(CB-23-08) Campus-Based School Testing to Report Federal Work-Study Wages

The FSA Partner and School Relations Center will conduct Campus-Based school testing for schools reporting Federal Work-Study (FWS) wages using the Campus-Based Common Record XML Schema Version 1.0a (Campus-Based schema) later this summer. Testing will run from June 26, 2023, through Dec. 15, 2023.

Campus-Based school testing provides organizations (schools, third-party servicers, and software providers) an opportunity to test Campus-Based program business processes and system software with the COD System prior to the transmission and processing of actual production data using the Campus-Based schema. It also allows schools, third-party servicers, and software providers the opportunity to make corrections or enhancements to software applications and processes prior to sending data to the “live” production environment.

Complete testing information is available in Volume 4 of the 2023–24 COD Technical Reference posted on the Knowledge Center. In this announcement, we provide high-level information about Campus-Based school testing.

Note: Operational information related to the full implementation of the Campus-Based schema and reporting calendar year 2022 FWS wages later this summer will be provided in a forthcoming Electronic Announcement.

Schools that will be reporting FWS wages using the Campus-Based schema are encouraged to complete school testing with the COD System before sending data into production.

Campus-Based school testing is comprised of two phases (more detail in the table below). Campus-Based school testing is self-paced, but an organization must complete Phase 1 testing before participating in Phase 2 testing. Organizations are not required to test for the full duration of a testing phase, and often complete a testing phase before the end date of that phase. Note: The FSA Partner and School Relations Center will supply the test student data that must be used during testing.

The purpose of Common Record Manual Verification is to ensure that an organization's Campus-Based Common Record is well formed and properly structured according to the rules of the Campus-Based schema.

During this testing phase, the Campus-Based School Testing Support Team manually reviews a Common Record document that an organization emails to the FSA Partner and School Relations Center and assists the organization in the identification of potential updates to its Common Record submissions. This testing phase will be available from June 26, 2023, through Nov. 17, 2023.

The purpose of Structured Application Testing is to ensure that an organization can send, receive, and process batches of records using comprehensive input instructions with detailed expected results issued by the FSA Partner and School Relations Center. The organization uses a test Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) file supplied by the FSA Partner and School Relations Center to create a test data set of students to use with the structured test cases.

During this phase, an organization sends Campus-Based Common Record documents to the COD System and receives response documents back from the COD System. The organization must verify that these files can be loaded and processed correctly in its system.

This testing phase will be available from Aug. 14, 2023, through Dec. 15, 2023. To participate in Phase 2 testing, an organization must complete Phase 1 testing first. If an organization completes Phase 1 testing before Aug. 14, 2023, it must wait until the Phase 2 testing window opens.

All organizations that wish to participate in Campus-Based school testing must submit the “Campus-Based School Testing Sign-Up Document” to the FSA Partner and School Relations Center. The sign-up document is posted on the COD website under the “COD Resources” link or can be found in the Volume 4 of the COD Technical Reference.

An organization may register to participate in Phase 1 testing or in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 testing. To ensure enough time to complete all testing before the established testing end dates, organizations must register no later than Oct. 27, 2023.

An organization should submit the completed sign-up document to the FSA Partner and School Relations Center by faxing it to 1-877-623-5082 or emailing it to CODSupport@ed.gov with “Campus-Based School Testing Sign-up” in the subject line. After the sign-up document is received, the FSA Partner and School Relations Center will contact the organization via email to obtain school-specific information and to schedule specific test dates.

Note: Upon receipt of the sign-up document, the Campus-Based School Testing Support Team must complete a considerable setup process to establish the organization/school in the COD test environment before testing can begin. Allow 7–10 business days for completion of the sign-up and set-up processes. An organization should take this timeframe into account before beginning to test and provide enough lead-time in its schedule. It is also important that the sign-up document is complete and includes accurate information.

If you have any questions about Campus-Based School Testing or signing up for testing, contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978. You may also email
CODSupport@ed.gov.