(GRANTS-23-09) Pell Grant and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant 2022–23 Award Year Processing Deadline

Posted Date
August 31, 2023
Author
Federal Student Aid
Electronic Announcement ID
GRANTS-23-09
Subject
Pell Grant and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant 2022–23 Award Year Processing Deadline

The Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) Program regulations at 34 CFR 690.83(a) establish the deadline by which a school must submit student payment data each award year. As required by these regulations, and consistent with the Federal Register published on June 1, 2022, the final deadline for electronically transmitting Pell Grant and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant records for the 2022–23 award year to the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System is Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.

Existing regulations for drawing/returning funds and reporting disbursements supersede this deadline. By meeting these regulatory requirements, a school should be able to fully reconcile to a zero Cash > Net Accepted and Posted Disbursements (NAPD) balance (Net Drawdowns = NAPD) shortly after making final disbursements for the award year, rather than waiting for the final processing deadline.

Notes:

  1. Schools participating in the Pell Grant Program are also able to officially confirm closeout via the School Balance Confirmation page on the COD website.

  2. Sept. 29, 2023, is also the final deadline for funds availability for the 2017–18 Pell Grant award year. After that time, schools will be unable to draw down or adjust further funds via G5 (although refunds of cash will still be accepted), and the COD System will be closed to any further award or disbursement processing for that award year. As such, schools must complete all final reconciliation activities well before this final deadline and in accordance with disbursement reporting timelines and the data submission deadline defined above.

  3. In other Electronic Announcements posted on Aug 31, 2023, we provide comprehensive information related to activities and deadlines that coincide with the end of the federal fiscal year (one is about the end of the federal fiscal year, and one is about the 2022–23 TEACH Grant Closeout deadline). Schools should ensure that 1) all necessary reports are obtained and 2) all applicable 2022–23 origination, disbursement, and change records are submitted and accepted prior to the processing deadlines.

As noted in the other announcements, the end of the fiscal year requires an earlier processing deadline to account for year-end processes for the U.S. Department of Education’s financial systems. All actual disbursements with a disbursement date from Sept. 29, 2023, through Oct. 1, 2023, must be received, and subsequently accepted by, the COD System no later than 8 a.m. Eastern time (ET) on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, and subsequently accepted by the COD System, to generate the appropriate funding level increase prior to the G5 shutdown. The COD System will continue accepting 2022–23 Pell Grant and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant award and disbursement data through the Sept. 29, 2023, grant deadline. However, accepted disbursements will not result in funding increases in G5 if received after the 8 a.m. ET deadline on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. These disbursements will be funded once G5 re-opens on Oct. 1, 2023.

In the sections below, we provide comprehensive information related to the Pell Grant and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant 2022–23 award year processing deadline.

Contact Information

If you have questions, contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978. You may also email CODSupport@ed.gov.

If you have questions about using EDExpress to run a comparison between an YTD Record and your school’s database, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 1-800-330-5947 or by email at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.

Additional Information About the Pell Grant and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant 2022–2023 Award Year Processing Deadline

There are several tools to assist schools with completing reconciliation prior to Sept. 29, 2023. It is highly recommended that schools use at least one of these reports monthly to assist with their reconciliation efforts.

Through the next three subsections, we provide information related to the Pell Grant School Account Statement (SAS), Reconciliation Report and YTD Record use. For more information on Pell Grant Program Reconciliation, refer to the Feb. 9, 2023 Electronic Announcement.

Using 2022–23 School Account Statement for Reconciliation

The Pell Grant School Account Statement (SAS) is a monthly statement, similar to a bank statement, which summarizes the school's processing activity for that month and/or Year-to-Date (YTD). This statement can be used as a reconciliation tool to compare to both your financial aid and business office records. This report will not include any data regarding Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant students.

The COD System generates the Pell Grant SAS monthly and automatically sends it to a school's SAIG mailbox in Comma-Delimited with Headers format, which can be viewed, printed, or imported into a spreadsheet program for comparison with a school’s data.

Tip: Schools can choose to update SAS Options at the end of their processing period to receive year-to-date detail data for final reconciliation activities, even if they routinely receive monthly data as their default.

Schools may also request a Pell Grant School Account Statement (SAS) Disbursement Detail on Demand for additional reconciliation of Disbursement Level Detail information. This file can be requested via the COD website New Report Request link, which can be found under the Batch tab and then Report Requests link on the left. This file is sent to the school’s Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailbox.

For more information about these reports, refer to Volume VI, Section 7 of the COD Technical Reference.

Using 2022–23 Reconciliation Reports to Identify Discrepancies

The Reconciliation Report is a student summary of processed records and can be helpful to a school as it completes both the year-end and ongoing reconciliation processes.

A school can request a Pell Grant Reconciliation Report via the COD website or by submitting the batch data request for the appropriate program/award year message class via the SAIG. To request a report via the COD website, use the New Report Request link which can be found under the Batch tab and then Report Requests link on the left. For information about these reports, refer to Volume VI, Section 7 of the COD Technical Reference.

The 2022–23 Pell Grant Reconciliation Report can be downloaded and then viewed, printed, or imported into a spreadsheet for comparison with a school’s data. Since the file is not in spreadsheet format, the spreadsheet program will automatically prompt the user to convert it by following the directions displayed. Once the file has been imported into a spreadsheet, the column widths and data formats must be reviewed and adjusted to meet the user’s needs.

Note: The format of any dollar value data element will need to be updated to numeric with two decimal places.

Using 2022–23 YTD Records and COD Website to Assist in Resolving Discrepancies

The Year-to-Date (YTD) Record contains detailed origination, disbursement, and summary information at a transaction level.

After a school completes a comparison of its Pell Grant data with the data in the COD System, the school must resolve all discrepancies. To assist in the resolution process, a school can request a 2022–23 Pell Grant YTD Record. A YTD Record can be requested for one student or for all recipients in a particular program at the school. The YTD Record contains detailed Pell Grant origination and disbursement data at a transaction level. This detailed information can assist in the determination of the appropriate resolution.

A school can request a 2022–23 YTD Record via the COD website or by submitting the batch data request for the appropriate award year message class (Pell Grant – PGRQ23IN) to the COD System via the SAIG. The school will then receive a data request acknowledgement and the requested report in the corresponding award year message class (Pell Grant – PGYR23OP) via the SAIG.

Note: You may download the Pell Grant Reconciliation File report reader or the Pell Grant YTD File report reader, as well as the instructions for using the readers, from the COD website in the “COD Resources” section.

Note for EDExpress Users: To identify discrepancies, a school can use EDExpress to run a comparison between 2022–23 Pell Grant YTD Records and the school’s Pell Grant database. For more information about using the Compare functionality, refer to the 2022–23 Desk Reference for EDExpress Release 2.0 on the Software and Other Tools topics page on the Knowledge Center.

If you have questions about using EDExpress to run a comparison between an YTD Record and your school’s database, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 1-800-330-5947 or by email at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.

Schools participating in the Pell Grant program are also able to officially confirm closeout via the School Balance Confirmation page on the COD website. When a school confirms closeout for a Pell Grant award year, the following actions will occur:

  1. The Department will send a Program Year Closeout letter to the school’s President and Financial Aid Director.

  2. The COD System will reject upward award or disbursement changes per published edits COD Edit 43 (New Award Amount or Award Increase Received After End of Processing Year and Institution Has Not Been Granted Extended Processing) and COD Edit 71 (New Disbursement Increase, or Disbursement Release Indicator to “True” Received After End of Processing Year and Institution Has Not Been Granted Administrative Relief).

  3. The Department will reduce the school's Current Funding Level (CFL) to Net Accepted and Posted Disbursements (if needed).

  4. The School Account Statement (SAS) for this award year and program will no longer be sent.

If a school needs to submit upward award or disbursement data for this year after confirming closeout and the change is not due to a POP exception, the school should request to be reopened or request extended processing via the Request Reopen/Extended Processing page in the COD System.

If the request is made prior to the final processing deadline, the COD website will immediately allow the school to reopen and resume processing for that award year until the school completes the confirmation process again or the data submission deadline has passed.

If the request is made after the final processing deadline, the request will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and granted for authorized reason(s). The school will be given further instructions via the “Request Reopen/Extended Processing” page on the COD website upon submission of their request, in the event additional time is needed to complete this review.

After Sept. 29, 2023, the COD System will accept and reject 2022–23 Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant and Pell Grant data as follows:

Pell Grant Program

  • The COD System will accept, and process decreases to previously accepted 2022–23 award originations and decreases to previously accepted 2022–23 disbursements.

  • The COD System will accept and process originations and disbursements of new 2022–23 awards or 2022–23 award amount increases only if 1) the student was in a Potential Overaward Process (POP) situation during the 2022–23 award year or 2) the Department has granted Administrative Relief or Extended Processing for the 2022–23 award year.

Notes:

  1. Unless one of the situations outlined above applies, the COD System will reject originations and disbursements of new 2022–23 awards or 2022–23 award amount increases and return COD Edit 43 (New Award Amount or Award Increase Received After End of Processing Year and Institution Has Not Been Granted Extended Processing) or COD Edit 71 (New Disbursement Increase, or Disbursement Release Indicator to “True” Received After End of Processing Year and Institution Has Not Been Granted Administrative Relief).

  2. In accordance with the allowable timeframe for submitting verification documentation/completing the verification process as specified in the June 1, 2022, Federal Register notice, the COD System will no longer accept “W” as a valid verification status code for 2022–23 Pell Grant awards. The COD System will return COD Reject Edit 114 (Disbursement or Disbursement Adjustment Received After Verification Status W Deadline Date).

Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant Program

  • The COD System will accept, and process decreases to previously accepted 2022–23 award originations and decreases to previously accepted 2022–23 disbursements.

  • The COD System will accept and process originations and disbursements of new 2022–23 awards or 2022–23 award amount increases only if the Department has granted Extended Processing for the Pell Grant program for the 2022–23 award year.

A school will be able to request Extended Processing for the 2022–23 award year via the COD website beginning Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, one day prior to the data submission deadline. However, a school should not submit a request until after it has completed reconciliation of all program records as well as its research and is ready to submit new/increased award or disbursement data to the COD System. (As a reminder, Extended Processing is not needed to submit downward award or disbursement transaction changes, or upward changes due to POP, as outlined in the Acceptance and Rejection of 2022-23 Award Year Data After Sept. 29, 2023, section.)

A school can request Extended Processing for the 2022–23 award year as follows:

  • Through Feb. 1, 2024 – For natural disasters, other unusual circumstances, or an administrative error made by the Department.

  • Through May 1, 2024– For a student enrolled in a clock-hour or nonterm credit-hour educational program who re-enters within 180 days after initially withdrawing and the school is reporting a disbursement within 15 days of the re-enrollment but after Sept. 29, 2023.

If necessary, a school may also request additional extensions of an initially approved period through May 1, 2024. If granted, any additional extension period will be no more than 30 calendar days in length.

Upon request, the Department may grant Administrative Relief or Extended Processing as follows:

  • If an administrative or processing error made by the Department or one of its operating partners or an event, such as a natural disaster or other unusual circumstance beyond the school's control, prevented the school from meeting the deadline

  • If the school needs to request unreported funds based upon a program review or initial audit finding in accordance with 34 CFR 690.83(d) or 34 CFR 691.83(d)

  • If the school may make a late disbursement in accordance with 34 CFR 668.164(g)

COD Website Requests

On or after Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, a school can request Extended Processing via the COD website. However, a school should not submit a request until after it has completed reconciliation of all program records as well as its research and is ready to submit the data to the COD System (see “Notes” below). The school must submit a separate request for each grant program and year for which it needs Extended Processing.

To request Extended Processing for the Pell Grant Program, log in to the COD website and complete the following steps:

  1. Go to the School Summary Information screen by clicking on the School tab on the top blue bar.

  2. Click on “Request Reopen/Extended Processing” located in the menu on the left side of the screen.

  3. Complete all required fields—including choosing the reason for the request from a drop-down menu and providing a detailed description of the problem. (Do not include Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data in this field (i.e., SSNs, award identifiers, etc.)

  4. Click on the “SUBMIT” button below the data fields.

Notes:

  1. To ensure expedient, efficient, and complete processing within the  Extended Processing period, a school should complete reconciliation of all program records as well as its research and data preparation before submitting the Extended Processing request via the COD website.

  2. Once a request is made, it is reviewed on a case-by-case basis and will be granted for authorized reasons as discussed above.

  3. Once a request is approved, the requesting school will be notified of the authorized extended processing period either immediately via the COD website, or via email from the Department. The Extended Processing period will be no more than 30 calendar days in length (and may be less, particularly for older award years).

  4. Upon receipt of the Department’s approval, the school can submit data through its normal batch/document process or can create awards/originations and disbursements via the COD website. The school must submit all data and fully reconcile its program records within the approved extension period.

  5. As a reminder, a school’s data is fully reconciled when the school’s NAPD amount for a program/award year in the COD System equals the school’s Net Drawdown amount for the program/award year in the COD System and G5. These balances can be found on the COD website School Funding Information screen by clicking on Funding Info link on the left under the School tab.