Publication Date: April 4, 2007

Author: William Leith, Acting General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid

Summary: COD System Implementation for 2007-2008 Award Year

Posted on 04-04-2007

During the period April 13-14, 2007, we plan to implement additional Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System functionality that supports the processing of Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant), Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant), and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) awards for the 2007-2008 Award Year. As part of this 2007-2008 release, we plan to implement ACG and National SMART Grant report and overpayment edit functionality. This will complete the implementation of COD functionality required by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (the HERA), Pub. L. 109-171.

In this announcement, we provide the following important information related to the implementation:

• Important Reminders



• 2007-2008 Grant Authorization and Disbursement Processing Information (two subsections)



• COD Batch Processing Suspension and Web Site Outage Information



• COD System Processing Function Enhancements and Modifications for 2007-2008 (two subsections)



• Contact Information

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete this important activity.

Important Reminders

All schools must send and receive 2007-2008 origination and disbursement data for the ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, and Direct Loan programs to the COD System using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Common Record.

• For the 2007-2008 Award Year, a school must send and the COD System will acknowledge all Common Record documents using COD Common Record XML Schema Version 2.0e.



• All ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, and Direct Loan reports, including data requests, will be sent in the formats currently available and not in XML format.

Prior to submitting 2007-2008 records to the COD System, ensure that your school software/system is ready to process 2007-2008 records using the XML Common Record.

• Any school that will participate in the ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, or Direct Loan program for the first time in the 2007-2008 Award Year must complete school testing with the COD System before sending data into production. The only exception to this is a new school using software from a software provider or third party servicer, or EDExpress.



• 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 that use a solution developed in house (mainframe system, server, software, or other) to send and receive the XML Common Record to test with the COD System.



• For more information about testing, refer to the COD School Testing for the 2007-2008 Award Year announcement.

If your school uses a third party software provider, check with your provider for the availability of the provider’s 2007-2008 software release.

Note for EDExpress Users: The 2007-2008 EDExpress for Windows, Release 2.0 is scheduled to be available on April 13, 2007. As explained in an Electronic Announcement posted on March 19, 2007, on May 18, 2007, we plan to post EDExpress for Windows 2007-2008 Release, 3.0, which will update the Global, Packaging, and Pell modules in EDExpress with the 2007-2008 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules. We will communicate the details related to these two releases in forthcoming Electronic Announcements on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.

Beginning with the implementation of the COD System for the 2007-2008 Award Year, the following will be in place:

• All 2007-2008 Award Year-specific message classes will include "08" as the award year indicator. All message classes are listed in Volume II, Section 2 of the 2007-2008 COD Technical Reference.



• The Direct Loan Master Promissory Note (MPN) ID will include "08" as the award year indicator.



• The default award year will be 2007-2008 on all COD Web site screens except the Request Post Deadline Processing screen. (The Request Post Deadline Processing screen defaults to the award year for which processing has most recently ended.)

2007-2008 Grant Authorization and Disbursement Processing Information

Information for Pell Grant Program

As explained previously in a number of Electronic Announcements posted on the IFAP Web site, the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007, (P.L. 110-5) established the minimum and maximum Pell Grant amounts for the 2007-2008 Award Year. In an Electronic Announcement posted on March 6, 2007, we informed schools that we plan to update the 2007-2008 COD System with the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules during the period May 11-12, 2007.

We decided to perform this update through a separate release to avoid delaying the April implementation of COD System functionality that supports 2007-2008 award-year processing. This approach will allow us to begin accepting and processing all 2007-2008 Pell Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records after we have updated the 2007-2008 COD System with the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules. In addition, this approach will eliminate the need for schools to resubmit Pell Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records to the COD System.

• After we implement COD System functionality that supports 2007-2008 award-year processing and before we update the 2007-2008 COD System with the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules during the period May 11-12, 2007, the COD System will reject origination and anticipated disbursement records for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards.



• After we complete the May 11-12, 2007 update to the 2007-2008 COD System, the COD System will accept origination and anticipated disbursement records for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards.

Initial Pell Grant Authorizations for the 2007-2008 Award Year for schools receiving Pell Grant funds under the advanced funding method will be determined in May 2007, just after we complete the May 11-12, 2007 update to the 2007-2008 COD System. Initial Current Funding Levels (CFLs) will be established in the COD System at that time, and an Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA) containing this information will be sent to each school's Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailbox.

• As an Advanced Funded school submits actual Pell Grant disbursement records, the COD System will apply the total accepted and posted amount for each disbursement to the amount of the school’s Initial CFL. Only after the Initial CFL amount has been reached will the school's CFL be increased to cover additional accepted and posted disbursements. A new ESOA will be sent to the school each time its Pell Grant CFL amount changes.



• Schools that participate in the Just in Time pilot and schools that receive funds under the Reimbursement, Heightened Cash Monitoring 1 (HCM1), or Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2) funding method will not receive an Initial CFL. These schools will receive a CFL once the COD System has accepted and posted actual disbursement records. A new ESOA will be sent to a school each time its Pell Grant CFL amount changes.

The COD System will accept actual disbursement records for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards beginning June 21, 2007.

• Prior to June 21st, the COD System will reject all actual disbursements (Disbursement Release Indicator (DRI) value equal to “True”).



• Beginning June 21st, Advanced Funded schools may submit actual disbursements for 2007-2008 Pell Grant awards. As a reminder, actual disbursements can be submitted up to 30 days before the disbursement date.

A school will be able to view and draw down 2007-2008 Pell Grant funds in the GAPS on Monday, July 2, 2007.

Information for ACG and National SMART Grant Programs

Unlike the Pell Grant Program, there will be no Initial Authorizations for the ACG and National SMART Grant programs for the 2007-2008 Award Year. Schools will receive a CFL under one or both of these programs based on the accepted and posted actual disbursement records that they submit to the COD System. A new ESOA will be sent to a school’s SAIG mailbox each time its ACG or National SMART Grant CFL amount changes. In addition, a new or revised authorization will be available in the GAPS.

Beginning with implementation of the COD System for the 2007-2008 Award Year, the COD System will accept origination and anticipated disbursement records for 2007-2008 ACG and National SMART Grant awards. As explained below, until June 21, 2007, the DRI value in these records must be equal to “False” in order to be accepted by the COD System.

The COD System will accept actual disbursement records for 2007-2008 ACG and National SMART Grant awards beginning June 21, 2007.

• Prior to June 21st, the COD System will reject all actual disbursement records (DRI value equal to “True”).



• Beginning June 21st, Advanced Funded schools may submit actual disbursements for 2007-2008 ACG and National SMART Grant awards. As a reminder, actual disbursements can be submitted up to 7 days before the disbursement date.

After the COD System accepts and posts actual disbursement records, but no earlier than Monday, July 2, 2007, a school will be able to view and draw down 2007-2008 ACG and National SMART Grant funds in the GAPS.

COD Batch Processing Suspension and Web Site Outage Information

In order to install the system changes that will allow the COD System to receive and process 2007-2008 records—

• We will suspend COD batch processing beginning at 8:00 P.M. (ET) on Friday, April 13, 2007. Records submitted after 8:00 P.M. (ET) will be held and processed after 4:00 P.M. (ET) on Saturday, April 14, 2007.



• The COD Web site will be unavailable from 8:00 P.M. (ET) on Friday, April 13, 2007 until 4:00 P.M. (ET) on Saturday, April 14, 2007.

Additionally, for Direct Loan participants—

• The Direct Loan Electronic MPN Web site will be unavailable from 8:00 P.M. (ET) on Friday, April 13, 2007 until 4:00 P.M. (ET) on Saturday, April 14, 2007.

  Individuals starting the process by 7:00 P.M. (ET) on April 13th will be able to complete their MPNs before the Web site becomes unavailable. Individuals attempting to access the Web site after the cutoff time will see a Web site maintenance message and will not be able to start the process or retrieve an existing MPN.

  Note: Periodically throughout this outage, the Direct Loan Electronic MPN Web site will be available for testing purposes. Individuals who begin an activity during one of these periods may not be able to complete the activity before the Web site becomes unavailable again. For this reason, we urge individuals not to access the Web site until after the outage ends at 4:00 P.M. (ET) on April 14th.

COD System Processing Function Enhancements and Modifications for 2007-2008

Changes Specific to the ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant Programs

• In general, schools are to submit ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant disbursements to the Department of Education (the Department) no later than 30 days after making an actual disbursement or becoming aware of the need to adjust a student’s previously reported disbursement. Accordingly, we will perform the following new COD System-wide jobs:
  
  
  • A job that reduces a school’s ACG CFL or National SMART Grant CFL to the Net Accepted and Posted Disbursements (NAPD) if the CFL is still greater than the NAPD on a specified date
    
    
  • A job that reduces a school’s ACG CFL or National SMART Grant CFL to the GAPS Net Drawdown if the CFL is still greater than the GAPS Net Drawdown on a specified date.

As with all COD System-wide jobs of this nature, an affected school will receive a warning message in its SAIG mailbox before we perform each reduction. The message will inform the school of the date on which we will perform the reduction. This warning message will also display on the COD Web site’s Correspondence screen. As an additional alert to schools, we will post an Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site informing schools that we have sent the warning messages to schools’ SAIG mailboxes.

• One of the eligibility criteria to be awarded an ACG or National SMART Grant is that the student must receive a Pell Grant during the award year. To ensure that ACGs and National SMART Grants have been awarded consistent with the Pell Grant eligibility requirement, we will perform a COD System-wide job that reduces to zero ($0.00) ACG and/or National SMART Grant actual disbursements made to a student who does not have a Pell Grant award for award years 2006-2007 and forward in the COD System.

An affected school will receive a warning message in its SAIG mailbox before we perform this reduction. The message will inform the school of the date on which we will perform the reduction. This warning message will display on the COD Web site’s Correspondence screen. As an additional alert to schools, we will post an Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site informing schools that we have sent the warning messages to schools’ SAIG mailboxes. This Electronic Announcement will also include instructions for how a school can inform us of the reason for the COD System having an ACG or National SMART Grant award without a corresponding Pell Grant award for the same award year.




• The following COD warning edits will be modified to apply to the ACG and National SMART Grant programs:
  
  

• Warning Edit 54 (Disbursement Date Within 7 Days or Passed, Disbursement Release Indicator Set To “False”)
  
  
• Warning Edit 55 (Disbursement Information Received 30 Days or more after Date of Disbursement)
  
  
• Warning Edit 69 (Potential Concurrent Enrollment-Notice Sent Separately)
  
  
• Warning Edit 70 (Disbursement Release Indicator is Blank)
  
  
• Warning Edit 115 (Student Referred to DMCS, satisfactory arrangements must be established with DMCS, prior to making disbursements to this student for this award year)

• COD Reject Edit 134 and Reject Edit 136 will be modified to reflect that a disbursement has exceeded the scheduled award across schools and award years, as applicable. The modified edits are as follows:
  

• Reject Edit 134 (Disbursement exceeds scheduled award at all schools for ACG during the same or multiple award years)
  


• Reject Edit 136 (Disbursement exceeds scheduled award at all schools for National SMART Grant during the same or multiple award years)

• COD reports will be available for the ACG and National SMART Grant programs for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 award years. These reports are as follows:



• ACG Year-to-Date (YTD) Report



• ACG Reconciliation Report



• ACG Multiple Reporting Record (MRR) Report



• ACG Pending Disbursement List Report



• National SMART Year-to-Date (YTD) Report



• National SMART Reconciliation Report



• National SMART Multiple Reporting Record (MRR) Report



• National SMART Pending Disbursement List Report

Complete details about ACG and National SMART Grant reports and their corresponding message classes are available in Volume VI, Section 8 of the 2007-2008 COD Technical Reference.

The ACG and National SMART Grant Pending Disbursement List reports will be available on the COD Web site. Schools that wish to access these reports online will be able to do so by completing the following steps:

• Several field names on the COD Web site’s Award Detail screen will be modified to generically apply to any grant type. These modified field names will display on the Award Detail screen for the ACG and National SMART Grant programs. The field name revisions are as follows:



• Pell Collection Status Indicator will be renamed Collection Status Indicator.
  
  
• Pell Collection Referral Amount will be renamed Collection Referral Amount.
  
  
• Pell Collection Amount Collected will be renamed Collection Amount Collected.



• The COD Web site’s Batch Search screen will be modified as follows:
  


• Pell Data Requests tab will be renamed Grant Data Requests.
  
  
• Batch Type field will include the following additional search options in the drop down menu:
• ACG Statement of Account
  
  
• ACG Data Request
  
  
• ACG MRR
  
  
• ACG Reconciliation
  
  
• ACG Year to Date
  
  
• ACG Text Message
  
  
• National SMART Statement of Account
  
  
• National SMART Data Request
  
  
• National SMART MRR
  
  
• National SMART Reconciliation
  
  
• National SMART Year to Date
  
  
• National SMART Text Message


• The COD Web site’s Pell Data Request screen will be renamed Grant Data Request. Additionally, this screen will include a list of ACG and National SMART Grant data requests in the Record Type drop down menu.

Changes Specific to the Direct Loan Program

• Beginning with the implementation of the 2007-2008 Award Year, origination fees for Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans will be determined based on the earliest disbursement date submitted for an award. In determining the earliest disbursement date, actual disbursements will take precedence over anticipated disbursements.

In accordance with these changes, the COD Web site’s Create Award screen will display a new field, Loan Fee Percentage, and drop down menu for the Direct Subsidized Loan and Direct Unsubsidized Loan programs. The drop down menu will list the following:




• 3.0%: Earliest Disb. Date is between 04/01/2002 and 06/30/2007
  
  
• 2.5%: Earliest Disb. Date is between 07/01/2007 and 06/30/2008
  
  
• 2.0%: Earliest Disb. Date is between 07/01/2008 and 06/30/2009
  
  
• 1.5%: Earliest Disb. Date is between 07/01/2009 and 6/30/2010



To ensure the correct origination fee is submitted, several new COD reject edits will be created. These new edits are as follows:




• COD Reject Edit 140 (Incorrect Origination Fee Percent on New Awards) will be returned when the Origination Fee Percent submitted with the award origination record does not correspond to the origination fee period in which the earliest disbursement date falls.
  
  
• COD Reject Edit 141 (Cannot change the Origination Fee Percent on an Active Loan) will be returned when a school attempts to change the Origination Fee Percent of an active loan. An active loan is one that has an award amount greater than $0.00 on the COD System.
  
  
• COD Reject Edit 142 (Invalid Origination Fee Percent on Award Changes) will be returned when the Origination Fee Percent submitted with the award change record does not correspond to the origination fee period in which the earliest disbursement date falls.
  
  
• COD Reject Edit 143 (Disbursement Net, Fee, and/or Rebate Amounts are Incorrect based upon the Origination Fee Percentage) will be returned when the Origination Fee Percent for an award does not correspond to the Net, Fee, and/or Rebate amounts for the disbursements.
  
  
• COD Reject Edit 144 (Disbursement Dates do not match Origination Fee Percent on file) will be returned when a change to the earliest disbursement date does not correspond to the Origination Fee Percent on file.



For complete information about the new edits, including how to correct affected records, refer to Volume II, Section 1 of the 2006-2007 COD Technical Reference and the 2007-2008 COD Technical Reference. We will provide additional guidance related to the origination fee reduction in a forthcoming Direct Loan Bulletin on the IFAP Web site.




• New annual loan limits will be applied to awards that have an earliest disbursement date on or after July 1, 2007. The applicable loan limit is determined by the earliest disbursement date for that award, as well as grade level and loan type. The new loan limits are listed in Volume II, Section 1 of the 2006-2007 COD Technical Reference and the 2007-2008 COD Technical Reference. We will provide additional guidance related to the new loan limits in a forthcoming Direct Loan Bulletin on the IFAP Web site.



• A new tag, PreProfessionalCourseworkIndicator, will be added on the Common Record Layout. Additionally, a new field, Pre Professional Coursework Indicator (PPCI), will be added to the COD Web site’s Create Award and Update Award Information screens for the Direct Unsubsidized Loan Program. The PreProfessionalCourseworkIndicator tag and PPCI field are flags that indicate if a student is eligible for the PreProfessional Coursework additional unsubsidized loan amount.

In accordance with these changes, there will be several new edits. These new edits are as follows:




• COD Reject Edit 138 (Incorrect PreProfessional CourseWork Indicator) will be returned when the Grade Level does not equal 5 with the PreProfessionalCourseWork Indicator set to true.
  
  
• COD Reject Edit 139 (Incorrect PreProfessional CourseWork Flag) will be returned when both the Additional Unsubsidized Loan for Health Professionals (HPPA) and PPCI flags are set to true.


• The COD System will send an MPN response to all schools associated with an MPN. A school is associated with an MPN when it has a loan linked to that MPN and/or it is the school specified on the MPN. Additionally, the COD System will return a new tag, MPNExpirationDate, on the unsolicited MPN Responses for all award years. This tag will appear in the Response Block in the Common Record Document. In accordance with this change, the COD Web site’s Response Information screen will contain a new field, MPN Expiration Date.



• A new loan discharge type, False Certification Identity Theft, will be created for loans that are the result of identity theft. In accordance with this change, COD Reject Edit 94 (Invalid disbursement due to a loan discharge notification for an unauthorized signature/unauthorized payment/identity theft) will be modified. The edit will be returned to schools that submit disbursements or upward adjustments to disbursements dated after the receipt of the loan discharge notification due to an unauthorized signature/unauthorized payment/identity theft.

The following actions will occur when the COD System receives the False Certification Identity Theft discharge type:




• The MPN associated with the discharged loan will be inactivated and the information will be included on the MPN Discharge Report (see Volume VI, Section 8 of the 2006-2007 COD Technical Reference and the 2007-2008 COD Technical Reference).
  
  
• The discharged loan amount will not be included in subsidized and unsubsidized loan limit calculations for the affected student.
  
  
• The COD Web site’s Person Direct Loan Additional Eligibility Information screen will include the new discharge reason, Identity Theft, and discharge amount.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this announcement, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/4PGRANT (800/474-7268) for ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant or 800/848-0978 for Direct Loan. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com