(COD-24-08) COD School Testing for the 2025–26 Award Year

The FSA Partner and School Relations Center will allow for COD School Testing for the 2025–26 award year from Jan. 13, 2025, through Dec. 12, 2025.

The purpose of COD School Testing is to provide organizations (schools, third-party servicers, and software providers) an opportunity to test Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) business processes and system software with the COD System prior to the transmission and processing of actual production data using COD Common Record XML Schema Version 5.0c. 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.

All organizations that wish to participate in COD School Testing must submit the “COD School Testing 2025–26 Sign-Up Document” to the FSA Partner and School Relations Center.

Complete testing information will be available in the COD School Testing Guide (Volume 5 of the 2025–26 COD Technical Reference) that will be posted on the Knowledge Center by late January 2025. In this announcement, we provide useful high-level information about COD School Testing for the 2025–26 award year.

Any school that will participate in the Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, or Direct Loan program for the first time in the 2025–26 award year must complete school testing with the COD System before sending data into production. The only exception to this requirement is schools using EDExpress or software from software providers or third-party servicers.

While other schools are not required to test with the COD System, all schools, software providers, and third-party servicers may participate in testing. We encourage schools using a solution developed in-house (mainframe system, server, software, or other) to send and receive the COD Extensible Mark Up Language (XML) Common Record to test with the COD System.

Software providers and third-party servicers may perform their own product testing on behalf of their customers. Schools should contact their software provider or third-party servicer to discuss testing plans/concerns. The Department of Education (the Department) will test the EDExpress software before releasing it to schools.

School testing is comprised of three phases; the table below shows when each testing phase is available. School testing is self-paced, but an organization must complete Phase 1 testing before participating in Phase 2 testing. Following the completion of Phase 1 and Phase 2 testing, an organization may participate in Phase 3. 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 testing is to ensure that an organization's COD XML Common Record is well formed and properly structured according to the rules of the COD Common Record XML Schema Version 5.0c.

During this testing phase, the COD 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 Jan. 13, 2025, through Oct. 3, 2025.

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 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 April 7, 2025, through Nov. 14, 2025. To participate in Phase 2 testing, an organization must complete Phase 1 testing first. If an organization completes Phase 1 testing before April 7, 2025, it must wait until the Phase 2 testing window opens.

The purpose of Unstructured Application Testing is to allow an organization that has completed Phase 1 and Phase 2 testing to ensure that it can correctly create and submit all possible transactions needed for the future award year. The organization uses the test ISIR file data and submits minor variations to test cases such as adjustments to the person information, award amounts, or disbursement amounts throughout the award year.

This optional testing phase will be available from April 7, 2025, through Dec. 12, 2025.

An organization registers for testing by completing the “COD School Testing 2025–26 Sign-up Document”. The sign-up document is posted on the COD website's Home page under the “COD Resources” link.

An organization may register to participate in Phase 1 testing only, in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 testing, or in all three phases. To ensure enough time to complete all testing before the established testing end dates, organizations must register no later than Sept. 15, 2025.

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 “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 COD 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 COD 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.