One of your ideas has been delivered from your suggestion.Automated Selective Packaging Before Verification

Student Financial Aid has been updated to allow packaging on ISIRs in other statuses outside of Valid and Unverified to give schools the ability to provide potential financial aid packages to students prior to completing ISIR processing. The system will project the potentially eligible funding for students and also display the results within Self Service.  With this change, incoming students can be informed earlier of their financial aid eligibility.

  • Configuration Updates
    • Added new award year based configuration within the ISIR_MGMT.csv workbook called ISIR_Used_in_Packaging that allows you to add a groovy script to define which ISIRs should be selected by the packaging engine for packaging.  
    • This feature is enabled for the 23/24 award year and forward and is opt-in.
      • If you leave the fields empty, current system behavior will continue and SFA will only package on Valid/Unverified ISIRs.
    • Baseline configuration will select the ISIR with the highest CPS/FPS Transaction Number for the Award Year that is in one of the following statuses and ISIR is not rejected or does not contain an SAI/EFC (In the following priorities):
      • Pending ISIR status
        • If there is not a lower CPS/FPS Tx that is in a Valid/Unverified/Corrected state.
          • For example, if CPS/FPS Tx 1 was Valid, then a new CPS/FPS Tx 2 is received and is still Pending, the groovy script will return CPS/FPS Tx 1 until CPS/FPS Tx 2 is Valid/Unverified
      • Corrected
        • If ISIR had been previously Valid or Unverified.
          • For example, if CPS/FPS Tx 1 was Valid, then a user updates the ISIR manually to corrected, the groovy script will return CPS/FPS Tx 1 until a new CPS/FPS Tx is returned for the correction.
        • If ISIR is in Corrected for any other reason (i.e Pending -> Corrected or manually set to Corrected) select this ISIR.
      • Valid
        • Once a valid ISIR is selected by the script only future valid/unverified ISIRs will be selected by the script.
      • Unverified
        • Once an unverified ISIR is selected by the script, only future valid/unverified ISIRs will be selected by the script.
      • If no ISIR exists for the Award Year in one of these statuses, no ISIR will be returned.
  • API Bindings Updates
    • Added a new ISIR binding that will provide the ISIRs that are selected by the ISIR_Used_in_Packaging script called isCompatibleWithPackaging().
      • This binding is available for packaging all Title IV funds and NFF funds.
    • Added a new ISIR bindings that will provide the previous status of an ISIR(s) that are now in a Corrected state called getISIRStatusBeforeCorrection().
    • Within the existing IIsirRecordAPI
      • getLastPackagedIsirForAwardYear(int awardYear) method will allow you to access the ISIR that was used in the latest package version. This will use the historical package inputs of the latest package version to know what ISIR CPS transaction number was used.
      • The AllAwardYearIsirsAPI.forAwardYear method will be changed to return a specialized type (List subclass) which will provide a getPackagingCompatible filtering method that will only return the ISIRs which are compatible for packaging.
        • You will be able to use the following expression that will return whether the ISIR can be used in packaging (i.e. not Invalid, Inactive, or without an EFC/SAI).
  • Packaging Updates
    • When a groovy script is defined and a new or different ISIR is selected by the script, the system will trigger a repackage to use the selected ISIR in packaging.
      • The "ISIR status has been updated" repackaging reason will be used when a new or different ISIR is selected.
    • Each time a repackage occurs, packaging looks at which ISIRs are being used as packaging inputs for the specified Award Year.
      • If no ISIR is returned for the Award Year, the funds will package using the prior Award Year’s ISIR (if it exists).
        • i.e. if the following ISIRs are returned
          • 23/24 ISIR CPS Tx 1 (Valid)
          • 24/25 ISIR FPS Tx 1 (Pending)
          • No ISIRs are selected for 25/26 Award Years and beyond
        • then funds with 25/26+ Award Years will project using the 24/25 ISIR
      • For ISIRs that are Pending or Corrected and have never previously Valid or Unverified, the funds will remain in a Projected state.
      • Awarding logic was updated to ensure that funds stay awarded if the ISIR was previously Valid/Unverified (depending on the fund specific awarding status requirements).
      • Award Year selection logic will be updated in crossover scenarios for fund calculation to consider non Valid/Verified ISIRs.
      • When a pending, corrected, valid, or unverified ISIR has been included in a package and then updates to an invalid or inactive status, the resulting repackage will adjust the funds based on that ISIR no longer being selected for packaging.
      • When a pending or valid ISIR has been included in a package and subsequently updates to a corrected ISIR status, based on ISIR_Used_in_Packaging baseline configuration the package will continue to use that ISIR until a new ISIR is selected for packaging by the script.
    • Within the ISIR Data table on the Packaging UI, which currently shows the ISIR's being used for packaging.
      • Added a column between the Award Year and the Status that displays the ISIR CPS/FPS Tx.
      • The packaging page will only show the ISIR being used in that Academic Year's package.
  • Funding Award Year Selection and Status Logic Updates
    • General Title IV
      • If ISIR fields that are used in eligibility are not present, the student should not be eligible for Title IV.
    • Pell and IASG
      • If the ISIR fields that are used in eligibility are not there, the fund will not be eligible.
      • Updated Pell baseline configuration for Award Year crossover selection to do the following:
        • Choose the Award Year that has disbursed disbursements, else
          • Choose the first Award Year that has a ISIR returned from packaging inputs that has remaining eligibility
            • If Valid ISIR exists for earlier year and disbursements exist in earlier year, then select earlier year
            • else, if Valid ISIR exists for later year, and disbursements exist for later year, then select later year
            • else, if Valid ISIR exists in earlier year AND REMAINING ELIGIBILITY > $0 and no Valid ISIR exists in later year, select earlier year
            • else, if Valid ISIR exists in later year and no Valid ISIR exists in earlier year, select later year
            • else, use default alternative logic (the default alternative is our default logic utilized for Year Round Pell which evaluates the amount to be received in each award year for the payment period and selects the most award year).
      • Updated Awarding fund status logic
        • Fund will be Projected when the ISIR is not Valid or previously Valid.
        • Fund will be Awarded when the ISIR is Valid or was previously Valid (if meeting other awarding criteria).
    • TEACH
      • No updates were made to the TEACH calculation with this feature.
    • FSEOG
      • No updates were made to the FSEOG calculation with this story, as we do not project FSEOG currently.
    • Direct Loans
      • If the ISIR fields that are used in eligibility are not there, the fund will not be eligible.
      • Updated the Award Year crossover selection to:
        • Choose the Award Year that has disbursed disbursements or has an originated disbursement that is not canceled nor fully returned
        • else choose the first Award Year that has a ISIR returned from packaging inputs
      • Updated to Awarding fund status logic for Unsub, PLUS, and Grad PLUS 
        • Funds will be Projected when the ISIR is not Valid or Unverified or was previously Valid or Unverified
        • For the Award Year selected, the fund will be Awarded when the ISIR is Valid or Unverified or was previously Valid or Unverified (if meeting other awarding criteria).
      • Subsidized Loan Logic
        • Updated Awarding fund status logic:
          • Funds will be Projected when the ISIR is not Valid or previously Valid
          • Funds will be Awarded when the ISIR is Valid or was previously Valid (if meeting other awarding criteria)
        • Non Federal Funds
          • New ISIR binding can be selected when packaging NFF funds.
  • Origination and Disbursement Updates
    • SFA will continue to originate funds that are either estimated or awarded.
      • Funds that are Projected as they are using a Pending or Corrected ISIR that had never been Valid/Unverified, will not be originated.
      • Funds that are Awarded as they are using a Valid/Unverified (depending on a per fund requirement) or are Pending or Corrected ISIR that had been previously Valid/Unverified, will be originated with the ISIR CPS/FPS Tx used in packaging.
    • The system will continue to disburse funds only when the selected ISIR is Valid/Unverified (depending on a per fund requirement).
      • Each fund has a configurable criteria outlining the required ISIR status which will not be met for Pending or Corrected ISIR statuses.
    • The COD engine will use the ISIR being used by the package.
      • If an ISIR is no longer selected to be used by the package, the COD engine will use the data required from the ISIR from the previously accepted origination.
  • R2T4 Updates
    • If a term or program withdrawal is triggered and a valid ISIR had flipped to a corrected status, the R2T4 will NOT trigger until the new ISIR is received and progresses to a valid status

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Student Financial Aid

  • Download the 24B configuration from your Test environment(s) with the added ISIR_Used_in_Packaging configuration in the ISIR_MGMT.csv configuration workbook.
  • Review provided baseline configuration groovy script and make any updates required based on your business needs and review the updates to the Pell award year selection baseline groovy updates to determine if any updates are required on your side.
  • Review your Provisional Aid Offer to determine if any changes are needed before enabling this feature.
  • Upload updated configuration through SFPCC and test that ISIRs are packaging as expected.
  • Once testing is completed, upload your updated configuration to your Production environment.

Tips And Considerations

  • Since this feature is opt-in, if you leave the ISIR_Used_in_Packaging script for award year 23/24 and 24/25 empty, no functionality will change and we will only package on Valid or Unverified ISIRs.
  • Due to the uncertainty surrounding 24/25 ISIRs, you may want to look at restricting more ISIRs from packaging based on ED's known issues upon implementing this feature.

Key Resources