| Publication Date: August 28, 2008 Bulletin ID: DLB-08-21 Summary: Implementation of Plan to Add Counseling Type Indicator to the Entrance Counseling Report/File Posted on 08-28-2008 Dear Direct Loan Colleague: As explained in DLB-08-13, entrance counseling is now required for first-time graduate and professional student Direct PLUS Loan borrowers. In that bulletin, we provided details about the online entrance counseling sessions that became available to graduate and professional student borrowers on July 1, 2008 on the Direct Loan Servicing Online Web site. In DLB-08-20, we provided an update on our proposed solution to add an entrance counseling type indicator to the entrance counseling file/report sent to schools via the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG). This bulletin explains how and when we plan to implement the change to the entrance counseling file/report. What is changing? We will change the fixed-length (DECFENOP) report format by adding a counseling type indictor field to the existing file layout. The field will be a one-byte character field at position 62. The two valid values in the field will be as follows:
Note: Graduate and professional student borrowers who complete both online counseling sessions or complete the combined counseling session will appear twice on the report. There is no separate counseling type value to indicate that a student completed both sessions or the combined session. The current report layout in the COD Technical Reference does not include this new counseling type indicator. Updates to the technical reference will be made in the future. What is not changing? We are not changing the comma-delimited (DECCENOP) or the pre-formatted report (DECPENOP) formats. Schools using these formats will not receive the new counseling type indicator. Schools can change their report format option on the Direct Loan Servicing Online for Schools Web site. If a school needs assistance with the Web site, contact the Direct Loan Servicing Center at 888/877-7658. This change also will not affect the frequency of the report. We plan to implement the counseling type indicator change on Saturday, September 20, 2008. The counseling type indicator will begin to appear on school reports on the following schedule:
Note: None of the reports will provide data for borrowers who completed the counseling session from July 1, 2008 through August 31, 2008. Schools that need data for this earlier timeframe or for a date not included on its first report may use the online reports (described below). What does a school need to do? Schools that receive the fixed-length report format will need to update computer systems or software for this new counseling type indicator field. We have informed most software providers, but schools are encouraged to discuss the change with their software provider or IT Department as applicable. Note for EDExpress Users: EDExpress will import the new DECFENOP file and populate the "Loan Entrance Interview Date" on the Demo Tab as usual. However, at this time, EDExpress will not be able to read the counseling type indicator field or import it into the loan record. We will notify EDExpress users when the software is ready to accept the new indicator type field; until that time, please use the instructions below to determine the counseling type. Online Reports Until a school's software is ready to accept the new counseling type indicator field, a school can determine the counseling type in two other ways:
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we finalized this solution. If you have questions about the information contained in this bulletin, please contact the School Services Team at the Direct Loan Servicing Center at 888/877-7658. Sincerely, William Leith |
