As published in the Federal Register Notice on Jan. 3, 2020 (85 FR 303), Subject: Campus Based Programs 2020–21 Award Year Deadline Dates, any changes, corrections or edits to the Fiscal Operations Report for 2019–20 and the Application to Participate for 2021–22 (FISAP) must be submitted to the Department of Education (the Department) no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern time (ET) on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. This announcement is a reminder of the deadline and process for this action.
If a school needs to make changes to data that was originally reported on its FISAP, the school must log in to the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website and change the data in the applicable section(s) of the FISAP and resubmit the FISAP for processing. Additionally, schools should take the following actions prior to the deadline in order to verify the accuracy of their submitted FISAP data.
Reconcile FISAP Data with G5
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Prior to December 15, 2020, schools should ensure that the amounts reported on the FISAP in Part IV, Section E, Field 17-Expended Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) Authorization, and Part V, Section E, Field 18-Expended Federal Work-Study (FWS) Authorization, reconcile with the drawdown information in G5. During the closeout process of 2019–20 Campus-Based awards that will be performed in February 2021, any authorized funds that were not expended will be deobligated from G5. This means that the final authorization amount in G5 will be automatically reduced by the amount reported as unexpended on the FISAP.
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If a school has drawn down more funds than it reported as expended on the FISAP (in Parts IV and V, Section E), a negative balance will be created in G5. When this happens, we will reduce the school’s authorization in G5 to the expended amounts reported on the FISAP (as certified by the school’s Chief Executive Officer), and the school will be required to return the amount of the negative balance.
For example, if a school drew down its entire authorized FWS amount of $50,000 but reported an expended amount of only $40,000 on its FISAP (in Part V, Section E, Field 18), the result is a negative balance of $10,000 in G5. The school will be required to return $10,000 to G5.
Once the closeout process has been performed, any resulting negative balances must be refunded to G5 and cannot be resolved through late FISAP corrections.
Review and Resolve Validation Edit Errors
Real-time validation edit errors are captured when a school completes and submits the FISAP online via the COD website. Edit corrections must be submitted by the Dec. 15, 2020 deadline.
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After submitting a FISAP, a school can view a listing of its FISAP edit errors by accessing its FISAP in the COD website and clicking on “Validate” then “Validate All Parts”. Validation error numbers and the corresponding error messages will display on the screen.
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A “Fix Error” button is located to the right of each validation error message. Clicking on this button will display the FISAP section where the error occurred. Perform validation again to determine if the validation edit has cleared or if further corrections are needed. Finally, after all corrections have been made and validated, click the “Submit” button.
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In some cases, a school may provide information relevant to an error message. A “Provide Additional Information” option is located next to these validation error messages. To log relevant information, click on the plus sign (+) to open a comment box in which a school can provide additional information.
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If a school entered inaccurate data at the time the FISAP was submitted, the data can be corrected by logging in to the COD website and changing the inaccurate data in the applicable section of the FISAP. Validating the data to ensure no edit errors have been encountered and then submitting the data are also required in this circumstance.
Other Important Notes
Remember to submit all corrections – Simply validating and/or saving corrections does not result in these corrections being submitted to the Department. After editing and validating the FISAP it is imperative that schools use the “Submit” button to complete this process.
Verify that changes/corrections have been received by the Department – Schools should log in to the COD website, and from the School tab, select the link for Campus-Based. Once directed to Campus-Based, select “Self-Service” then “Submission Log” to view the log and verify submission of the update.
Signature not required for FISAP changes – Schools are not required to resend signature pages when changes/corrections are made to a previously submitted FISAP.
How to submit a change request after Dec. 15, 2020 – In exceptional circumstances only, if a correction is needed after the December 15th deadline, the school must access the COD website to make the necessary correction. Corrections will be saved in a Draft copy of the FISAP and then submitted to the Department as a “Change Request.” After December 15th, when a school clicks on the “Submit” button, it will be automatically prompted to submit a “Change Request.” The school must provide a description of the change and justify the need to make the correction. The school must then submit the “Change Request” by clicking on the “Submit” button located under the “Description” input box.
The school’s request will be reviewed by the FISAP Change Request Monitoring Team. The school will be notified of the decision to allow or deny the correction. If the correction is allowed, the school will be granted access to “Submit” the correction by going back into the COD website and submitting the FISAP as it normally would prior to December 15th.
The following changes will not be considered after the December 15th FISAP Corrections deadline:
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Increase in requests for funds in Part II, Section A.
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Increase in Administrative Cost Allowance (ACA) amount spent in Part III, Section B, item 8; Part IV, Section D, item 15; and Part V, Section D, item 15.
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Increase in cumulative Administrative Cost Allowance (ACA) amount in Part III, Section A, item 34.1 if the change is not supported by the data reported in Section B, item 8 on prior FISAPs.
Contact Information
For additional information about FISAP corrections or edit processing, contact the COD School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978. You may also email CODSupport@ed.gov.