Posted Date:February 25, 2016
| Author: | Sue O'Flaherty, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: COD System Implementation for 2016-2017 Award Year
During the period March 9-14, 2016, we plan to implement Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System functionality that supports the processing of Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant), Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant, Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) awards for the 2016-2017 Award Year.
In this announcement, we provide the following important information related to the implementation:
COD Batch Processing Suspension and Web Site Outage Information
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Important Reminders and 2016-2017 Funding Authorization and Disbursement Information
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COD System Processing Function Enhancements and Modifications for 2016-2017
Contact Information
- Attachments/Enclosures
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete this important activity.
COD Batch Processing Suspension and Web Site Outage Information
With this implementation, we will move the COD System to a new operating platform that will improve overall performance. This undertaking will require an unusually long outage window that will impact all processing functions for an extended period of time. Accordingly, we will suspend COD batch processing beginning at 6:00 P.M. (ET) on Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Records submitted after this time will be held and processed after 8:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, March 14, 2016.
Note: All actual disbursements with a disbursement date from March 9, 2016 through March 14, 2016 must be received by the COD System no later than 9:00 A.M. (ET) on Wednesday, March 9, 2016,and subsequently accepted by the COD System, in order to generate the appropriate funding level increase prior to the outage. Disbursements submitted by the deadline but not subsequently accepted, disbursements submitted after the deadline, and disbursements with a disbursement date after March 14, 2016 will be processed and funded after the outage.
Between 6:00 P.M. (ET) on Wednesday, March 9, 2016 and 8:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, March 14, 2016—
Users will not be able to submit or retrieve data via the COD Web site.
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Users will not be able to access the COD Reports area of the COD Web site.
- An individual will not be able to complete any actions or view loan correspondence via the StudentLoans.gov or the TEACH Grant Web sites. This includes, but is not limited to, signing master promissory notes, complete counseling, or submitting Loan Consolidation applications or Income-Driven Repayment Plan requests.
In addition, during the outage period on Wednesday, March 9 through Friday, March 11, the COD School Relations Center and Student Loan Support Center will be closed and will not be available to support school or borrower inquiries.
Important Reminders and 2016-2017 Funding Authorization and Disbursement Information
In the attachment titled “Important Reminders and 2016-2017 Funding Authorization and Disbursement Information,” we highlight important reminders for the 2016-2017 Award Year and 2016-2017 funding authorization and disbursement information.
COD System Processing Function Enhancements and Modifications for 2016-2017
In the attachment titled “COD System Processing Function Enhancements and Modifications for 2016-2017,” we highlight the processing function enhancements and modifications we will implement during the March 9-14, 2016 period.
We will implement the 2016-2017 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in the COD System during this release. Schools should confirm that their software providers are ready to process 2016-2017 Pell Grant records.
Note: Please monitor the IFAP Web site for a forthcoming electronic announcement that will provide complete operational implementation information for the 2016-2017 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules, including details about updates to the Central Processing System (CPS) and as well as to the EDExpress software. In the announcement we will provide detailed information about the upcoming reprocessing of SARs and ISIRs, scheduled for early April 2016.
Note: For the past few years we have hosted an online training that described the upcoming changes and enhancements to the COD System for the upcoming award year. Due to the limited number of changes that will be implemented with the March 2016 release, we will not conduct a spring 2016 training. However, we will host trainings later this year (planned for June 2016 and October 2016) that will highlight the New Award Year Setup (NAYS) and provide detailed information on changes and enhancements to the COD System that will be implemented later this year. We will provide information about these sessions through forthcoming training announcements on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.
Contact Information
If you have questions about this announcement or its attachments, 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@ed.gov.