[ctcLinkfinaidsupport] Fw: FAFSA update, July 12, 2024

[Dani Bundy]

Good morning,

Sharing what went out to presidents on Friday.

Thank you,

Dani Bundy
ctcLink PeopleSoft Customer Support Director


From: Grant Rodeheaver <grodeheaver at sbctc.edu>



Good afternoon, presidents, and chancellors:

Despite the late start this year, most colleges are on target with their financial aid awards as compared to last year. We have been reaching out to colleges and continue to offer our full support.

The ctcLink Financial Aid support team has delivered hands-on financial aid support sessions for colleges. Currently, colleges are requesting support by submitting service tickets.

Overall Numbers

To date, all 34 colleges have loaded ISIRs in the ctcLink awarding environment and all summer header colleges have begun awarding aid in ctcLink production.

As of July 12, 9,096 students have been awarded for the summer term, and 7,991 students for the fall term of the 2024-2025 academic year.

By comparison, as of this same date last year, 7,836 students were awarded for the summer term, and 10,019 students were awarded for the fall term of the 2023-2024 academic year.

While we are down by 2,028 for fall awards, this is not unexpected given the intense focus on summer awarding activities.

WSAC Updates

SBCTC relies on the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) for certain state financial aid services and activities. We’ve been working with WSAC since mid-April regarding delivery of WASFA applications, and I’m pleased to announce their third-party technical vendor, Regent, was able to deliver three important components in the last week.

Paul Francis and I plan to meet with WSAC leadership to ensure these components are delivered as quickly as possible in the future to assist in the awarding of aid to students.

Washington College Grant (WCG) and College Bound Scholarship (CBS) Eligibility Checker

Colleges use this tool to validate award amounts and maximum usage timeframes for the students awarded.

Delivered: July 2, 2024

WASFA uploading capability

Conversations were underway since mid-April and on June 24, WSAC responded to our request to inform SBCTC of the necessary technical requirements for integration with ctcLink and we were able to implement the change. When colleges download WASFA ISIRs from the WSAC portal, Transaction Source and Type will now have populated values. 

Delivered: July 3, 2024

WCG formula and Federal Tax Information (FTI) tags

WSAC provided the correct formula and calculation elements to SBCTC in late June. Our technical developer updated the formula and marked the FTI components. While a couple of colleges were able to test this before release, the ctcLink support team will connect with the Financial Aid System Team (FAST) and Financial Aid Council (FAC) in the days ahead to ensure the formula is working as expected.

Delivered: July 11, 2024

Enrollment Intensity FLF Process Updated

Instructions for a new process to manage Financial Aid Load Less than Fulltime (FLF) were delivered to the colleges yesterday, July 11, and the new queries went into production today.

FLF supports the authorization and disbursement process, preventing the disbursement of financial aid that exceeds the amount for which the student is eligible, based on enrollment intensity. 

The process identifies students whose enrollment intensity at the time of awarding is different than the enrollment intensity at the time of authorization and disbursement. In addition, the process identifies students who need their awards adjusted from full-time to less-than-full-time.

Oracle PRP Release to Fix Bugs

Oracle delivered another PeopleSoft Release Patchset (PRP) yesterday. The new code will be loaded into the test environment today and Financial Aid Support will work on it next week.

This patch corrects Social Security Administration (SSA) labels which are displaying as Social Security Number (SSN) for AY2025 and, it is hoped, will reduce manual work for the colleges.

Of course, there will continue to be adjustments from the Department of Education (ED) and requisite coding changes from Oracle, so this effort will be ongoing as FA Support receives further releases from Oracle.

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

Find the latest information, including notices of cancellation or schedule changes, on the ctcLink Training<https://www.sbctc.edu/colleges-staff/it-support/erp-support/ctclink-training/> page or on the SBCTC meetings and events<https://www.sbctc.edu/calendar> calendar (apply filters).  Here are a few:

Loan Set-Up and 2024/2025 Loan Processing: Trailer Colleges

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Read more and join the session<https://www.sbctc.edu/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D175525198>

This hands-on workshop will walk Trailer college staff responsible for Direct Loan Origination and Outbounding through setting up the new AY loan run controls for to begin processing loans in the 2024-2025 Aid Year (AY).  The Header college session was held June 25.

Financial Aid (FA) Work Sessions

Financial Aid (FA) Work Session meetings are on the fourth Thursdays, from 1 to 3 p.m.

The FA functional support team facilitates alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with the support of the FA functional team. The end of each meeting is open for colleges to ask questions about the topic presented. These sessions are open to ALL end users.



As always, you and your staff are welcome to reach out with questions or concerns. We are here to support you and the students you serve.

Thank you,

-Grant



[Compass]Grant Rodeheaver

Deputy Executive Director / CIO, IT Division

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

grodeheaver at sbctc.edu<mailto:grodeheaver at sbctc.edu> • o: 360-704-3939  • c: 360-280-4733

sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> • Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> • Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>




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