FAFSA Management

You can configure FAFSA Management to control notifications to students about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) completion process.

Overview

To apply for Federal financial aid from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), students must complete the FAFSA. All required applications and documents must be completed and validated by the institution before a financial aid award can be made to the student. The FAFSA collects financial and other information used to calculate the student's Student Aid Index (SAI)/Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and to determine a student’s eligibility through computer matches with other agencies.

All data entered into the FAFSA is processed by ED's Central Processing System (CPS)/FAFSA Processing System (FPS) and other validating agencies that perform data matches and validations for each application to determine eligibility for Federal financial aid. These agencies include: Social Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Justice (DOJ), Selective Service, and Veterans Affairs. Once FAFSA data is processed by FPS/CPS and other agencies, output documents are created:

• Student Aid Report (SAR)//FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS), which is a student output version of the FAFSA response from FPS/CPS.
• Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), which is an output product for schools. It contains the student's SAI/EFC, FPS/CPS comments, assumptions, eligibility, and the applicant's Financial Aid History (FAH).

The FAFSA application processing cycle spans 18 months. For every award year, applications are accepted during a specific established period of time by ED.

Further information about FAFSA completion can be found in the "Application and Verification Guide" section of ED's Federal Student Aid Handbook.

What Student Financial Aid Does Automatically

Student Financial Aid automatically:

Determines when a FAFSA is required

For new students, the application (SFA) recognizes if the student needs to complete an award year FAFSA. For continuing students that have payment periods that fall into the next award year, the application determines if the student is required to complete a renewal FAFSA for the subsequent award year, too. When the student needs a new or renewal FAFSA, the application determines which award year FAFSA is required based on the funds the student is eligible to receive. The student is required to complete all FAFSAs for all open award years, based on his enrollment period.

The enrollment period for students is determined in one of the following three ways:

1. The application assumes the program length is one year from the start date of the program. This method is used when the primary program or end date of the program is unknown.
2. The application uses the actual program length if the primary program and the start/end dates are known.
3. For continuing students, when a student has a payment period that falls into a new award year without an ISIR on file, the application classifies the student as requiring a renewal FAFSA.

Example:

• Start Date is 05/01/2022.

  • Start date falls between 07/01/2022 and 06/30/2023.

• End Date is 5/01/2023

  • End date is based on the assumption that the program length will be 1 year.

  • End date falls between 07/01/2022 and 06/30/2023.

The student is required to complete the following FAFSAs because the student’s enrollment period crosses over both award years:

• 2021-2022
• 2022-2023

In the application's UIs, the award year is displayed in a 4 digit format; for example, 2022-2023 is displayed as 2023.

Determines when a FAFSA is no longer required

Received ISIRs are automatically matched to a student record and displayed for you in the application UI. If multiple award year ISIRs are received, they are displayed in order by FPS/CPS ISIR Transaction Number. After the ISIR is matched to the student record, the application requests other borrower information like Master Promissory Notes, PLUS Applications, and Entrance Counseling based on the your business process.

Creates FAFSA required / FAFSA no longer required Student History Entries

When a student is required to complete a FAFSA application (new or renewal), the application creates a student history entry in the "FAFSA" category. You can view student history entries in the Student History/Comments UI.

Sends Student Notifications to communicate FAFSA completion requirements

FAFSA Required

When a student is required to complete a FAFSA, the application creates a student notification via Student Self-Service to complete the specific award year FAFSA.

If a FAFSA is required, the notification is displayed in the "Open" list on the Student Notifications page in the FAS UI.

FAFSA is No Longer Needed

When the student's ISIR for an associated award year is received or the configured FAFSA completion period for the award year has passed, the application creates a student notification via Student Self-Service that the requested FAFSA is no longer needed. In the Student Notifications screen, the FAFSA required notification status is updated from open to closed.

The Notification Type and Message do not change upon receipt of the ISIR, only the Status. You can opt to view open, closed, or all notifications.

Configurable Attributes

The application is delivered with FAFSA Management logic. Using this delivered logic, the only configurable option is FAFSA Completion Period. This delivered logic doesn't automatically close FAFSA Completion Request notifications.

Alternatively, you can choose to configure FAFSA Management using the Trigger Configuration Workbook. This offers the option to define how to create and close FAFSA completions requests using groovy scripts, define FAFSA Completion notification messages used in Student Self-Serve, and so on. The Baseline Configuration is delivered with a completed Trigger Configuration Workbook for FAFSA Management and can be modified to meet your business needs.

FAFSA Completion Period

Both the delivered FAFSA Management logic and configured FAFSA Management option using the Trigger Configuration Workbook use the separately-configured FAFSA Completion Period. The FAFSA Completion Period can be figured using the Regulatory Management page in the FAS UI or the Regulatory Deadlines Configuration Workbook.

The FAFSA processing cycle lasts 18 months for every award year; for example, January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. The FAFSA completion period start and end dates define when the FAFSA application must be completed and sent to the FPS/CPS by award year. You can configure the completion period to be less than the ED 18 month cycle. However, if you don't,the application configures the completion period using ED published guidelines for the award year.

All FAFSA messaging is based upon the configured FAFSA completion period for the award year and the student's enrollment period.

Navigation to Student Notifications in FAS

Query a student and navigate to Student Financial Aid User Interface > Student > Student Record > Student Notifications

You can filter the Student Notifications based on the Student Notification Status (for example, Open, Closed, All). On the Student Notification screen, the user will select the desired option from a drop-down menu.

Navigation to Student Notifications in Student Self-Service

Query a student and navigate to Student Self-Service User Interface > Notifications.