2026-27 Award Year Aid Eligibility Updates

Oracle Student Financial Aid has been enhanced to support the processing of ISIRs for the upcoming 2026–2027 award year. These updates enable your institution to receive and evaluate 2026–2027 ISIRs in accordance with the Department of Education’s published 2026–27 FAFSA Specifications Guide. Enhancements to Student Financial Aid now enable you to receive, process, and view updated files, with added support for comment codes, reject codes, verification requirements, discrepancy logic, and newly introduced FTI fields. With this release, you can also provide students with projected aid offers based on the latest eligibility information.

ISIR File Processing

With this feature, you will now be able to receive the following 2026–27 ISIR FPS files sent by the Department of Education when a student completes their FAFSA.

File Description
IDAP27OP Daily Electronic Application ISIRs: Processed ISIR (Institutional Student Information Record) sent to schools and agencies listed on a student’s FAFSA. These files are used by financial aid administrators to review processed FAFSA and correction information for students who listed their institution. The file contains the student's complete eligibility and application data and is used for packaging aid.
IDSA27OP Daily ISIRs (Automatic/Secondary): ISIRs issued to schools/agencies that didn't generate the underlying transaction but are included in the student’s application (for example, when another school submitted the transaction or when ED initiates changes). Used to ensure all interested parties are informed of changes in student records and required to monitor/compare to previous ISIRs for eligibility changes.
IGSG27OP FPS Pushed System-Generated ISIRs: Automatically distributed ISIR files created due to system-generated transactions (for example, new DHS or NSLDS match data, reprocessing). Used by schools to identify students whose eligibility or status changed after initial processing, requiring possible follow-up or updating of aid packages. Typically not initiated by school action, but by changes from a matching agency or internal federal system update.
IGSA27OP FPS Pushed ISIRs to Other Schools in Record: Similar to IGSG27OP, but specifically sent to schools that are listed on a transaction where a change (such as a correction made by another school, or eligibility change) might affect them. Used to notify all schools listed for that student about important changes, requiring a review of student records.

ISIR File Structure Updates

The following updates were made to the ISIR file structure:

  • Revised Field Names (fields 331, 332)
  • Modified Valid Content (fields 1, 8, 12, 13, 29, 130, 136, 164, 170, 220, 226, 254, 266, 272, 273, 274, 275, 555)
  • Fields Moved from Non-FTI to FTI
    The following fields have transitioned and are now designated as FTI fields:
    • Total Parent Allowances Against Income
    • Parent Payroll Tax Allowance
    • Parent Income Protection Allowance (IPA)
    • Parent Employment Expense Allowance (PEEA)
    • Parent Available Income (PAI)
    • Parent Adjusted Available Income (PAAI)
    • Parent Contribution (PC)
    • Student Payroll Tax Allowance
    • Student Income Protection Allowance (IPA)
    • Student Allowance for Parents' Negative Adjusted Available Income
    • Student Employment Expense Allowance (SEEA)
    • Total Student Allowances Against Student Income (StAI)
    • Student Available Income (stAI)
    • Student Contribution from Income (SCI)
    • Student Adjusted Available Income (SAAI)
    • Total Student Contribution from SAAI

FTI Data Enhancements

In order to support the fields moved from Non-FTI to FTI, the following updates were made:

  • New FTI fields are viewable in the Admin UI by users with the “FTI Viewer” permission.
  • FTI fields are now placed in their respective sections within the ISIR UI.
  • New enums were created for each new FTI field, and will be included in the Configuration Scripting documentation.
  • Configuration Groovy Scripting Impact
    • Prior year enums auto-map to the new FTI data.
    • For example the following enums can be used depending on the award year
      • 2025-26 = FPS_STUDENTAVAILABLEINCOME
      • 2026-27 = FTIMPROCESSING_STUDENTAVAILABLEINCOMESTAI_FTI
    • If you use the prior enum for the new Award Year, it will be mapped to pull the FTI data
      • Example
        • If you use the following method for 26/27 it will still return the new FTI value 
          • isirRecord.getField(IsirField.FPS_STUDENTAVAILABLEINCOME).get()
            • returns [string] "CUI//SP-TAX 500 CUI//SP-TAX
        • If you use the following method for 25/26 it will still return the mapped value for 25/26 and will not return an FTI field 
          • isirRecord.getField(IsirField.FTIMPROCESSING_STUDENTAVAILABLEINCOMESTAI_FTI).get()
            • returns [integer] 500
  • Reporting Impact
    • Custom reports using fields migrated to FTI must be updated to use the new field names.
      • No delivered Oracle product data models or reports require updates.
    • For reporting, new FTI fields can be displayed using:
      • select FASRPT.fasrpt_mv_util_pkg.format_fti('FTIMPROCESSING_STUDENTAVAILABLEINCOMESTAI_FTI', a.FTIMPROCESSING_STUDENTAVAILABLEINCOMESTAI_FTI) as Incomefrom FASRPT.isir_fields_all_v2_vw a;
        • Example output: CUI//SP-TAX 500

ISIR Corrections and Errors Processing

With this feature, you will now be able to send 2026–27 ISIR Correction FPS files to Department of Education when there is a correction that is needed to the student's ISIR, and you will be able to receive the resulting ISIR or any errors generated as a result.

   
CORR27IN Electronic Correction Data Submission: File created and sent by a school or agency to the FPS, containing corrections or updated data for students’ FAFSAs. This file follows strict formatting and is used by institutions to update a student’s FAFSA info, dependency, or financial changes electronically. It triggers recalculation of aid eligibility and generates new ISIRs if accepted.
IGCO27OP ISIRs Generated by Institutional Corrections: Daily message sent to schools and servicers that have submitted electronic corrections to student records. The ISIR contains the most up-to-date data after the correction and is imported by financial aid offices to update student files and repackage aid as needed.
CORE27OP Electronic Correction Error Reports: Error file created when a correction file (CORR27IN) submitted by a school contains one or more records that fail technical or business edits (for example, missing fields, data out of range). Used by technical/administrative staff to identify what records need correction and resubmission. Each error report lists the rejected records and the related error messages.
EAPR27OP Electronic Application Error Reports: Error report file generated when an application (FAFSA) data file sent by a school is rejected by the CPS for format, data, or edit errors (for example, invalid values, required field missing). Used internally by aid offices or IT to review why student applications didn’t process, so errors can be corrected and files resubmitted for successful processing.
SIG27OP Signature Record Error Reports: Error report for electronic signature files (used to resolve rejected transactions or signature holds). Sent when a signature record fails edits or doesn't match an outstanding transaction. Used to resolve issues related to missing or invalid applicant/parent signatures needed for FAFSA processing.

System Configuration for 2026–27 Student Aid Eligibility

You have the ability to configuration automation for evaluating and resolving comment codes, reject codes, verification requirements, discrepancy logic, and professional judgement for the new award year. 

  • Pre-populated system data will be set for ISIR regulatory dates, verification rules and tracking groups, and comment/SAR C-Codes for 2026-27 and can be adjusted as needed.
  • Delivered baseline configuration will align with Department of Education's specifications for the 2026-27 award year.

Packaging Aid Projections

2026-27 ISIR data can be used to package students and provide aid projections.

  • It is recommended to configure your institution’s Cost of Attendance (COA) and non-federal fund sources as soon as data is available for the most accurate results.
  • Title IV funding projections will continue from the 2025-26 configuration until further Department of Education specifications are published for the 2026-27 award year.

Business Benefit

This feature enables your institution to efficiently process financial aid applications and determine student eligibility for the 2026-27 ISIR Award Year, ensuring timely and accurate support for your students.

Here's the demo of these capabilities:

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

  • Review baseline configuration for ISIR processing and update your configuration workbooks as needed.
    • To get started with your new award year setup, begin by downloading your existing configuration from Oracle Student Financial Aid within Administration > Configuration Administration > Download.
    • This configuration will include the pre-populated system data relevant to the new year, which you can then update as needed.
    • Additionally, you can download the baseline configuration delivered through Cloud Customer Connect to use as a reference for making the required updates for the upcoming award year. The following workbooks were updated to support 2026-27 Student Aid Eligibility.
      • REGULATORY_DEADLINES
      • ISIR_MGMT
      • ISIR_C_CODES
      • ISIR_C_CODES_TO_FIELDS
      • ISIR_VERIFICATION_CODES
      • ISIR_REJECT_CODES
      • ISIR_REJECT_TO_C_CODES
      • ISIR_REJECT_CODES_TO_FIELDS
      • ISIR_DISCREP
      • ISIR_HIGHLIGHT
      • DOCUMENTS
      • DOCMETADATA
      • PJ
    • You may additionally want to update further configuration to support processing 2026-27 ISIRs or projecting aid such as COA, or NFR_ATTRIB depending on your institutional policies.
  • Within Administration > Security Management > Roles Management > Document Permissions, set up document permissions for any new documents configured this award year.
  • Within Administration > DOE File Management UI, enable award year–based file formats.
    • IDAP27OP, IDSA27OP, IGSG27OP, IGSA27OP, CORR27IN, IGCO27OP, CORE27OP, EAPR27OP, SIGA27OP
  • Test ISIR processing.
    • Conduct tests using the Department of Education’s (ED) published test Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) files to make sure the Oracle Student Financial Aid Cloud Service (SFA) processes ISIRs correctly for the new award year.
      • While testing, update the FAFSA Start Date, ISIR_Award_Year_Start_Date, ISIR_Correction_Start_Date, and ISIR_Verification_Start_Date dates within the REGULATORY_DEADLINE configuration workbook to be today's date to allow processing to occur.
      • In SFA, go to Administration > System Management > Load ISIRs. Upload test ISIR files and match your test student data to the data provided in the ISIR.
      • Verify that all data fields are imported, mapped correctly, and viewable based on user permissions.
      • Validate that ISIR matching logic, corrections, tasks, and document workflows function as expected according to your updated configuration workbooks.
  • Enable integration with SAIG in production if this is your first award year using SFA
    • Starting with the 2024–25 award year, ED requires two distinct mailboxes: one for standard files and another exclusively for files that contain Federal Tax Information (FTI). 
    • You need to make sure that both mailboxes are set up properly. For more information, see Set Up Your SAIG Mailbox in the Production Environment. It's during this setup that you'll also enable TDClient.

Tips And Considerations

  • Please review the Baseline Configuration updates to identify which product updates are applicable to your institution
  • Within your Regulatory Deadlines Configuration workbook, ensure that the FAFSA, ISIR Award Year, ISIR Correction, and ISIR Verification start dates align. 
    • If these dates are in the future, ISIRs will not progress through the Valid ISIR process.  For testing environments it may be necessary to adjust these dates.
    • If these dates are moved to a future date after processing has occurred previously Valid ISIRs will flip to "Inactive" so be sure to keep these dates static after processing has occurred. 

Key Resources

Access Requirements

  • The following permissions are need to enable this feature and process ISIRs in SFA
    • Enables users the ability to make yearly Aid Eligibility System updates 
      • Administration
      • Configuration Administration
      • DOE File Management 
      • TD Client and VUG
    • Enables users to administer and process financial aid
      • ISIR Review Task
      • ISIR Verification Task
      • Document Review Task
      • Document Requestor
      • Federal Tax Information (FTI) Viewer (optional)