V4 and V5 Verification Updates for 2025-26 Award Year 

On June 6th, the Department of Education issued an Electronic Announcement updating the verification requirements for students selected for V4 and V5 verification (Found Here). As part of this update, approximately 125,000 students will be selected for verification over the next several months. Notably, the requirement to obtain a Statement of Educational Purpose for students selected for V4 or V5 verification has been eliminated. However, verification of a student's identification remains a requirement, and while an electronic copy of identification is still necessary, it must be supplemented by in-person verification, third party verification or a conference call with the student to confirm their identity.

In order to meet the Department’s requirements, the follow updates were made within the configuration and reporting approaches,

Baseline Configuration:

  • Elimination of the "Statement of Educational Purpose" request
  • Continued request for identification verification, with all students being routed to a task queue for manual verification by a user.
  • New "Identity Verification Method” document with an “Identity Confirmation Type” metadata was created to capture the verification method that was used for students where V4/V5 verification was completed after June 6th.

Reporting Updates:

Verification Results Report

  • For students who had Verification completed prior to June 6th, the report requirements remain unchanged
  • For ISIRs received on or after June 6th that were selected for Verification, the report will check to see if the new Identity Verification Method Document was received.
    • If doc metadata displays In-Person, report will reflect a 1
    • If doc metadata displays Conference Call, report will reflect a 2
    • If doc metadata displays Third Party Verification, report will reflect a 2
  • Else, set Value to 5 (No Response or Incomplete)

This feature allows the product to remain in sync with the Department of Education's June 6th Updates for V4 and V5 Verification

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 Baseline Configuration Release Extract from the Cloud Customer Connect release post
  • Review the updates to baseline configuration related to this feature
    • DOCUMENTS.csv
      •  Identity Verification Method document has been added for 25/26 Award Years
    • DOCMETADATA.csv
      • Ability to determine if In-Person, Conference Call, or Third Party verification was used
    • ISIR_VERIFICATION_CODES.csv
      • Groovy
        • ISIR > Verification > 2026 > 298 and 299 > Aggregate > AutoCodeClearing.groovy
          • Copy of the 2025 groovy, however all criteria was updated to return false
          • Removed all references to SOEP Document
        • ISIR > Verification > 2026 > 298 and 299 > Aggregate > DocumentsRequired.groovy
          • Commented out all requests for SOEP document
        • ISIR > Verification > 2026 > 298 > Custom > AutoCodeClearing.groovy
          • Copy of the 2023 custom groovy, however all criteria was updated to return false
          • Commented out all references to SOEP Document
  • Make Updates to your DOCUMENTS and DOCMETADATA workbooks
  • Make Updates to your ISIR Verification groovy scripts for:
    • Add 2026 Aggregate AutoCodeClearing for 298 and 299
    • Update 2026 Aggregate Document Required for 298 and 299
    • Add 2026 Custom AutoCodeClearing for 298
  • If you have customized your Verification Results Report, please review our product report and update as necessary

Tips And Considerations

Review Updates to V4 and V5 Verification posted on Cloud Customer Connect

Key Resources