

G5 Phase 3 Implementation Outage

From 3:00 P.M. (ET) on Friday, March 4, 2011 through 6:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, March 14, 2011, the G5 Web site will not be available. Schools will not be able to draw down funds during this period for the following Title IV Programs:

  • Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG)
  • Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant)
  • Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
  • Federal Work Study (FWS)
  • Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant
  • National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant)
  • Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant (TEACH Grant)
  • William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan)

COD System Processing Impact

From Friday, March 4, 2011 through 6:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, March 14, 2011, the COD System will accept ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, Direct Loan, and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant records. However, after 2:00 P.M. (ET) on Friday, March 4, 2011, CFL changes (as a result of actual disbursements) and funding will not be processed by G5 until March 14, 2011.

All actual disbursements with a disbursement date from March 4, 2011 through March 10, 2011 must be received by the COD System no later than 9:00 A.M. (ET) on Friday, March 4, 2011, and subsequently accepted by the COD System, in order for them to be included in the funds available for drawdown prior to the shutdown. Disbursements submitted by the deadline but not subsequently accepted, disbursements submitted after the deadline, and disbursements with a disbursement date on or after March 10, 2011 will be funded after G5 re-opens on March 14, 2011.

We expect financial processing to be caught up by Thursday, March 17, 2011.

Note: On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, we plan to process a Current Funding Level (CFL) increase for all Advanced Funded schools in the Pell Grant Program for the 2010-2011 Award Year. Schools will be able to view and draw down these 2010-2011 Pell Grant funds in G5 beginning on Thursday, February 24, 2011. Schools that receive funds under the Reimbursement, Heightened Cash Monitoring 1 (HCM1), or Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2) funding method will not receive increases to their CFLs.

Loan Consolidation Processing Impact

From Friday, March 4, 2011 through 6:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, March 14, 2011, the Loan Consolidation Center will accept loan consolidation applications. However, on Friday, March 4, 2011, the funding and booking of loan consolidation applications will be on hold until after G5 re-opens on March 14, 2011.

We expect the funding and booking of pending loan consolidation applications to be caught up by Thursday, March 17, 2011.

Contact Information

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete the required activities during the upcoming period. If you have any questions about this announcement, contact one of the following help desks:

  • For questions related to G5, contact the G5 Hotline at 888/336-8930. You may also e-mail edcaps.user@ed.gov.
  • For questions related to the Campus-Based programs, contact the Campus-Based Call Center at 877/801-7168. You may also e-mail CBFOB@ed.gov.
  • For questions related to the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268 for Grants or 800/848-0978 for Direct Loans. You may also e mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com.
  • For questions related to Direct Loan Consolidation, contact the Direct Loan Consolidation Center at 800/557-7392.