[ctcLinkfinaidsupport] Please read - timelines for Oracle FAFSA Simplification release

[Ana Ybarra]

Good afternoon FA community -
Some colleges may have already learned (during AYR and FAST meeting) that FA Support has made a decision to hold off on testing Post Regs 1 PRP3 from Oracle, which has the FAFSA Simplification changes. We arrived at this decision in part due to Dept. of Education has only delivered three ISIR test students that we already know have issues. Although we could spend time cloning and remapping those three ISIR's to afford us a little more data to test with, we collectively decided that is not a good test case scenario. We will wait, along with the rest of the nation, for the Dept. of Ed. to send ISIR's supposedly around mid-March; once received we'll have far more data to work with in order to test at a level of excellence we prefer.

What does this delay in testing the PRP mean?
Initially, our timeline was about a month turn-around time to complete testing and move the PRP to production; full disclosure, that turn-around time was pretty optimistic. We met with our App Services team this morning to discuss the impact of our decision to wait for the Dept. of Education ISIR's and other Oracle patches which include bug fixes. At the moment, we have VERY tentatively landed on late April/early May to finish testing, aiming for the 2nd week of May to move to production. The timeline is subject to change depending on when we actually get ISIRS and when Oracle sends updated PRP's.

There are a few items we know the FA community are most curious about and have asked FA Support, "How are you going to address.....?", here is what we know:

Housing question being removed from 24/25 ISIR, how will this impact budgets
The way our system works, with ONE main GLOBAL FA install page for ALL 33 colleges, we see that Oracle has delivered the housing drop down field on the install page. This configuration means we, FA Support, are forced to choose ONE option from the drop down menu; off campus, with parent, or on campus housing. We pulled data from our system to see what the highest percentage across the system is for which option; returned data reflects 44,035 students are off campus, 18,036 are with parent and 3526 are on campus. We also reviewed data based on each college, and the highest population per college is also off campus. As a result, we are choosing off campus as the option at the install page. Please be advised that colleges will have the option to Pop Update on an ID basis to change this housing option on a case by case basis.

Negative SAI and impact to Pell
FA Support does not control or configure the packaging retrieve button, that is all Oracle. Unfortunately, until we can test this 'feature' we won't have a concrete answer.

Enrollment intensity and WCG/CBS equations
Enrollment intensity is strictly for Pell, it does not impact State aid. Although we have learned from WSAC at Fall FAC, and in prior emails, that they will align with enrollment intensity, we are unclear what this means technically and how this decision will impact our system. I sent an email to WSAC asking for clarification and here is their response:

First question -
The current WCG and CBS tech setup for our system (SBCTC) is if a student does not have an official ISIR, they're essentially not eligible for WCG or CBS. We see that provisional ISIRs will be loaded and we are assuming provisional ISIR's will also be considered not eligible for WCG and CBS - is that a safe assumption?

Yes this is a safe assumption as the student still has to have their official ISIR and SAI for aid admins to determine their overall need as WCG and CBS are need based programs.
The exception is - of course -for those under the WCG-C  program that are not subject to, but encouraged to file a FAFSA.

For CBS

  *   A FAFSA or WASFA is required to award

For WCG - a student can be awarded based on any one of the following:

  *   FAFSA
  *   WASFA
  *   WCG-C data match (this is where a student is listed in WSAC's portal as receiving PWA, ABD or HEN
  *   A student provides documentation of receipt of PWA, ABD or HEN

Second question -
We've seen that WSAC has decided to align with Enrollment Intensity and we're aware that there will already be some layout changes coming to account for this, however Enrollment Intensity if strictly for Pell. Will WSAC be going off of the percentage or keeping with the chart per unit (see attached) keeping with FA load for State funds? How would this impact interim, and how is the portal and WSAC going to apply this to summer term? Enrollment Intensity is strictly only Pell; are we to understand all of State funding will align with Enrollment Intensity too?

WSAC worked directly with the State Aid Financial Aid Workgroup (includes 3 representatives from FAC) in addition to surveying the larger aid community to reach the decision to align with Enrollment Intensity for state aid programs.  Colleges will report enrollment intensity in lieu of enrollment bands.  The enrollment definition applies to all terms including Summer.

We are not sure if the 2nd response is absolutely final and we plan to reach back out to WSAC to discuss further - stay tuned.

ISIR comment codes and queries
We will be working on queries and our ISIR comment code crosswalk in-between AYR sessions, and preparation for testing the PeopleTools upgrade and the PRP. Stay tuned.

While in AYR with some of the colleges, we also recommended clients leverage this time to go back over AYR Part 1 if you weren't able to get through the material; specifically focusing on checklist items. In addition, it would be a great time, if you don't already have a backup staff with an OY 2nd JobSet setup to create a backup JobSet.

We are acutely aware that all in the ctcLink FA community are on edge eagerly awaiting ISIR's from the Dept. of Education, and for FA Support to get the PRP tested, turned around and put into production as soon as possible. So are we; we will do our absolute best to keep you all in the loop with any changes and updates we have on our progress. We know these are unprecedented times we're all experiencing but FA Support are here for you all - and we'll be here to help get all of us through this together.


Peace be with you,


[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]Ana Ybarra, MA
Associate Director Campus Solutions - Financial Aid
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
* o: 360-704-1024



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