(GENERAL-22-44) NSLDS Professional Access – Additional Information to Prepare for Upcoming Launch of Modernized Website

Author
Federal Student Aid
Electronic Announcement ID
GENERAL-22-44
Subject
NSLDS Professional Access – Additional Information to Prepare for Upcoming Launch of Modernized Website

As we announced last month, a modernized National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®) Professional Access website will be available on July 25, 2022, for Federal Student Aid’s (FSA’s) professional partners. The updated website will feature a user interface that includes an enhanced look and feel and an improved user experience.

For a reminder of what is—and is not—changing for users of NSLDS Professional Access, as well as details about upcoming reporting deadlines and outage windows, refer to the June 24, 2022 Electronic Announcement.

Important Reminder

The NSLDS Professional Access website and the NSLDS Customer Support Center will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 20 at 6 p.m. Eastern time (ET) until Monday, July 25 at 8 a.m. ET.

In this announcement, we are pleased to provide users with expanded training opportunities to learn more about navigating the updated website. In addition, we provide information about the upcoming availability of NSLDS online reporting tools and other resources, after the new website is available later this month.

For more information, refer to the sections below as you continue to prepare for the launch of the modernized NSLDS Professional Access website.

NSLDS Professional Access Training Videos

We have created a library of brief training videos to provide users with a high-level review of key features of the NSLDS Professional Access website. A narrated walk-through of frequently-used functionality is available for such topics as the Aid Recipient tab, the Financial Aid Dashboard, the Enrollment tab, and Reports. Viewers may pause, rewind, or replay each video to better understand the website’s new look and feel and menu presentation. 

To view the complete list of topics and to access the library of training videos, follow the instructions below:

  1. Log into the FSA Training Center (fsatraining.ed.gov).

    Note: If you do not have a username and password for the FSA Training Center, select "Create new account" at the bottom of the login page and follow the instructions to create a username and password.

  2. From the main menu bar, choose “Systems Training.”

  3. Select “NSLDS Training.”

  4. Training videos are grouped based on the intended audience or functionality (e.g., Schools, Servicers and/or Guaranty Agencies, and Schedules and Reports).

  5. Select the title of the video you want to view and then the play button to watch the video.

  6. If you have questions about accessing the training, please contact
    helpdesk.fsatraining@ed.gov.

NSLDS Online Reporting Tools—Spreadsheet Submittal Templates

A spreadsheet submittal template is one of the online reporting methods that schools and other partners use to supply data (such as enrollment or loan discharge information) to NSLDS. Each submittal template is designed to be used with a columnar spreadsheet application and allows a user to upload and submit a large amount of data at one time. After the user adds the information to the spreadsheet, it is then uploaded and transferred to the NSLDS Professional Access website.

When the modernized NSLDS Professional Access website is launched, updated spreadsheet submittal templates will be available on the new website. These updated spreadsheets must be used going forward. Earlier versions or user-created versions of the spreadsheets will not work with the updated website.

If you use one of the spreadsheet submittal templates to report to NSLDS, please review the updated tools that will be available on the NSLDS Professional Access website on July 25 under the Template Downloads section of the home page. If you have questions, please contact the NSLDS Customer Support Center using the contact information below.

Additional Resources

In the coming days, we will provide additional information about the enhanced NSLDS Professional Access, including an updated NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide. This guide, published annually on the Knowledge Center website, provides step-by-step instructions for NSLDS enrollment reporting. The updated guide will include visuals to assist users with the website’s new look and feel.

The new NSLDS Reports for Schools guide will also be available soon. This resource provides detailed information to help school users better understand the reports that are available on NSLDS Professional Access, the various report formats, and how to request each type of report.

Monitor the Knowledge Center website for announcements of the availability of these additional resources.

Note: We will continue to update NSLDS user resources, including user guides and documentation, after the website launch. For a period of time, some resources will contain images and instructions that do not correspond to the updated website. However, in most cases users may continue to refer to the guide or reference until an updated version is available because the resource describes an existing process that is not changing on July 25. Please contact the NSLDS Customer Support Center using the contact information below if you have questions about a particular user resource.

Contact Information

As noted in the June 24 Electronic Announcement, there is an NSLDS Customer Support Center outage window prior to the July 25 launch:

  • The nslds@ed.gov mailbox is currently not accepting incoming email messages.

  • The NSLDS Customer Support Center will temporarily stop accepting telephone calls on Wednesday, July 20 at 6 p.m. ET.

  • At 8 a.m. ET on Monday, July 25, email messages to nslds@ed.gov and telephone calls to 1-800-999-8219 may resume.

Last Modified: 07/15/2022