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(Grants) Subject: Operational Implementation Guidance - Federal Student Aid's Implementation of 2013-2014 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules

Posted Date:March 8, 2013

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

Subject: Operational Implementation Guidance - Federal Student Aid's Implementation of 2013-2014 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules

This Electronic Announcement provides institutions with important information about the system, Web, and software modifications we are making to reflect the 2013-2014 Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) payment and disbursement schedules, including changes we must implement to the Central Processing System (CPS), the ISIR Analysis Tool, the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System, and the EDExpress for Windows software.

The 2013-2014 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules provided in Dear Colleague Letter GEN-13-06, posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site on January 30, 2013, must be used for all 2013-2014 Pell Grant award calculations. As noted in the Dear Colleague Letter, the maximum Pell Grant award for the 2013-2014 Award Year is $5,645, an increase of $95 from the $5,550 maximum Pell Grant award for the 2012-2013 Award Year. The corresponding maximum Pell Grant eligible expected family contribution (EFC) for 2013-2014 is 5081 as compared to 4995 for the 2012-2013 Award Year. As a result of the EFC increase, a small number of applicants who would not have been Pell Grant eligible for the 2012-2013 Award Year will be eligible for the 2013-2014 Award Year.

We have begun the work needed to modify our systems, Web and software products, technical documents, training materials, and publications to reflect the 2013-2014 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules. In the sections below, we describe the impact to the following systems, Web sites, and software products, as well as provide the anticipated completion date for each update:

  • Impact on the CPS and Upcoming Reprocessing

  • Impact on the ISIR Analysis Tool

  • Impact on the COD System

  • Impact on EDExpress

Impact on the CPS and Upcoming Reprocessing

On March 17, 2013, we will update the CPS to use the 2013-2014 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules to calculate Pell Grant eligibility and estimated Pell Grant Scheduled Award amounts for all new 2013-2014 Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSAs), as well as for corrections to previously-filed FAFSAs.

As part of the CPS system update, we will also update our Student Aid Report (SAR) print operations and FAFSA on the Web confirmation page functionality to display estimated Pell Grant Scheduled Award amounts based on the recently-posted schedules.

After we implement the changes to the CPS, we will need to reprocess records for students who applied for 2013-2014 before the March 17, 2013 changes were implemented and who are now, based upon the posted 2013-2014 schedules, newly eligible for a 2013-2014 Pell Grant. When we began processing 2013-2014 FAFSAs on January 2, 2013, we used the 2012-2013 maximum EFC of 4995 to establish Pell Grant eligibility and reported that eligibility on SARs and in Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs). Since the actual maximum EFC for 2013-2014 is 5081, the CPS will reprocess certain 2013-2014 SARs and ISIRs on March 19, 2013 in order to recalculate 2013-2014 Pell Grant eligibility.

The March 19, 2013 reprocessing will create a new SAR and ISIR transaction for any student with an EFC between 4996 and 5081 to reflect the addition of Pell Grant eligibility. We estimate that approximately 7,500 students out of the more than 6 million 2013-2014 FAFSAs we have processed to date, will be impacted by the change.

Several methods exist for schools to identify records resulting from the March 19, 2013 reprocessing:

  • Reprocessed ISIRs will be sent under the IGSG14OP message class.

  • Paper SARs and ISIRs will include SAR comment code 172, which states “This SAR was produced because we processed a change to your information based on information reported to us by another agency or as a result of a processing system change. Review your SAR to see what effect, if any, this change has had on your application, and call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) if you have any questions.”

  • ISIRs produced as a result of the March 19, 2013 reprocessing will include a value of “01” for the Reprocessed Reason Code (ISIR field #226).

  • Later this summer, we will update the FAA Info page in Student Inquiry on the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site to display a Reprocessed Reason Code value of “01” for the transaction resulting from the March 19, 2013 reprocessing.

Impact on the ISIR Analysis Tool

The 2013-2014 ISIR Analysis Tool, which will be available through the FAA Main Menu of the FAA Access to CPS Online Web site in June 2013, will reflect 2013-2014 Pell Grant awards based on the posted 2013-2014 schedules.

Impact on the COD System

During the period March 22-23, 2013, we plan to implement COD System functionality that supports processing for the 2013-2014 Award Year. We will implement the 2013-2014 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in the COD System during this release. Detailed information about the March 22-23, 2013 COD System update will be provided in a forthcoming electronic announcement on the IFAP Web site.

Impact on EDExpress

EDExpress 2013-2014, Release 1.0, posted to the Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site on January 2, 2013, does not include the 2013-2014 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules and instead carries over the schedules from the 2012-2013 Award Year. Release 2.0, scheduled for release in early April 2013, will update the Packaging and Pell Grant modules to use the 2013-2014 schedules.

EDExpress Packaging users who want to manually add or adjust Pell Grant awards according to the 2013-2014 schedules before Release 2.0 is available must use the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in Dear Colleague Letter GEN-13-06. After Release 2.0 is available, EDExpress users who already packaged students using Release 1.0 should repackage those students with an EFC in the 4996-5081 range using Release 2.0, to reflect the increase of the maximum EFC from 4995 in 2012-2013 to 5081 in 2013-2014 and to ensure an accurate Pell Grant award.

Contact Information

If you have questions regarding the updates to the CPS, the ISIR Analysis Tool, or EDExpress, 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 updates to the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268 or by e-mail at CODSupport@acs-inc.com.