Posted Date:March 24, 2011
| Author: | William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Issue Alert Update: Reprocessing Plan for 2011-2012 SAR/ISIR Transactions with Skipped Asset Fields and Resulting Reject 1
As described in the March 11, 2011 electronic announcement posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, we implemented an update to the 2011-2012 Central Processing System (CPS) on March 18, 2011 as a first step in resolving a correction issue that caused Reject 1 (i.e., missing asset information on the FAFSA) to be incorrectly set in some cases. As of March 18, 2011 the applicant's response to the asset threshold screening question on his or her FAFSA on the Web application will be brought forward on corrections. If the applicant answered "No" to the asset threshold screening question and asset information is missing on subsequent transactions, Reject 1 will be correctly suppressed.
This solution does not resolve the issue for corrections completed prior to March 18, 2011. In many cases the applicant's response to the asset threshold screening question may not have been carried forward, creating the potential for a transaction to be incorrectly processed with Reject 1. To resolve this situation we will be reprocessing records in the two phases described below.
Two Phases for Reprocessing
To correct the affected 2011-2012 Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) and Student Aid Report (SAR) transactions processed prior to March 18, 2011, we will reprocess records in two phases:
The first reprocessing is planned for this weekend, with the resulting transactions delivered to schools between March 28 and March 31, 2011. The new, reprocessed SAR/ISIR transactions will reflect the processed results of the original correction data submitted, had it not been rejected in error for missing asset data. The existing transaction with the incorrect Reject 1 will be voided on the CPS (see the "Voided 2011-2012 CPS Transactions" section later in this message for more information).
The second reprocessing will take place April 3, 2011. The resulting transactions will be delivered to schools between April 4 and April 7, 2011. We will reprocess transactions that did not receive a Reject 1, but if corrected now would generate a new Reject 1 transaction. The new, reprocessed SAR/ISIR transactions will be duplicates of the current transactions, with the exception that they will now be properly flagged in the system to allow blank asset values. The existing transaction will be voided on the CPS (see the "Voided 2011-2012 CPS Transactions" section later in this message for more information).
There are approximately 4,000 records in this first reprocessing group.
There are approximately 250,000 records in this second reprocessing group.
Identifying Reprocessed Records
Several methods exist for identifying records resulting from the two reprocessing phases:
Reprocessed ISIRs will be sent under the IGSG12OP message class.
Paper SARs and ISIRs will include comment code 172, which states “This SAR was produced because we have processed a change to your information based on information reported to us by another agency or as a result of a processing system change. Please review your SAR to see what effect, if any, this change has had on your application.”
ISIRs produced as a result of the first reprocessing phase will include a value of "01" for the Reprocessed Reason Code (ISIR field #219). The Reprocessed Reason Code value of "01" will also be displayed on the FAA Info page in Student Inquiry on the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site.
ISIRs produced as a result of the second reprocessing phase will include a value of "02" for the Reprocessed Reason Code (ISIR field #219). The Reprocessed Reason Code value of "02" will also be displayed on the FAA Info page in Student Inquiry on the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site.
Voided 2011-2012 CPS Transactions
As noted earlier in this message, both reprocessing phases will involve "voiding" existing 2011-2012 SAR/ISIR transactions. We will void transactions that either include an incorrectly-set Reject 1 or that have the potential to inaccurately generate Reject 1 when corrected. We are taking this action to ensure future corrections against these transactions are not processed by the CPS, which could result in further issues or delays for you or your students.
After we have completed this step in the process, the voided transactions will no longer appear on the list of available transactions to correct in FAFSA on the Web Student Correction Entry and FAA Access to CPS Online Correction Entry. In addition:
Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) corrections (batch process) submitted against voided transactions will be rejected by the CPS with a "Transaction Not Found" error message.
Paper SAR corrections submitted against voided transactions will result in the paper SAR being returned to the student, along with a letter asking him or her to contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center for further assistance.
Contact Information
We regret the inconvenience this situation may have caused you and your students.
If you have questions, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.
If your students have questions, ask them to contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 800/4-FEDAID (800/433-3243) or by e-mail at FederalStudentAidCustomerService@ed.gov. TDD/TTY service is also available at 800/730-8913.