[ctcLinkfinaidsupport] FW: Important Information on 2024-25 Aid Year Opening

[Jedidiah Lara]

Good morning FA! 😊

Sending this important information from WSAC.

Please make sure to note of item 2 “The WCG Archive and CBS Eligibility Checker will be updated on July 2”!

Thank you!
Jed

[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]Jedidiah Lara
Functional Analyst, Campus Solutions (Financial Aid)
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
jlara at sbctc.edu<mailto:jlara at sbctc.edu> | o: 360-704-3996




From: Washington College Grant (WSAC) <wcg at wsac.wa.gov>
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2024 3:11 PM
Subject: Important Information on 2024-25 Aid Year Opening
Importance: High

[Sent from outside SBCTC]

Hello Financial Aid Partners!

The new academic year is here, and we anticipate having the WSAC Portal open on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.

As you are aware, there have been many complex changes for the 2024-25 Academic Year – everything from FAFSA/WASFA simplification to state legislative changes affecting Washington State financial aid programs.  Our IT and SFA teams have been working very diligently to get these changes ready.  We hope it will be a smooth opening, but we are also prepared to implement fixes if needed.  Please let us know  if you experience any issues and we will address them as quickly as possible.  We appreciate all the feedback we have received from our Financial Aid Workgroup and for all the work you are doing to serve students.

Here are some important things to consider for the opening of the new aid year:


  1.  Schools that have submitted their 2024-25 Program Participation Agreements, and have been approved by WSAC, will be able to start uploading and requesting funds for 2024-25.  We suggest that schools start with just Summer 1 awards (or just one term) if possible until we see how the system performs.

     *   Schools will not need to have their 2023-24 final interim reports finalized and funds due to WSAC returned prior to accessing 2024-25.
     *   Because there will be two academic years open in the WSAC Portal at the same time we encourage schools to be extra careful when loading files to ensure that awards and edits are being addressed for the intended year.


  1.  The WCG Archive and CBS Eligibility Checker will be updated on July 2, with the new maximum usage timeframes for WCG, CBS, and PTC, and the changes to the enrollment requirements for CBS and PTC under SB 5904<https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/Senate/5904.SL.pdf?q=20240425133008>.

     *   For schools that are still working on cleaning up their 2023-24 awards and haven’t submitted their final interim reports we highly recommend that you run your students through the Archive and CBS Eligibility Checker and download the results to a csv file prior to July 2.  The 2024-25 change to the CBS Checker and Archive will affect eligibility to students who will be exhausting their final term of use for 2023-24. By doing this you will have the most accurate data available to continue your work on the final interim report.
     *   The CBS Eligibility Checker will no longer show the “5-year Eligibility Open” column.

                                                               i.      The file format for CBS Eligibility Checker has not changed.  The “5-year Eligibility Open” will be left blank on the csv download.

                                                             ii.      We will change the actual file layout once schools have been able to update their systems.


  1.  The 2024-25 CSAW award/interim file has not been modified, you will just be leaving the Federal Tax Information (FTI) fields blank on the file.  For the new field input values to use, please refer to the 2024-25 WCG, CBS, PTC Program Manual (starting on page 69).

     *   If you inadvertently leave the information on your file, CSAW will ignore the data and allow you to continue to upload.
     *   We will change the actual file layout once schools have been able to update their systems.

Please reach out to us if you have any questions or if you experience any issues with the changes.  We are so grateful for the work that you do and for the continued partnership.

Thank you,

[cid:image001.png at 01DAC8A3.A34D2F60]
Washington Student Achievement Council
Student Financial Assistance Team
888.535.0747
wcg at wsac.wa.gov<mailto:wcg at wsac.wa.gov> | wsac.wa.gov/wcg<https://wsac.wa.gov/wcg>



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/ctclinkfinaidsupport_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20240628/3d2027c7/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 6857 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/ctclinkfinaidsupport_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20240628/3d2027c7/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 18063 bytes
Desc: image002.png
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/ctclinkfinaidsupport_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20240628/3d2027c7/attachment-0004.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 8117 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/ctclinkfinaidsupport_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20240628/3d2027c7/attachment-0005.png>