Common Origination and Disbursement

COD Processing Update

ACG, National SMART Grant, and

Pell Grant Programs

March 09, 2007

ACG, National SMART Grant, and

Pell Grant Programs
COD News

COD System Maintenance Planned For Sunday, March 11, 2007 (03/07/07)
The COD System will undergo routine maintenance on Sunday, March 11, 2007 from 1:00
A.M. until 1:00 P.M. (ET). In addition, the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) will be
unavailable from 3:00 A.M. until 11:00 A.M. (ET) due to its regular Sunday morning
maintenance. The impact of these overlapping outages is as follows:
• Users will not be able to submit or retrieve data via the COD Web site between
1:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M. (ET).
• Batches submitted by schools via the SAIG between 1:00 A.M. and 3:00 A.M. (ET)
will be held and not acknowledged back to schools until after COD comes back up
at 1:00 P.M. (ET).
• Schools attempting to transmit batches via the SAIG between 3:00 A.M. and 11:00
A.M. (ET) will receive an error message informing them that the SAIG is
unavailable and that the data must be transmitted at a later time.
• Batches submitted by schools via the SAIG between 11:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M.
(ET) will also be held and not acknowledged back to schools until after COD
comes back up at 1:00 P.M. (ET).
Federal Student Aid apologizes for any inconvenience these outages may cause. If you
have any questions about the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center. If
you have any questions about the SAIG, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-
5947 or e-mail [email protected].

2007-2008 Federal Pell Grant Payment And Disbursement Schedules [02/22/07

(Updated 03/07/07)]

Background

On February 15, 2007, the President signed the Revised Continuing Appropriations
Resolution, 2007, (P.L. 110-5) that establishes the maximum Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant)
award for the 2007-2008 Award Year at $4,310 and, with the minimum award continuing to
be $400, sets the maximum Expected Family Contribution (EFC) that a student may have to

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be eligible to receive a Pell Grant at 4110. These amounts (and related statutory provisions)
were used to develop the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules for the 2007-2008
Award Year, which are available in Dear Colleague Letter P-07-01 on the Information for
Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site.

On February 27, 2007, Federal Student Aid posted information about the operational
implementation of the Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules for the 2007-2008
Award Year in an Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site. This announcement
provides schools with high-level information about the impact on the Central Processing
System (CPS) and the COD System and Federal Student Aid’s anticipated implementation
dates related to these systems.

Note: For information about the impact on the CPS, refer to the February 27th Electronic
Announcement and to a subsequent Electronic Announcement posted on March 1, 2007.
The March 1st Electronic Announcement informs schools of the date when Federal Student
Aid will reprocess the applicable 2007-2008 CPS records.

COD System Information

As explained in the February 27th Electronic Announcement, Federal Student Aid plans to
update the 2007-2008 COD System with the Pell Grant payment and disbursement
schedules during the period May 11-12, 2007. Federal Student Aid decided to perform this
update through a separate release to avoid delaying the April 13-14, 2007 implementation
of COD System functionality that supports 2007-2008 award-year processing. At the time
Federal Student Aid posted the earlier announcement, it was evaluating options related to
the acceptance of 2007-2008 Pell Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records
during the interim period between the April and May releases.

On March 6, 2007, Federal Student Aid posted a subsequent Electronic Announcement on

the IFAP Web site. The March 6th Electronic Announcement informs schools of Federal
Student Aid’s determination that the COD System will begin accepting 2007-2008 Pell
Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records after Federal Student Aid
completes the May 11-12, 2007 update to the 2007-2008 COD System. This approach will
allow Federal Student Aid to begin accepting and processing all 2007-2008 Pell Grant
origination and anticipated disbursement records after it has 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.

Federal Student Aid will continue to communicate with schools about the acceptance of
2007-2008 Pell Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records by the COD System
through forthcoming release-related Electronic Announcements on the IFAP Web site. In
the meantime, Federal Student Aid wants to highlight the following key points:

• After implementation of COD System functionality that supports 2007-2008

award-year processing during the period April 13-14, 2007, the COD System will

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accept origination and anticipated disbursement records for 2007-2008 Academic
Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National Science and Mathematics Access to
Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) awards. The COD System will also
accept origination, anticipated disbursement, and actual disbursement records for
William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) awards.

• After implementation of COD System functionality that supports 2007-2008

award-year processing during the period April 13-14, 2007 and before the 2007-
2008 COD System is updated 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.

• It is not necessary for the COD System to accept a 2007-2008 Pell Grant record for
a student before it can accept a 2007-2008 ACG or National SMART Grant record
for that student. (Federal Student Aid will perform this check later in the award
year.) Therefore, a school that wishes to submit 2007-2008 ACG and/or National
SMART Grant origination and anticipated disbursement records to the COD
System before the COD System begins accepting 2007-2008 Pell Grant origination
and anticipated disbursement records may do so.

• When a school submits a 2007-2008 Pell Grant origination or anticipated

disbursement record to the COD System after May 12, 2007, the record must
include a CPS transaction number for a transaction that has been designated as “Pell
Grant Eligible.” If the record does not include a CPS transaction number for a
transaction that has been designated as “Pell Grant Eligible,” the COD System will
reject the record.

• Federal Student Aid will provide information about the COD System’s acceptance
of actual disbursement records for 2007-2008 Pell Grant, ACG, and National
SMART Grant awards through our forthcoming release-related Electronic
Announcements on the IFAP Web site.

Note for EDExpress Users: As Federal Student Aid explained in the February 27th
Electronic Announcement, it will need to update the appropriate modules in EDExpress
with the new Pell Grant amounts through a future release. Federal Student Aid is still
evaluating options for the updated EDExpress software release and will communicate the
details through a forthcoming Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site.

ACG And National SMART Grant Resources (03/09/07)

NEW! As a reminder, the Department of Education (the Department) has posted a number of Dear
Colleague Letters and Electronic Announcements that communicate regulatory, policy, and
operational information related to the implementation of the Academic Competitiveness
Grant (ACG) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant
(National SMART Grant) programs. In addition, COD has updated the 2006-2007 COD
Technical Reference and the 2007-2008 COD Technical Reference. A school should refer
to the communications posted on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP)

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Web site and to the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 COD technical references for complete
information about the ACG and National SMART Grant programs.

More specifically, the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 COD technical references cover all
aspects of the operational implementation of the ACG and National SMART Grant
programs. This includes information on the following key aspects of ACG and National
SMART Grant processing:

o Financial Award ID and Financial Award Number (Award Sequence Number)

Volume II, Section 1 “Implementation Guide”
o Citizenship and Student Level Code
Volume II, Section 1 “Implementation Guide”
o Message Classes
Volume II, Section 2 “Message Classes”
o Common Record Layout
Volume II, Section 3 “Common Record Layout”
o Reports Generated by COD System
Volume VI, Section 8 “COD Reports”
o Eligibility/Payment Reason and Rigorous High School Program Code for ACG
Volume VI, Section 9 “Rigorous Secondary School Programs of Study, and Eligible
Majors”
o Major/Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Code for National SMART Grant
Volume VI, Section 9 “Rigorous Secondary School Programs of Study, and Eligible
Majors”

If your school needs help locating information related to the operational implementation of
the ACG and National SMART Grant programs, contact the COD School Relations Center.

Note for EDExpress Users: Volume III of the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 COD technical
references provides additional guidance for schools that use EDExpress in combination with
another system. If your school needs help locating information related to EDExpress,
contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 880/330-5947 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Unlocking and Resetting COD Web Site Passwords (03/09/07)

NEW! COD would like to remind COD Web site users that Security Administrators (COD Web
site User Level 5) are able to unlock and reset passwords for the users (User Level 1-4) they
established at their school or organization. However, if the Security Administrator needs
his or her password unlocked or reset, the Security Administrator must contact the COD
School Relations Center.

In order to unlock users, a Security Administrator should log in to the COD Web site and
complete the following steps:

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Step 1: From the Welcome to Common Origination & Disbursement Web Site screen, click
on the User tab on the blue bar at the top of the screen. The User Search screen
displays.
Step 2: Enter the search criteria for the user and click on the submit button at the bottom of
the User Search screen. The Search Results screen displays and lists users that
match the search criteria.
Step 3: On the Search Results screen, select the name of the user that needs to be unlocked.
The User Information screen displays.
Step 4: Click on the Modify button at the bottom of the User Information screen. The
Update User Profile screen displays.
Step 5: The Locked Out box on the Update User Profile screen contains a checkmark.
Click on the Locked Out box to remove the checkmark.
Step 6: If a new temporary password is not needed, skip this item and go to Step 7. If a
new temporary password is needed, enter the new temporary password in the New
Password field. Then re-enter the new password in the Re-enter New Password
field to confirm. The user will need to change this password to one of his or her
choosing.
Step 7: Click on the submit button at the bottom of the Update User Profile screen. The
Update Your Profile screen displays.
Step 8: On the Update Your Profile screen, click on the Submit button to confirm the
updates made to the user’s profile.

This information is also posted on the COD Web site in a document entitled “Unlocking
And Resetting COD Web Site Passwords.” To access the document before you log in to the
Web site, click on the “Click here if you are looking for more information on Common
Origination and Disbursement” Link. To access the document after you log in to the Web
site, click on the “Today’s Update” link at the bottom of the page.

Schools can refer to the Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site,
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/0201UpdatedCODWebsiteSchools.html, for
information regarding COD Web site access. Third party servicers can refer to the
Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site at
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/UpdatedCODWebsiteThirdPartyServ.html.

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ACG, National SMART Grant, and

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Reports And Data Requests

This section contains important notices regarding reports and/or data requests. While we
NOTICES encourage you to review this section, note that some schools may not be impacted by the
information presented below.

• Pell Year-to-Date (YTD) Records— The YTD Record can be used to assist a school with
its year-end and ongoing reconciliation processes.
Schools also use the YTD Record for the purpose of
rebuilding a complete student record or Pell Grant
database.
• For rebuilds for the 2005-2006 and 2006-
2007 Award Year, the school can submit the
data request via the COD Web site or batch.
• For rebuilds for the 2004-2005 and earlier
award years, the school must contact the
COD School Relations Center by e-mail to
[email protected]. The school
should include "Pell YTD" in the subject
line. If a school is unable to e-mail its
request, it can contact the COD School
Relations Center by phone.

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