# Presentation: 016841

## NASFAA 2003:  Reconnecting

***NASFAA 2003:  Reconnecting***
***With Students!***

## COD and Pell Processing

## Objectives

- What is the status of Pell in COD?
- What’s New for Pell and COD?
- Tools for Funds Management
- Pell and COD Processing Updates

## Pell Status

- Verification Initiatives
- Verification “W”
- Warning messages
- De-obligation
- Administrative Cost Allowance
- Initial Authorizations for 03-04
- POP – How are we doing?

## Administrative Cost Allowance

- Identified code issues with the Unduplicated Recipient Count resulted in incorrect ACA payments being displayed on the COD web site for some schools
- Payments were delayed until appropriate code fix
- Corrected ACA payments have been sent to schools

## POP Process

|  | OLD |
| --- | --- |
| Overawards allowed to exist for 30 days | Pell did not allow overawards for any period of time |
| MRR is produced informing all schools involved of the situation and providing contact information | MRR is produced informing all schools involved of the situation and providing contact information |
| If after 30 days the situation has not been remedied, all schools involved will receive a negative disbursement. Eligible school can submit a positive disbursement at any time | Required submission of a negative disbursement from ineligible school first and then a positive disbursement from the eligible school |

- NEW

## Why New POP Process?

- School Feedback
- Complaints indicated improvements were needed
- Removal of reliance on schools that can’t respond
- Allows funds to flow instead of inhibiting funds

## Why New POP Process?

- Unofficial Withdrawals
- School Choice: Summer Header/Trailer
- Identification of Mid-Year Transfers
- Enhanced Web Information Readily Available

## Students in POPAs of May 2003

|  | 2001-2002 | 2002-2003 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Blocked At One Time | 88,890 | 16,117 |
| Resolved | 48,020 | 14,231 |
| Still in Conflict | 25,645 | 1,893 |
| Unblocked but Unpaid to Date | 15,225 | 0 |

- POP

## POP on the Web: Before Adjustments

- SAMPLE STUDENT

## POP on the Web: After De-obligation

- SAMPLE STUDENT

## Tools for Resolving POP

- Edit codes returned on disbursement records
- Full Participant: 68 or 69 (for concurrent enrollment)
- Phase-In: 411 or 410 (for concurrent enrollment)
- MRR
- MRR is produced for conflicting disbursements
- Contains information on all schools involved and their contact information
- Imported via SAIG mailbox
- Report of cumulative students in POP is in development and will be available to schools in 2004-2005
- Department is monitoring edit 55

## After 30 days if neither school adjusts...

- System generated negative disbursement
- Full Participant: Common Record Doc Type ND
- Phase-In Participant: Batch Type #G
- Customer Service Outreach
- Phone Call
- Email

## What's New?

## Pell Changes for 2003-2004:  Record Layouts

- <NegativePendingAmount>
- New for **Full Participants**
- Returned on the Common Record Response document for Document Type = RS with edit code 040 “Changed Award Amount is Less Than Total Disbursements”
- Indicates the amount by which disbursement(s) will be reduced if action is not taken by the school within 30 days

- 36

## Pell Changes for 2003-2004: Verification Initiatives

- Verification Status Code:
- Added ‘S’ = Selected, but not Verified
- <VerificationStatusCode> tag on Common Record Layout for **Full Participants**
- Verification Status field on Origination Record and Origination Acknowledgement for **Phase-In Participants**

**Notes:**
Requested by schools.

Can be used by schools in the QA program or for schools who have already met the 30% threshold for verification

For Handouts: 

Need copy of common record with field and new value highlighted in BOLD typeface
Need copy of Pell Origination Record layout with field and new value highlighted in BOLD  typeface

## Pell RFMS Data Conversion

- Conversion of data from RFMS to COD will be complete by the end of the summer
- RFMS award years 99-00, 00-01, 01-02 will be processed by the COD system after the RFMS conversion is complete

## Pell RFMS Data Conversion

- Conversion should be seamless for schools since the COD system will work with schools’ present software and will accept and retrieve prior award year information in RFMS formats where applicable. However, certain RFMS business functionality will change with the conversion to the COD system
- Important information about business rule changes will be detailed in forthcoming P-messages and IFAP postings

## Timeline for RFMS Conversion

- July 1	**Web message** on RFMS web site alerted 		schools that RFMS will stop processing at 		the end of July
- July 25	**Last day records must be submitted** in 		order to guarantee complete processing 	of		reports from the RFMS system
- July 31	**Last day of RFMS processing**

- JULY

## Timeline for RFMS Conversion

- August 1-18	**RFMS Conversion** – Records 				submitted after July 31 will be 				held in the SAIG mailbox until the 			conversion is complete
- August 18		COD begins processing. Data from 			the 99-00 award year through the 			present will be available on the 				COD web site
- September 9	Last day the RFMS web site will 				be available for inquiry

- AUGUST

- SEPTEMBER

## COD Focus GroupMay 15-16, 2003

- Over the course of two days, 24 schools and 5 vendors generated hundreds of ideas on the following topics:
- Reports		  Direct Loan Processing
- COD Web Site		  Pell Processing
- Common Record/Schema		  Edits
- Customer Service
- We have incorporated some of these ideas into changes for the 2004-2005 Award Year
- Thank you for participating in the 2004-2005 Requirements gathering process.
- If you would like to participate in future focus groups, please give a COD team member your business card

## Participant Status for 2004-2005

- COD will accept Phase-In Participant records in 2004-2005
- All schools must be Full Participants using the XML Common Record in 2005-2006
- Reminder: EDExpress users are Full Participants beginning in 2003-2004

## Pell Changes for 2004-2005: Record Layouts

- The following data elements will not be required on the Common Record for the 04-05 award year and subsequent years:
- Academic Calendar Code
- Payment Methodology Code
- Weeks of instructional time used to calculate payment
- Weeks of instructional time in program’s definition of award year
- Credit/Clock hours used to calculate payment
- Credit/Clock hours in this student’s program of study’s academic year
- If a Full Participant school submits data in these tags, the COD system will not edit or store the data and will not return these tags on a Full Response
- These tags will continue to be edited and stored for Phase-In Participants and will be returned in the Acknowledgement

## Pell Changes for 2004-2005:Verification Initiatives

- Two new informational tags will be added to the Response block:
- <CPS Verification Indicator>
- <CPS Highest Transaction Number>
- <CPS Verification Indicator> will be returned in response for Pell actual disbursements if the student was selected for verification on any CPS transaction number and the school did not report ‘V’ or ‘S’

## Pell Changes for 2004-2005:Verification Initiatives

- <CPS Highest Transaction Number> will be returned in response for Pell actual disbursements if a CPS transaction number higher than the one reported by the school exists
- A Verification Status Report will be sent to schools monthly indicating those students selected for verification by CPS that schools have not yet verified (QA schools excluded)

## Campus Based Changes for 2004-2005

- COD will accept and process all Campus Based student award and disbursement data from Full Participant schools for the 03-04 and 04-05 award years and forward
- Campus Based student award and disbursement data will be viewable on the COD web site

## COD Web Site Changes for 2004-2005

- New web page will display student data from CPS applicant system
- Users will have the ability to search applicant data by SSN, or by SSN and award year

## COD Web Site Changes for 2004-2005

- “Batch ID” will be changed to “Document ID”
- Batch Search Results List
- Batch Search screens will contain Award Type and Doc Type fields and permit filtering by these fields
- Date Received and Date Response field will be separated into two individual fields. Date Received will indicate the date the batch was received by COD and Date Response will indicate the date COD sent a response to the school
- Batch Record Detail
- Batch Record Detail will be split into two portions. The upper portion will contain the batch information sent by the school and the lower portion will contain the data sent out by COD in the batch response and in system generated responses

## Batch Search Results

- SAMPLE UNIVERSITY

## Batch Award Detail

- SAMPLE UNIVERSITY

## COD Web Site Changes for 2004-2005

- An Award Year drop down box will be added to the Person Pell Information page enabling user to filter by Award Year
- Award Amount Disbursed and Award Amount Approved will be added to Person Pell Information page
- COD Customer Service email address will be added to the Contact Us web page

## Pell Award

- SAMPLE STUDENT

## Contact Us

## COD Web Site Changes for 2004-2005

- School Report Options can be set on the COD web site
- Schools will be able to define sort options, delivery options, and format options via the web site
- Specific options will vary based on report
- More information on the options for each report will be available in the Technical Reference Appendices published in November 2003

## Report Selection

- SAMPLE UNIVERSITY

## COD Web Site Changes for 2004-2005

- GAPS Debit Date will be added to the Cash Activity screen on the COD web site
- The GAPS Debit Date will indicate the date that the funds are expected to post to the school’s account
- Calculations on the Cash Activity screen will be corrected

## Message Class Changes for 2004-2005

- Full Participants will have the option of using message classes that are specific by
- Program
- Award Year
- Program and Award Year
- General (e.g. COMRECIN, COMRECOP)
- Receipts
- The 04-05 COD Technical Reference draft published in August 2003 will contain specific message class names

## SAIG Transmission Header Changes for 2004-2005

- SAIG has increased the variable field on the SAIG Transmission Header from 26 characters to 50 characters
- The SAIG Transmission Header will be populated with the entire Document ID for Full Participants and the Batch ID for Phase-In Participants
- If a school uses the variable space for other data on the incoming record, COD will not overwrite this data with the Document ID or the Batch ID

## COD Timeline

- 2004 – 2005 Development Schedule:
- Requirements Complete	June 2003
- Design Complete			August 2003
- Development Complete 		November 2003
- Testing Complete			February 2004
- School/Vendor Testing		February 2004
- System Start Up			March 2004

## Tools for Funds

-  Management

## New Warning Edit: 02-03

- Edit 55 – “Disbursement Information Received 30 Days or More After Date of Disbursement”
- Applies to both Pell and Direct Loan
- Through May 2003, 2304 schools received Edit 55
- 500,005 occurrences through May 2003
- Program violation of 30 day reporting requirement
- For Pell, annual deadline notice

## Cash Management Tools for All Schools

- COD provides schools tools for cash management**:**
- Current Funding Level (CFL)
- Available Balance
- Substantiating Drawdowns
- Unsubstantiated Cash Balance
- Aging of Drawdowns

## Current Funding Level (CFL)

- The CFL is set at a level sufficient to make funds available to cover the initial disbursement needs for each school receiving funds under the advance payment method
- The CFL is akin to the authorization level for the Pell program
- The CFL increases throughout the year as schools submit and COD accepts actual (not anticipated) disbursement records which substantiate funds that have been drawn

## Available Balance

- The difference between the CFL and drawdowns (cash at school)
- The available balance is the amount a school can request at any point prior to substantiating more draws

## Substantiating Drawdowns

- To substantiate a draw means to submit and have COD accept actual disbursement records that equal the amount of cash drawn or pushed to the school
- All draws must be substantiated timely in order to comply with the 30 day reporting requirement
- COD will match actual disbursements to drawdowns on a first-in/first-out basis
- Each drawdown will be aged to see how long it takes a school to “substantiate” the draw

## Unsubstantiated Cash Balance

- The difference between cash at school and substantiated draws
- Lets a school know at any point what amount of funds have not been substantiated
- If a school does not substantiate cash drawn in a timely manner:
- Call from Customer Service and warning messages
- Freeze cash request (further funds will be temporarily stopped until draws have been substantiated)
- Call for cash (school will be required to return unsubstantiated amounts)

## Aging of Drawdowns

- Schools, Customer Service, and FSA can use the COD Website to see:
- Each drawdown
- Unsubstantiated Cash Balance
- Available Balance
- The number of days since the drawdown

## SAMPLE UNIVERSITY

## SAMPLE UNIVERSITY

## Processing Updates

## Pell ProcessingYTD Totals – as of July 1, 2003

|  | 2002-2003 | 2003-2004 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Originations (#) | 5.3 million | 197,565 |
| Originations ($) | $15.7 billion | $625.6 million |
| Actual Disbursements (#) | 11.3 million | 17,406 |
| Actual Disbursements ($) | $11.4 billion | $20.3 million |
| % Substantiated | 99.91% | N/A |
| Students in Pell Program | 4,763,730 |  |

- TOTALS

## Pell Processing Update

- “Blank” status was being rejected for 02-03 and 03-04 awards
- 02-03 awards are being accepted with the Verification Status of “S”.  “S” is not a valid value for this award year
- For all award years, any adjustment attempts to lower the disbursement amount and update the verification status to “W” are rejecting

## Pell Processing Update

- 2002-03 Phase-In actual disbursement batches (#D) are accepted but the Disbursement Release Indicator is displaying “False” on the COD web site instead of “True”

## Pell Processing Update

- Discrepancies exist between COD CFL & GAPS authorization for some schools. GAPS has implemented a code fix and COD is in the process of cleaning up data

## Pell Processing Update

- Data Corrections

- Major financial code fixes were implemented in April 2003.  Issues were localized to 2002- 2003 award year. However, some schools are receiving incorrect payment amounts due to ongoing data clean up
- The COD Summary Financial Information screen is displaying incorrect figures in the Disbursement Amount, Disbursement Adjustment Amount, and Ending Cash Balance fields due to ongoing data clean up
- COD was not sending system generated negative disbursements (such as the type generated by unresolved POP conflicts) to NSLDS on a consistent basis. The code has been fixed; however, COD is still cleaning up affected schools’ data

## Customer Service

## COD Customer Service StatisticsAs of July 1, 2003

-  Total Inbound Calls to COD School Relations
-  Total Inbound Calls to Applicant Services
- 		(since March 1, 2003)
-  Total Outreach Calls
-  Total Inbound Emails
-  Total Number of COD Website Users

- 102,810
- 20,073
- 206,466
- 35,938
- 3,830

- The COD School Relations Center opened on April 29, 2002.  What has happened since?

- COD Customer Service StatisticsAs of July 1, 2003

## 
Full Participant Schools Processing in COD

In the 2002-2003, Award Year 22 schools processed as Full Participants
In the 2003-2004, Award Year 2532 schools are set up to process as Full Participants
As of June 23rd, 445 schools are actively processing as Full Participants for the 2003-2004 award year

	ALL schools must become Full Participants for the 2005-2006 Award Year

- _Full Participant Schools Processing in COD_
- In the 2002-2003, Award Year **22** schools processed as Full Participants
- In the 2003-2004, Award Year **2532** schools are set up to process as Full Participants
- As of June 23rd, **445** schools are actively processing as Full Participants for the 2003-2004 award year
**	****ALL schools must become Full Participants for the 2005-2006 Award Year**

- COD Customer Service StatisticsAs of July 1, 2003

## 
2003-2004 School Testing
School Testing provides an opportunity to test business processes and software with COD, prior to transmitting and processing production data

For the 2003-2004 award year:
42 Total Participants in school testing
28 Schools
14 Vendors

School Testing window closes July 2003

- _2003-2004 School Testing_
- School Testing provides an opportunity to test business processes and software with COD, prior to transmitting and processing production data
- For the 2003-2004 award year:
- 42 Total Participants in school testing
- 28 Schools
- 14 Vendors
- School Testing window closes July 2003

- COD Customer Service StatisticsAs of July 1, 2003

## COD Customer Service: Behind the Scenes

- Total of 92 staff at the COD School Relations Center to support Customer Service efforts
- Reference tickets are opened if a CSR can’t provide a resolution during the phone call
- CSRs now have a “Reminder” queue to track all call backs to schools with an open reference ticket
- Calls are tracked on the COD system
- A memo is recorded for all schools or students who call
- CSRs also code each contact for trending and tracking
- Communication Techniques
- COD Processing Updates and COD web site postings
- Frequently Asked Questions
- IFAP Communications, P-messages
- Customer Service Outreach Campaigns

## COD Customer Service: Outreach Campaigns

- Current outreach campaigns for Pell Grants
- Disbursement to Drawdown
- Contact is made weekly
- “Reminder” e-mail sent to schools who have not substantiated.  These are sent at 20, 30, and 45 days
- At 60 days School Relations phones the schools who remain unsubstantiated
- POP
- Contact is made weekly
- School Relations phones schools who have not cleared a POP condition and have recently received a negative disbursement

## COD Customer Service: Behind the Scenes

- New IVR and CSR Team Structure
- Calls distributed by area code
- Schools will be in more direct contact with their Primary CSR
- Teams broken down by regions
- Northeast
- Southeast
- Central
- Mountain/Pacific
- International (Puerto Rico)
- Primary CSR’s work the same hours as their schools
- Support Specialists to handle third party software vendors and mainframe schools

## How Do I Contact COD School Relations?

- Email  _CODSupport@acs-inc.com_
- Call the COD School Relations Center
- 1-800-4-P-GRANT for Pell Grants
- 1-800-848-0978 for Direct Loans
- Enter option of the desired award year
- COD Web Site (www.cod.ed.gov)

## How Do I Obtain Access to the COD Website?

- Submit a Security Administrator Request Letter on school or corporate letterhead
- Security Administrator is responsible for setting up additional users at your institution
- Reporting/Attending school relationships in COD will automatically allow access to other school codes
- Refer to announcements on IFAP for detailed instructions and mailing address
- 6/3/02 - Updated: COD Website Access for Schools
- 6/3/02 - COD Website Access for Vendors/3rd Party Servicers

## Where Can I Get More Information?

- IFAP web site (www.IFAP.ed.gov)
- Common Origination and Disbursement page
- Announcements, FAQs, COD Technical Reference
- COD web site (www.cod.ed.gov)
- Daily Processing Updates
- School Funding and Processing Information
- Contact COD School Relations

## Where Can I Get More Information?

- Software Developer’s Conference
- Arlington, VA – August 14-15, 2003 (_http://edeworkshop.ncspearson.com/swdAugust03.htm__)_
- Electronic Access Conferences
- San Diego – November 2-5, 2003   (http://edeworkshop.ncspearson.com/SanDiego.htm)
- New Orleans – December 2-5, 2003 (http://edeworkshop.ncspearson.com/NewOrleans.htm)

## Other COD Sessions

- COD and Direct Loan Processing
- COD: The Common Record: An Update on COD and XML

## Questions