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Managing Ability to Benefit

This section provides an overview of Ability to Benefit and discusses how to:

An Ability-to-Benefit test is required of students seeking United States federal financial aid who did not graduate from high school in the United States. To this end, these students must demonstrate they possess sufficient "ability to benefit" (ATB) from post-secondary education via their performance in an approved test.

For these students, data regarding their ATB status must be reported as part of the Common Origination and Disbursement process. Oracle provides a way to create and maintain ATB data for these students.

Page Name

Definition Name

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Usage

Manage Ability to Benefit

SFA_ATB_STDNT

select Financial Aid, then select Ability to Benefit, then select Manage Ability to Benefit

Use this page to create and maintain Ability to Benefit data for a student.

Create Ability to Benefit

SFA_RUN_ATB

select Financial Aid, then select Ability to Benefit, then select Create Ability to Benefit

Use this page to create and maintain Ability to Benefit data in batch.

Access the Managing Ability to Benefit page (select Financial Aid, then select Ability to Benefit, then select Manage Ability to Benefit).

Image: Manage Ability to Benefit page

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Manage Ability to Benefit page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Manage Ability to Benefit page

Use this page to create ATB data for applicable students. This data is reported on all COD Pell origination awards to COD. Data is also reported for all COD Direct Loan origination award. Any ATB changes, based on a new sequence number, are also reported to COD with a change record.

Field or Control

Definition
Sequence

Displays the sequence number of the record. This number increases by one every time a new row is inserted. A new row should only be inserted if a change to the Ability to Benefit Code is necessary.
Ability to Benefit Code

Select the value that indicates how the student achieved their ATB.

Note: The Ability to Benefit Code drives the remaining field edits to ensure the correct 'set' of data is populated for COD reporting requirements. All other changes should be made directly to field element.
Test Administrator Code

Select the administrator code of the ATB testing.
Test Code

Select which ATB test was taken by the student.
State Code

Select the state in which the student completed the State Process to achieve ATB.
Completion Date

Enter the date that the student completed the ATB test or State Process.
Comment

Enter optional explanatory comments. This information is not shared with COD.

Access the Create Ability to Benefit page (select Financial Aid, then select Ability to Benefit, then select Create Ability to Benefit).

Image: Create Ability to Benefit page

This example illustrates the fields and controls on the Create Ability to Benefit page. You can find definitions for the fields and controls later on this page.

Create Ability to Benefit page

Population Selection

Use this page to create Ability to Benefit data for students in batch using standard Population Selection functionality.

Field or Control

Definition
Selection Tool

Select from Equation Engine, PS Query, or External File. Additional parameters are displayed for your selected tool. System data is available in Population Selection Context Definition SFA_ATB.
Query Name

This field is only available the PS Query Selection Tool is selected. Select a population selection query that joins with the bind record SFA_ATB_BIND.

Default Values

If any of the following fields come in from Population Selection with blanks then use the value from the run control to populate the Ability to Benefit record.

Field or Control

Definition
Institution

Enter the academic institution that the student is attending during the aid year.
Ability to Benefit Code

Entering a default value is optional, however if blank, then the data retrieved from Population Selection must indicate an ATB Code value.
Test Administrator Code

Optional. Enter the ATB Test Administrator Code.
Test Code

Optional. Enter ATB Test Code
State Code

Optional. Enter the State Code if ATB Code is equal to '03:State Process'.
Completion Date

Enter the Completion Date of the ATB test.

Note: Ability to Benefit—related field values are based on the most current COD Technical Reference material.