Managing Ability to Benefit

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

  • Update Student Eligibility Code descriptions.

  • Create and manage Ability to Benefit data at the student level.

  • Create Ability to Benefit data for students in batch

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

Navigation

Usage

Student Eligibility Codes

SFA_ATB_CODE_XREF

Set Up SACR > Product Related > Financial Aid > Student Eligibility Codes

Use this page to edit descriptions of Student Eligibility Codes in the setup table.

Manage Ability to Benefit

SFA_ATB_STDNT

Financial Aid > Ability to Benefit > 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

Financial Aid > Ability to Benefit > Create Ability to Benefit

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

Access the Student Eligibility Codes page (Set Up SACR > Product Related > Financial Aid > Student Eligibility Codes).

Keyed by Institution, use this page to update descriptions in the CS-delivered Student Eligibility Codes setup table. Descriptions are limited to 55 alphanumeric characters.

These descriptions apply to COD Pell and COD Direct Loan origination awards and can be obtained through the 2015-2016 COD Technical Reference, Volume II, Section 1, Implementation Guide - Student Eligibility Fields (formerly Ability to Benefit).

The following table lists recommended Student Eligibility Code descriptions.

Student Eligibility Code

Description

01: Complete before 7/1/2012

Test Completed - First enrolled before 7/1/2012

02: College before 7/1/2012

College Credits - First enrolled before 7/1/2012

03: State Process

State Process

04: Home Schooled

Home Schooled

05: Other

Effective 10/9/2015: Invalid for all award years

06: High School Diploma

High School Diploma

07: General Ed Development

GED or State Authorized HS Equivalent Certificate

08: State-Authorized exam/cert

Effective 10/9/2015: Invalid for all award years

09: Acad Trans min 2 YR Prog

2-Year program Transcript Accepted for Credits to BA

10: Excelled in High School

Program leads to Assoc degree, excel in HS and met reqt

11: Complete 7/1/12 - 06/30/15

Retired Effective 23-24 Award Year

12: Complete after 7/1/12

Test Completed - First enrolled 7/1/2012 or After

13: College 7/1/12 - 6/30/15

Retired Effective 23-24 Award Year

14: College after 06/30/2015

College Credits - First enrolled 7/1/2015 or After

15: CPT Program

Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary (CPT)

Access the Manage Ability to Benefit page (Financial Aid > Ability to Benefit > Manage Ability to Benefit).

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

Description

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.

Aid Year

Select the Aid Year. For COD reporting purposes:

  • If Aid Year is blank for the highest sequence number row, then the Student Eligibility Code for that row is used for all Aid Years.

  • If Aid Year is not blank for the highest sequence number row and:

    • the Aid Year for that row is less than or equal to the Aid Year for the process Run Control, then the Student Eligibility Code for that row is used for the process.

    • the Aid Year for that row is greater than the Aid Year for the process Run Control , then the process searches for the next highest sequence row, and repeats the above logic until a sequence row is selected to be used in processing.

Note: Specifying an Aid Year allows you to designate different Student Eligibility Codes by Aid Year. For example, you may wish to take advantage of a new (expanded) code in a new Aid Year when it was not available in an earlier Aid Year.

Stdnt Eligibility Code (student eligibility code)

Select the value that indicates how the student achieved the ATB. Select from the ATB codes established in the Student Eligibility Codes crosswalk table setup. When a code is selected, its description appears.

Note: TheAbility 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 (Financial Aid > Ability to Benefit > Create Ability to Benefit).

Population Selection

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

Field or Control

Description

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

Description

Institution

Enter the academic institution that the student is attending during the aid year.

Aid Year

Select the Aid Year. For COD reporting purposes:

  • If Aid Year is blank for the highest sequence number row, then the Student Eligibility Code for that row is used for all Aid Years.

  • If Aid Year is not blank for the highest sequence number row and:

    • the Aid Year for that row is less than or equal to the Aid Year for the process Run Control, then the Student Eligibility Code for that row is used for the process.

    • the Aid Year for that row is greater than the Aid Year for the process Run Control , then the process searches for the next highest sequence row, and repeats the above logic until a sequence row is selected to be used in processing.

Note: Specifying an Aid Year allows you to designate different Student Eligibility Codes by Aid Year. For example, you may wish to take advantage of a new (expanded) code in a new Aid Year when it was not available in an earlier Aid Year. If the Aid Year value is specified on this Run Control, it populates the ATB record for all Population Selection cohorts whose Aid Year value is blank.

Stdnt Eligibility Code (student eligibility code)

Select from the ATB codes established in the Student Eligibility Codes crosswalk table setup. When a code is selected, its description appears.

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.