SSACI Processing Guide

1. SSACI Processing Guide ISFAA Winter Conference 2009 December 7, 2009

2. Agenda • SSACI processing rules as they pertain to: • Edits • Change of College Choice • Professional Judgments

3. Edits

4. Edits • During the first week in February, SSACI begins daily downloads from the CPS of FAFSA transactions for students who list Indiana (IN) as their state of residence • Those students who have edits on their FAFSA will be placed into Edit status with SSACI (APED), and related edit codes will be placed on their record • If the student does not list Indiana, SSACI will not receive their FAFSA

5. SSACI Edits (24 total edits) These edits are in three categories: Non-Correctable (NC), Correctable by Student (CS) and Correctable by the College (CC) • (CS, CC) 00 – Important; Please read (Student has 5 or more edits) • (NC) 01 - Late application/FAFSA received after March 10 deadline • (CS, CC) 02 - Not an Indiana resident; Independent student or parent(s) of a dependent student • (CS) 03 - Not a first-time undergraduate** • (NC) 04 - Four (4) years of SSACI aid already used • (CS, CC) 05 - FAFSA is incomplete/PC and or/EFC cannot be calculated • (CS,CC) 06 - FAFSA birth date is invalid or incorrect • (CS, CC) 08 - High School diploma/GED not received before college enrollment • (CS,CC) 11 - Not a U.S. Citizen, registered alien or eligible non-citizen • (CS, CC) 12 - No schools listed on the FAFSA • (CS, CC) 13 - Only SSACI ineligible schools listed on the FAFSA • (CS, CC) 14 - FAFSA or SAR not signed by student • (NC) 16 - 21st Century Scholar drug-free pledge violation ** SSACI looks at 8 data elements to determine is student is not a first-time undergraduate

6. SSACI Edits (continued) • (CS, CC) 17 - Default on federal student loan or overpayment • (CC) 18 - Professional judgment: Dependency status change • (CC) 19 - Professional judgment: PC/EFC change • (CS, CC) 20 - Social Security Administration could not validate SSN/date of birth/name • (CS, CC) 21 - Not eligible for award at Contract for Space school due to home location • (CS, CC) 22 - Mailing address is not IN • (CS, CC) 23 - Missing/invalid parent SSN • (NC) 24 - 21st Century Scholar failure to fulfill filing or matriculation requirements • (CS, CC) 25 - FAFSA or SAR not signed by parent • (CS) 26 - Edit 05 cause might be missing parent data: Special Circumstances Flag = 1 • (CS, CC) 27 - Edits were cleared after the edit correction deadline

7. Change of College Choice

8. Change of College Choice • SSACI calculates a student’s award at the first SSACI-eligible college choice on the FAFSA • For students filing electronically: • SSACI will load the first six (6) SSACI-eligible colleges • If your school is 7-10, you will not be able to view the student via eStudent • Students will need to move you up into their top six choices • For students filing a paper FAFSA • SSACI will load the first four (4) SSACI-eligible colleges, • Students will need to update their SAR

9. College of Choice Change • Changes of college choice may be impacted by certain factors: • Who the change was made by: • School • SSACI • Student • What the change was for: • Professional Judgment • When the change is received at SSACI: • eStudent vs. CPS • Where/How the change occurred: • CPS • eStudent • GRADS (SSACI Internal Database)

10. Change of College Choice • (1) A school that submits a transaction for a student that contains a PJ or Dependency Override will become the “current” institution for the student

11. Change of College Choice • (2) If a school submits a CPS transaction which does not contain a PJ or Dependency Override SSACI will make their institution the "current institution" for the student unless the preceding school change was: • submitted by the student via eStudent; or • made by a SSACI staff member

12. Change of College Choice • (3) If a school is the "current institution" for the student as a result of one of the preceding actions, the following will not change their "current institution" status: • a subsequent CPS transaction submitted by student or CPS but the following will change a student’s "current institution" status: • subsequent CPS transaction submitted by a different school; • school change submitted via eStudent (by either student or any school); or • Any school change made by a SSACI staff member

13. Change of College Choice

14. Professional Judgment

15. Coding Professional Judgments • Professional Judgments (PJs) for extenuating family circumstances are identified by colleges on the FAFSA by marking the appropriate box in the software submitting to the CPS. SSACI receives the information indicating the college has created a PJ for the student. • If the college mistakenly does not mark the box or mistakenly does not adjust the FAFSA data as they intended, an award calculation could take place on a transaction the college did not intend for SSACI to use. Therefore, the college must then take additional steps, resulting in time delays, to set back with the CPS the FAFSA to its original state and start the PJ process anew.

16. Coding Professional Judgments • Once SSACI receives the data from the CPS on the PJ, the student’s FAFSA file is coded as SSACI Edit 18 or 19. The student can receive an award offer. However, SSACI does not take all PJs into consideration when calculating eligibility for state grant funding (state grant funding dollars are more limited in comparison to federal dollars available). Therefore, SSACI places the student’s file with Edit codes 18 or 19 in a “WAIT” status and an additional step* must be conducted by the college before the student’s award may be claimed during the reconciliation phase of the state grant awarding process. *Additional step: The college supplies a response code to SSACI identifying if the PJ is one SSACI will or will not accept so the correct calculation for the state grant will be made.

17. Not Acceptable PJ ReasonResponse Code 99 • Marriage, Divorce or Separation after filing the FAFSA • Increase in dependents or additional family members occurring after FAFSA is filed • Changes in employment during base year or current year • Changes in business and/or farm value, or assets after filing the FAFSA • Decrease or Increase of income after filing the FAFSA • Cost of private grade school, middle school, or high school • Windfall income due to early retirement, severance or bonus pay • Costs associated with elective home improvement • Cost for elective medical procedures • Please Note: Necessary corrections are not considered PJs and therefore should be made with the CPS and do not need SSACI approval (e.g. Parents are separated or divorced at the time of FAFSA completion but may have filed a joint tax return and therefore originally supplied FAFSA information for both parents may be adjusted without needing additional clearance through SSACI)

18. Edit 18 Dependency Override Acceptable for SSACI 01-Irreparable breakdown of the family 02-Death of sole supporting parent 03-Other, unique circumstances previously Not Acceptable for SSACI 99-Does not qualify for dependency override for SSACI purposes Edit 19 PC/EFC change Acceptable for SSACI 51-Medical/Dental expenses that are in excess of amounts that can be deducted from income 52-Death of a parent 53-Uninsured expenses resulting from loss or damage to home or car 54-Insurance payments received from loss or damage to home or car 55-Other, unique circumstances previously discussed with SSACI 56-Parents, verifiably in college Not Acceptable for SSACI 99-Does not qualify for PC/EFC override for SSACI purposes Professional Judgment Codes

19. Two Methods of Coding PJs to SSACI • xGrads (Since two academic years overlap beginning in the second semester each year, and xGrads was not designed to allow two years’ worth of PJs to be resolved, xGrads does not make the more recent year PJ students available to be resolved until after state awards begin to be produced by SSACI for the recent year) • Uploading an electronic file to SSACI to clear the PJ

20. Professional Judgment Action via xGrads

21. Professional Judgment Action Via Uploading a File

22. Professional Judgment • Multiple PJs • When situations occur that warrant multiple PJs, one which SSACI will accept, and one that SSACI will not • Process the PJ for the SSACI ACCEPTABLE reason first; • Next, process the PJ for the NON-ACCEPTABLE reason

23. Family Situation The family of a dependent student has dental expenses in excess of what can be deducted from income………. ……..but the student’s father has lost employment in the current year. Steps a college must take Process a transaction to the CPS with a PJ flag for the dental expenses Once the student’s file arrives at SSACI, clear the WAIT status by coding the PJ reason as 51 Next, process a transaction to the CPS with a PJ flag for the loss of employment Again, once the transaction arrives at SSACI, the student’s file will be placed into WAIT status Code the PJ reason for this transaction as 99 As an example…….

24. Utilizing Specific Transactions for PJs • Many times, a school wishes to use PC/EFC from a transaction that differs from the one SSACI is using to calculate an award • In this situation, the school will need to recreate and submit a transaction to the CPS that mirrors the information that existed in the transaction they wish to be applied for calculating the student’s award

25. PJs Initiated by Another School • PJs that are setup by one school will be inactivated with SSACI if the student’s first college choice changes to a new school • If the new school wishes to conduct professional judgment on the student, they will need to flag and submit a transaction as a PJ, then code appropriately with SSACI

26. PJs initiated by another school • Transactions coming from a school that are flagged as a PJ will make that school the student’s #1 college choice with SSACI