January 24, 2024

Dear Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) Project Director:

It is time to prepare the Annual Performance Report (APR) for your EOC project for program year 2022-23, the second reporting year of the 2021-26 grant cycle. The “Go-live” date for the 2022-23 APR collection is **January 24, 2024,**with a **February 28, 2024,**due date**.**

You will find the EOC APR form and instructions, other important APR technical documentation, and the link to the secured TRIO APR online data collection system, at: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/trioeoc/report.html. **Your APR is due in the online system by Wednesday, February 28, 2024.**

Prior experience (PE) points: The years in which the Department assesses prior experience for the EOC program are 2022-23, 2023–24, and 2024–25. For each of the five years of the cycle, after you submit your APR, the web application will produce for you a report that shows the extent to which you met your objectives, such as participants’ financial aid application completion and enrollment in postsecondary education. In the first and fifth years of the cycle, the report is referred to as the *Standard Objectives Report*; in the second through the fourth years, it is the *Individual Prior Experience (PE) Points Report*. 

All five years’ results are based on identical formulas that are explained in the “Policies and Procedures” document, also available here: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/trioeoc/report.html. 

Please take note of this second year’s report, which is found in the final pages of the PDF that you will be able to download, once you have submitted your final APR. The report may tell you a great deal about your progress and may help you to identify areas in which you could improve.**Be sure to keep in mind that, in any of the three assessment years, if your project fails to serve at least 90 percent of the agreed-upon number of students, you will earn no PE points at all for that year.**

**The competitive preference priority (CPP):**  Grantee applications that received points for any competitive preference priorities are required to provide information on how the project addressed that CPP, in the 2022-23 performance period. Section II of the APR includes prompts for projects to provide this information. 

**New Login Requirements:** New Federal security requirements have changed how project staff will be able to access Federal IT systems, including the EOC Annual Performance Report (APR) Data Collection System. As the project director for your EOC project, the Federal Government requires you have an account with Login.gov to access the TRIO APR Web Portal reporting system. Therefore, to use the TRIO APR Web Portal, you will need (1) an account in the reporting system related to your grant program, and (2) a *username and password*that you will create and maintain at Login.gov, *using the same email address linked to your G5/G6 account.*

We have provided two guides (quick and detailed) that contain instructions on how to access the TRIO APR Web Portal. The quick guide, which contains abbreviated instructions, and the detailed guide, which contains step-by-step instructions as well as accompanying screenshots, may be accessed here: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/trioeoc/report.html.  

**Friendly Reminder:**Whenever you need to access the TRIO APR reporting system, you ***must always*** start at the TRIO APR Web Portal (i.e., https://trio.ed.gov); you should **never** go directly to the Login.gov site to access the TRIO APR reporting system.

**New Signature Page Feature:** To facilitate the submission of Section I (i.e., signature page), you will be able to download Section 1 from the web application, once you submit successfully. **Please note that you must scan and upload the signed copy of the signature page within five (5) business days after final submission of your online APR**. 

Should you have any issues or concerns with uploading the Section I (signature page), please contact the Help Desk for assistance at: **(703) 885-8008**or via email, at: Trio@Helpdesk.thetactilegroup.com. 

If you need to revise the APR after it has been submitted, please contact the Help Desk as soon as possible. Once****the**February 28, 2024, deadline**for the APR has occurred, you may not modify the report, except under exceptional circumstances, and only with the approval of TRIO staff.

**For assistance with:**

· APR requirements, please contact your Program Specialist directly. To ascertain your program specialist's name, telephone number, and email address, please visit the EOC Office Contacts page, here: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/staffdirectory-cupt.html. 

· TRIO APR Web Portal, please contact TRIO Help Desk at: TRIO@helpdesk.thetactilegroup.com.  

· Login.gov, please go to the Login.gov Help Center at: https://login.gov/help/.    

Thank you for the time, effort, and dedication you devote to the performance reporting period each year and for your commitment to providing complete and accurate data. Please retain source documents in a readily accessible form, so that they can be verified during an on-site visit.

Sincerely, Sharon EasterlingDirectorTRIO Upward Bound and Educational Opportunity Centers Division

2