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Publication Date:
June 30, 2006
Author: G. Kay Jacks,
General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid
Summary: HERA Operational
Implementation Guidance (CPS, COD System, and EDExpress Suite) -- ACG
and National SMART Grant
Posted on 06-30-2006
As explained in Dear
Colleague Letter GEN-06-04, the Higher Education Reconciliation
Act of 2005 (the HERA), Pub. L. 109-171, created two new grant programs
effective July 1, 2006. Both the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG)
and the National Science and Mathematics to Retain Talent Grant (National
SMART Grant) will be available for eligible students beginning with the
2006-2007 Award Year.
The Department of
Education (the Department) has posted several Dear Colleague Letters that
provide eligibility and award guidance for the new grants. In addition
to Dear
Colleague Letter GEN-06-04, a school can refer to Dear
Colleague Letters GEN-06-06 and GEN-06-08
for this guidance. These letters, as well as information about HERA-related
training opportunities, are available under the "Higher
Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA) Information"
link on the home page of the Information
for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.
Note:
The Department has not yet issued regulations to implement the provisions
of the HERA. Program participants, including schools, lenders, and guarantee
agencies, should implement the provisions of the HERA in accordance with
sub regulatory guidance provided by the Department in Dear Colleague Letters
and other materials until the regulations are published and effective.
In general, the regulations will be effective 30 days after they are published
in the Federal Register. After the regulations are published in
the Federal Register, the text of the regulations will be posted
on the IFAP
Web site.
We look forward to
working together with schools to provide these new grant funds to eligible
students. There will be a transition period as we implement the new grant
programs, and we appreciate the extra effort, patience, and understanding
that will be required of schools. In addition to modifying processes,
procedures, and systems/software, schools will also field many additional
questions, concerns, and requests for assistance from students. As we
explain later in this announcement, in some cases, we will refer students
directly to their schools for assistance. We thank schools in advance
for the tremendous assistance they will provide in serving our students
who will receive ACG and National SMART Grant awards.
In an Electronic
Announcement posted May 5, 2006, we provided a high-level overview
of how we will implement functionality for processing ACG and National
SMART Grant awards. There are two basic components around which ACG and
National SMART Grant processing revolves:
1. A school
determines a student's eligibility.
A school uses Free
Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data and information in
the school's academic records to confirm and document a student's eligibility
for an ACG or National SMART Grant award.
2. A school
reports data.
A school provides
origination and disbursement information for an ACG or National SMART
Grant award via submission of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Common
Record to the COD System or via the COD
Web site. In either case, the COD System returns responses
to the school and sends accepted award information to the National Student
Loan Data System (NSLDS).
In this announcement,
we expand upon the high-level overview previously provided and cover information
in the following order:
- Availability of
ACG and National SMART Grant Functionality
- Information for
EDExpress Users
- Contact Information
- Attachments/Enclosures
Availability of
ACG and National SMART Grant Functionality
We are on schedule
to implement functionality as follows:
- On July 1, 2006,
we will begin notifying students who are potentially eligible for an
ACG award and begin providing schools with student responses to ACG
eligibility questions.
- During the period
July 29-August 1, 2006, we will begin processing ACG and National SMART
Grant initial authorizations for the Grant Administration and Payment
System (GAPS).
- Beginning the
first week of August 2006, a school will be able to draw down funds
for ACG and/or National SMART Grant awards, as applicable, via the GAPS.
- Beginning September
1, 2006, a school that uses EDExpress software will be able to enter
and store ACG and National SMART Grant origination and disbursement
information. The EDExpress software will hold the origination and disbursement
information until the COD System is ready to receive it on December
16, 2006.
- Beginning December
16, 2006, Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System functionality
will be in place to support ACG and National SMART Grant origination
and disbursement processing functions. This will include sending ACG
and National SMART Grant award information to the NSLDS.
- Beginning April
14, 2007, COD System functionality will be in place to support report
and overpayment processing functions.
We cover the availability
of ACG and National SMART Grant processing functions in the following
order:
- Processing Functions
to Identify Potentially Eligible ACG Recipients Available July 1, 2006
- Processing Functions
for ACG and National SMART Grant Available July/August 2006
- Processing Functions
for ACG and National SMART Grant Available December 16, 2006
- Processing Functions
for ACG and National SMART Grant Available April 14, 2007
Processing
Functions to Identify Potentially Eligible ACG Recipients Available July
1, 2006
Ultimately, it is
a school's responsibility to verify a student's eligibility for an ACG
award before awarding and disbursing the aid. As explained above, the
school uses FAFSA data and information in the school's academic records
to confirm and document a student's eligibility.
If a school desires,
it can use self-identification information that we will collect from participating
students to assist in identifying a potentially eligible student and the
type of rigorous secondary school program completed. We will next explain
how this available option will work. However, a student is not required
to complete this self-identification process to be eligible for an ACG
award, and a school may determine eligibility without the assistance of
our information.
Note:
Dear
Colleague Letter GEN-06-08 outlines the options for meeting
the rigorous secondary school program requirement.
Notification to
Students
Students Who Have
Already Applied for 2006-2007 Aid
On July 1, 2006,
we will send a notice to a student who has already applied for aid for
the 2006-2007 Award Year (by submitting a paper FAFSA or completing FAFSA
on the Web) and who appears to be potentially eligible to receive
an ACG. We will also send a notice to the parent of a potentially eligible
student who completed FAFSA
on the Web, provided the parent submitted an e-mail address.
- A student will
be identified as potentially eligible to receive an ACG if he or she
meets all of the following criteria:
1. Eligible
to receive a Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant)
2. United States
(U.S.) citizen (by self report)
3. Grade level
0, 1, or 2
4. 20 years
old or younger as of January 1, 2006 (to approximate the date of
high school graduation)
- As with our other
e-mail notifications, we will send an e-mail notification if we have
an e-mail address for the student or parent with valid syntax (for more
information about valid syntax, refer to "Important Information
about E-mail" in the "2006-2007
Summary of Changes for the Application Processing System Guide."
If a student
does not have an e-mail address with valid syntax or if the e-mail
notification is returned as undeliverable, we will mail a letter to
the student, provided there is a deliverable mailing address.
- The notice will
provide options through which the student may respond to questions that
will assist a school in determining if the student completed a rigorous
secondary school program.
- The student may
respond to the questions online via a URL that will be provided in the
notice or by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC)
at 800/4-FED-AID (800/433-3243).
Note:
If a student who has already applied for aid loses his or her notice,
or for any reason does not know how to access the questions, the student
may be directed to Corrections
on the Web. After the student his or her personal identifiers
and PIN and the Central Processing System (CPS) determines that the
student appears to be potentially eligible to receive an ACG award,
the student will be directed to the new Web screens through which
he or she can respond to the questions.
- For a school's
information, the three versions of the notice we will send are attached
to this Electronic Announcement in one document. Refer to "ACG
Notifications."
Students Who Complete
Paper FAFSA Beginning July 1, 2006
Beginning July 1,
2006, a student who completes a paper FAFSA and who appears to be potentially
eligible to receive an ACG award will receive comment 267 on his or her
Student Aid Report (SAR). This comment will direct the student to the
URL or the FSAIC to respond to questions that will assist the school in
determining if the student completed a rigorous secondary school program.
Students Who Complete
FAFSA on the Web Beginning July 1, 2006
Beginning July 1,
2006, a student who completes FAFSA
on the Web who appears to be potentially eligible to receive
an ACG award will be given the opportunity to complete new Web screens
as part of the online process. Through the new Web screens, the student
will respond to questions that will assist the school in determining if
the student completed a rigorous secondary school program.
FAAs Who Complete
FAFSA or Renewal FAFSA Using FAA Access to CPS Online Beginning July 1,
2006
Beginning July 1,
2006, a Financial Aid Administrator (FAA) who completes a FAFSA or Renewal
FAFSA for a student using FAA
Access to CPS Online will have the option to complete the new
Web screens for a student who appears to be potentially eligible to receive
an ACG award. Upon completing a FAFSA or Renewal FAFSA, the FAA must select
"Calculate EFC" at the bottom of the entry screen. If the application
passes all edits and the student appears ACG-eligible, the "successful
check" page will include a hyperlink that leads to the new Web screens.
The FAA may select this link if he or she wishes to proceed with answering
the ACG eligibility questions on the student's behalf. Note that an FAA
can only answer the ACG eligibility questions on an initial or Renewal
FAFSA, not a correction.
Note:
In all cases, we will use self-reported information about citizenship
to identify students who appear to be potentially eligible to receive
an ACG. The reason we will use self-reported citizenship information-rather
than the results of our match with the Social Security Administration
(SSA)-is to take into consideration that SSA match results can, in some
cases, be subsequently overridden when documentation of citizenship status
is provided to the school. This approach may, however, result in some
students who are initially identified as potentially eligible to receive
an ACG later being identified as ineligible.
Information to
Students and Schools
ACG Data File
- In addition
to sending an ISIR to a school, we will send an ACG Data file containing
responses to the rigorous secondary school program questions and other
key data to the school via the SAIG.
- Each day after
FAFSA records are processed, we will create and send the ACG Data
file to the school. The file will include data for all students who
have listed the school on their ACG data transactions and who provided
ACG data to the CPS for that day's compute.
- We will send
the ACG Data file in the new message class ED2007OP.
A new SAIG
message class table that includes this message class will be sent
to schools' SAIG mailboxes in the message class MESSAGTB on June
30, 2006.
- A school can
use any text editor software to view the contents of the ACG Data
file.
Note
for EDExpress Users: To import this file into EDExpress
for Windows 2006-2007, a school will need to define the message
class in its Global Setup.
- Additional information
about the ACG Data file, including its record layout, is available
in the updated "2006-2007
EDE Technical Reference" posted on the IFAP
Web site.
FAA Access to
CPS Online Web Site
- A school may
view a student's responses to the rigorous secondary school program
questions via the FAA
Access to CPS Online Web site. The school will need to
select "Student Inquiry" from the main menu.
Processing
Functions for ACG and National SMART Grant Available July/August 2006
- Beginning July
1, 2006, a school will be able to package, award, and disburse grants
as soon as the school's system/software is able do so. However, a school
must hold all award and disbursement information and submit it to the
COD System after full COD System functionality is available on December
16, 2006.
- During the period
July 29-August 1, 2006, we will begin processing an Initial Authorization,
known in the COD System as Current Funding Level (CFL), for schools,
except those using the Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2) or Reimbursement
funding method, that will process ACG and/or National SMART Grant awards.
A school will receive a separate Initial CFL for each of the two grant
programs.
- We will inform
schools after we process the Initial CFLs via an Electronic Announcement
on the IFAP
Web site, the "COD Processing Update," and
a COD Web Message.
- We will generate
and send an Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA) that lists the
amount of a school's Initial CFL for each new grant program for
the 2006-2007 Award Year.
1. We will
send the ESOA for the ACG Program to the school's SAIG mailbox
in the message class AGAS07OP.
2. We will
send the ESOA for the National SMART Grant Program to the school's
SAIG mailbox in the message class SGAS07OP.
A new SAIG
message class table that includes these message classes will be
sent to schools' SAIG mailboxes in the message class MESSAGTB on
June 30, 2006.
- A school will
be able to view its Initial CFLs on the Funding Information screen
on the COD Web site.
- In a separate
communication, we will inform a school that is eligible to process ACG
and/or National SMART Grant awards and that uses the HCM2 or Reimbursement
funding method how we will handle its funding.
- Beginning the
first week of August 2006, a school will be able to draw down funds
for ACG and/or National SMART Grant awards, as applicable, via the GAPS.
The school must draw down and disburse ACG and National SMART Grant
funds in accordance with the cash management regulations in 34 CFR 668
Subpart K.
- The GAPS Award
Number for ACG will be P375A06xxxx.
- The GAPS Award
Number for National Smart Grant will be P376S06xxxx.
Note:
The "xxxx" will be populated with a school's GAPS award
sequence number that currently exists for the Pell Grant and Direct
Loan programs.
- In some cases,
more than 30 days will elapse between the date a school disburses ACG
or National SMART Grant funds and the date the school submits a record
of that disbursement to the COD System.
We will consider
the school to be in compliance with the 30-day disbursement-reporting
requirement and suspend related e-mail notifications regarding ACG
and National SMART Grant awards until January 17, 2007.
Note:
During the period July 1, 2006 - January 17, 2007, we will continue
to monitor disbursement-reporting compliance for Pell Grant and Direct
Loan awards.
- If an ACG or National
SMART Grant overpayment occurs, a school will be able to report the
overpayment to our collections area (Borrower Services-Collections)
using revised forms that will be posted on the IFAP
Web site. After reporting the overpayment to Borrower Services-Collections,
the overpayment will be reflected in the NSLDS.
The COD System
will begin editing on ACG and National SMART Grant overpayments and
inform a school that an overpayment exists with the implementation
of the 2007-2008 Award Year functionality on April 14, 2007. Until
that time, a school remains responsible for checking a student's overpayment
status and will not be able to rely on the additional check by the
COD System.
Note:
During the period July 1, 2006 - April 14, 2007, the COD System will
continue to edit on Pell Grant overpayments and inform schools when
a Pell Grant overpayment exists.
Processing
Functions for ACG and National SMART Grant Available December 16, 2006
- A school will
send origination and disbursement information about ACG and National
SMART Grant awards using new COD XML Common Record blocks
or by submitting individual records via the COD
Web site.
- A school will
use the Academic Competitiveness Grant Block for ACG awards. This
block will include basic award data, an element for Eligibility/Payment
Reason, and an element for Rigorous High School Program Code.
Note:
The Rigorous High School Program Code is the six-digit, alphanumeric
code assigned to each rigorous secondary school program. If this
code is applicable to a student, it will be included in the ACG
Data file (Message Class ED2007OP) that will be sent to a school
and will be available via FAA
Access to CPS Online. In addition, we will post a list
of all approved rigorous secondary school programs to the IFAP
Web site in the very near future.
- A school will
use the National SMART Grant Block for National SMART Grant awards.
This block will include basic award data and a specific element
for Major/CIP Code.
Note:
Dear
Colleague Letter GEN-06-06 provides the list of eligible
academic majors and their respective CIP codes.
- We posted the
COD
Common Record XML Schema Version 2.0e on June 15, 2006. The
COD Common Record XML Schema Version 2.0e includes the Academic Competitiveness
Grant Block and the National SMART Grant Block.
Effective December
16, 2006, all 2006-2007 Common Record documents that contain ACG and/or
National SMART Grant origination and disbursement information must
be sent by schools and will be acknowledged by the COD System using
COD Common Record XML Schema Version 2.0e.
Complete information
about COD Common Record XML Schema Version 2.0e is available now in
the updated 2006-2007
COD Technical Reference.
- The 2006-2007
COD Technical Reference will reflect all ACG and National
SMART Grant implementation information upon posting of the last installment
of HERA-related technical reference updates in late July 2006. We will
post the technical reference updates to the IFAP
Web site and announce the availability of the updates in the "COD
Processing Update" and via a COD Web Message.
After full COD System
functionality is available on December 16, 2006, a school will be able
to complete the following ACG and National SMART Grant processing functions:
- Submit awards
and disbursements to the COD System via batch and Web.
- Receive responses
from the COD System.
- Access award and
disbursement data via the COD
Web site.
- Access grant information,
coded as "AG" for ACG and "SG" for National SMART
Grant, in the NSLDS. ACG information will include Eligibility/Payment
Reason codes.
Processing
Functions for ACG and National SMART Grant Available April 14, 2007
- A school will
receive reports, such as reconciliation and year-to-date, from the COD
System that reflect ACG and National SMART Grant information.
- A school will
receive an edit code message (Edit 115) when the COD System receives
a new award for a student who has an ACG or National SMART Grant overpayment.
Information for
EDExpress Users
We will modify the
2006-2007 EDExpress software as follows:
- On September 1,
2006, we will post 2006-2007 EDExpress 3.0 Release to the FSAdownload
Web site. This release will implement the following functionality
in the EDExpress software:
- A school will
be able to enter and store ACG and National SMART Grant origination
and disbursement information. The EDExpress software will hold the
origination and disbursement information until the COD System is
ready to receive it on December 16, 2006.
- A school will
be able to import ESOAs for the ACG and National SMART Grant programs
into the EDExpress software. The school will be able to print the
ESOA but will not be able to store the ESOA in the EDExpress database.
- On December 15,
2006, we will post 2006-2007 EDExpress 4.0 Release to the FSADownload
Web site. This will allow a school to export ACG and National
SMART Grant origination and disbursement information to the COD System
beginning December 16, 2006.
Contact Information
Once again, we appreciate
your partnership in serving ACG and National SMART Grant recipients.
If you have questions
about the functionality for identifying potentially eligible ACG recipients
or the EDExpress software, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947
(TDD/TTY 800/511-5806). You may also e-mail CPSSAIG@ed.gov.
If you have questions
about the COD System functionality, contact the COD School Relations Center
at 800/4PGRANT. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com.
Attachments/Enclosures:
ACG
Notifications in Microsoft Word Format, 27KB, 3 pages
2006-2007
SAR Comment Codes and Text for ACG in Microsoft Word Format, 29KB, 1 page
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