Functional Statements > Federal Student Aid

B. Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services

Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services (ASEDS) is responsible for providing best in business service to aid recipients and schools. To accomplish this mission, the FSA Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services has four principal components:

• Student Aid Awareness and Applicant Services Channel
• School Services and Training Channel
• Program Operations Channel
• School Eligibility Channel

In addition, the ASEDS front office manages the integration of all FSA business process re-engineering and systems implementations. This integration entails working with project teams for the specific initiatives to ensure solutions are developed and deployed in alignment with the FSA's defined business architecture and in support of enterprise business objectives. Additional integration activities include: developing and maintaining the enterprise vision, sequencing plan, and related artifacts; coordinating and tracking integration activities, and facilitating communication across project teams.

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Student Aid Awareness and Applicant Services Channel

The Student Aid Awareness and Applicant Services Channel acts as the entry point to the student aid life-cycle by delivering integrated awareness and application products and services that are driven by the needs of millions of students, potential applicants and their families. The organization's primary role is to ensure that students and their families are aware of, have access to, and have applied for post secondary financial assistance. To accomplish this mission, the Student Aid Awareness and Applicant Services Channel is divided into the following divisions:

• Awareness and Outreach
• Applicant Products and Customer Services

Awareness and Outreach Division

• Provides information and guidance to assist students in planning for a postsecondary education.
• Targets segments of the population who are traditionally underrepresented in postsecondary education (both students and families) for Student Aid Awareness through partnerships and outreach.
• Develops and implements strategies to increase early aid awareness.
• Conducts awareness and outreach campaigns using mass media.
• Manages the content of and access to Student Aid on the Web and Counselor's website.
• Establishes and manages partnerships with organizations that share concerns about access to student financial aid.
• Facilitates and manages networks within the awareness and outreach community (e.g. National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, Guaranty Agencies).
• Develops and delivers training for high school guidance counselors on student awareness and outreach products.
• Manages the design, development, translation, production (including printing) and fulfillment of financial aid publications (content development resides in the program areas).
• Collects and analyzes customer data for use in improving awareness and outreach products and services.

Applicant Products and Customer Services

• Continually reviews and improves aid application products (e.g. Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), FAFSA on the Web) to ensure materials are easy to use and student centric.
• Responds to customer inquiries and requests using appropriate interaction channels at the Federal Student Aid Information contact center (FSAIC).
• Collects and analyzes customer data for use in improving applicant products and services and better understanding trends.
• Collects and analyzes customer data for use in improving applicant products and services and better understanding trends.
• Maintains customer demographic and contact histories.
• Ensures that system generated outputs (e.g., Personal Identification Number (PIN) mailer, Student Aid Report (SAR)) are student-centric.
• Develops tools for and delivers training to high school guidance counselors on student applicant products developed by this organization.
• Educates FSA staff on student applicant products developed by this organization.

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School Services and Training Channel

The School Services and Training Channel has primary responsibility for providing best in business services to schools. To ensure best in business service is provided to schools, the Channel will leverage the data collected from its interactions with schools to participate in and support the requirements definition for the integration, implementation or enhancement of systems that are used by schools. To accomplish this mission, the School Services and Training Channel is divided into the following divisions:

• Training and Information Services
• School Outreach

In addition, in conjunction with ED offices as appropriate, the School Services and Training Channel proactively identifies the unique service needs of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Speaking Institutions, and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities and provides the assistance required to ensure their continued participation in any Title IV programs.

Training and Information Services

Within the School Services and Training Channel, the Training and Information Services Division is responsible for designing, developing, and delivering high quality learning products, publications and web products targeted to FSA's school partners, and, as appropriate, Department of Education and operating staff. The Division also is responsible for interfacing with school partners to respond to inquiries and requests for information. To accomplish this mission, the Training and Information Services Division provides the following services:

• Develops training priorities that reflect FSA's strategic goals and ensures that training products and services are aligned with these goals.
• Gathers and analyzes feedback from customers regarding satisfaction with learning products delivered.
• Ensures alignment of ASEDS presentation topics at state and regional conferences to the training goals.
• Manages requests and recommends ASEDS staff to present at state and regional conferences.
• Works with FSA components and school partners to identify and analyze partner-learning needs and to develop and deliver training to meet these needs.
• Provides FSA with standardized processes and tools for the effective design and development of training.
• Designs, develops, and delivers Title IV program training to school partners for national training programs and to internal FSA staff.
• Coordinates the design, and development of learning products for school partners.
• Ensures Title IV program training opportunities are available to internal staff.
• Manages school partner training logistics; including registration system management, certificate preparation, training supplies, and securing training spaces.
• Manages the review, edit, and approval process for all paper-based and electronic school publications.
• Manages systems development and maintenance of various FSA websites and services.
• Manages the development, review, edit, approval, and posting process of all content for standalone websites for schools.
• Partners with Customer Service Call Center to respond to questions from website users.
• Ensures a consistent look and feel across the websites for schools; gathers, analyzes, and recommends changes and enhancements to the website functionality based on customer feedback.
• Operates a toll-free technical inquiry line for financial aid professionals.

School Outreach Division

Within the School Services and Training Channel, the School Outreach Division is responsible for providing best in business service and product support to schools and partners. The Division also supports special initiatives with school partners, develops and manages the Quality Assurance Program and the Experimental Sites Program, and coordinates default management and prevention activities. To accomplish its mission, the School Outreach Division:

• Develops tools and guidelines to assist schools and FSA staff to assess, attain, or improve compliance with Title IV Program requirements.
• Develops, implements, and monitors innovative performance-based approaches in student aid delivery, such as the Quality Assurance Program and the Experimental Sites initiatives.
• Collects and shares effective practices to help schools benefit from the success of others.
• Creates, and aligns community and enterprise-wide, default prevention strategies to meet the Department of Education performance goals.
• Provides assistance to schools in developing a plan to improve default management, including site visits, development of tools, and outreach activities.
• Develops and presents guidance to the community on cohort default rates and appeals.
• Calculates and publishes annual cohort default rates, processes appeals and challenges, and initiates administrative actions as required.
• Serves as a liaison between FSA and stakeholders of proprietary postsecondary education (including members of the financial aid community).
• Provides technical assistance and resource management support for proprietary schools to ensure compliance with Title IV programs.
• Conducts or manages complex studies of new proposed legislation and regulations to determine impact on the proprietary school program.
• Orients and monitors the status of new schools to the Direct Loan (DL) Program.
• Improves operational and technical interfaces between Direct Loan schools and FSA.
• Serves as a liaison between FSA and the current Direct Loan Coalition or any other school organization that focuses on the DL Program.

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Program Operations Channel

The Program Operations Channel is responsible for managing the operations and information technology systems that deliver Title IV aid to students and schools.

• Campus-Based Systems and Operations
• Direct Loan Program Operations
• Pell Program Operations
• Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System
• Application Processing

In addition to the proposed divisions, the Program Operations Channel provides program analysis and coordination, including the following:

• Measures, analyzes, and validates system metrics.
• Serves as a cross-program interface with FSA Chief Financial Officer for financial reconciliation and annual audit requirements.
• Develops common reports and evaluations to be shared at an enterprise level.
• Monitors school compliance with reconciling unprocessed deobligations related to their Pell Grant and Campus Based Accounts in the Grant and Administrative Payment System (GAPS).
• Serves as FSA business liaison with third-party software developers.
• Provides business direction for Common Record and Extensible Markup Language (XML) Repository in conjunction with Postsecondary Education Standards Committee.
• Manages FSA trading partner access and data services enrollment functions.

Campus-Based Systems and Operations Division

The Campus-Based Operations Division is responsible for managing and accounting for Campus-Based program funds (Perkins Loans, Federal Work-Study, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants) within Federal accounting standards, as well as program regulation/laws, with accurate and timely delivery of Campus-Based funds to institutions. Under the Campus-Based programs, schools annually submit a FISAP (fiscal operations report for the previous year and application for the coming year). To accomplish its mission, the Campus Based Systems and Operations Division:

• Manages, allocates, and accurately delivers Campus-Based program funds (Perkins Loans, Federal Work-Study, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants) to institutions in a timely manner within federal accounting standards and program regulation laws and regulations.
• Manages the FISAP (fiscal operations report for the previous year and application for the coming year) software and processing of FISAP data.
• Places final Campus-Based award funds in the Grant Administration and Payment System (GAPs), and closes out awards in GAPs.
• Acts on requests for waivers from program requirements.
• Coordinates the Default Reduction Assistance Program.
• Manages a skip-tracing program for Perkins Loans.
• Manages liquidation of Perkins Loan Fund.
• Manages the eCampus -Based system and call center.



Direct Loan Program Operations Division

The Direct Loan Program Operations Division is responsible for providing program management oversight and performing Direct Loan Program coordination functions. To accomplish this mission, Direct Loan Program Operations Division:

• Ensures schools in the Direct Loan Program receive the appropriate amount of funding in a timely manner.
• Monitors Direct Loan schools' compliance with student-level reporting requirements, cash management principles, school reconciliation and closeout.
• Works with Grant Administration and Payment System (GAPs) and FSA Financial Management Service (FMS) staff to implement correct interface processes and procedures, to support reconciliation of Direct Loan program funds among financial management systems and at schools, and to collect Direct Loan funds from schools from prior years.
• Develops business rules and procedures for the administration of the Direct Loan Program at FSA.
• Develops system requirements for the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system.
• Analyzes proposed and pending policies and regulations for systems and operational impacts, and assists in identifying systems requirements.
• Develops communications to schools about operational matters.
• Resolves Grants Administration and Payment System (GAPS) feeder system error file.



Pell Program Operations Division

The Pell Program Operations Division provides leadership to the financial aid community concerning Pell Grant Financial operations. To accomplish this mission, the Pell Program Operations Division:

• Approves Pell Grant Funding adjustments for current year and prior years.
• Maintains the Pell Grants funds control and monitors the status of funds in the Department of Education Central Automated Processing System (EDCAPS) general ledger and the Pell Grant system.
• Coordinates with Department of Education Budget Services for budget execution activities including new award year set-up and initial authorization of funding to schools; requesting allotments; maintaining funds control; end of year closeout.
• Monitors schools' compliance with student-level reporting requirements for Pell Grants and cash management principles.
• Leads school reconciliation of Pell program funds among financial management systems, assists ED and FSA CFOs in collecting Pell Grant funds from schools, and resolves issues from prior years.
• Grants administrative relief to schools for processing increases in Pell Grant awards after the September 30 deadline.
• Develops business rules and procedures for the administration of the Pell program at FSA.
• Analyzes proposed and pending policies and regulations for systems and operational impacts, and assists in identifying systems requirements.
• Develops communications to schools about operational matters.
• Resolves Grants Administration and Payment System (GAPS) feeder system error file.
• Develops system requirements to the Common Origination and Disbursement system.



Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) Systems Division

The mission of the COD Systems Division is to design, implement, and operate an integrated system and customer service to support the origination, disbursement and reconciliation of Direct Loans and Pell Grants with eligible institutions. To support this mission, the COD Systems Division is organized in the following branches:

• COD Systems Development
• COD Systems Operations

COD Systems Development Branch

• Develops system and operations support requirements.
• Validates systems design.
• Resolves data discrepancies with interfacing systems (e.g., Central Processing System (CPS), Direct Loan Servicing System (DLSS), Financial Management System (FMS), and the EDExpress application that is used to submit data to CPS.)
• Tests system output and procedures for correctness and adherence to requirements.
• Develops and issues technical references to reflect proposed or pending policies and regulations to ensure consistency and clarity.
• Works with software developers, vendors, and schools to develop software products that are compatible with COD.
• Maintains system functionality to support program reconciliation and closeout.

COD Systems Operation Branch:

• Oversees system production processing.
• Oversees system communication, training and outreach.
• Manages system security requirements.
• Performs contract and interagency agreement administration and monitoring.
• Conducts user feedback sessions with institutions and internal users to determine areas for improvement.
• Oversees COD Help Desk.



Application Processing Division

The Application Processing Division is responsible for collecting and managing aid application information, verifying this information, and creating aid reports and packages for schools and students. To accomplish this mission, the Application Processing Division:

• Manages the implementation of application processing system product lifecycles, such as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on the Web, paper FAFSA, School Interface software (including all modules of EDExpress), Personal Identification Number (PIN) Site, FSA Download, Data Mart, and video conferencing.
• Manages system security requirements and processes (including disaster recovery and configuration management) to protect system assets and resources.
• Performs data management and data quality assurance.
• Performs reconciliation activities, and operational matches including matches with external agencies.
• Performs acceptance testing on all products.
• Manages imaging and data capture processes.
• Provides short term and long-term support and leadership for the development and maintenance of internet, mainframe, and PC platforms.
• Receives and tracks customer requirements from other functional areas related to application processing.
• Manages external access to system.
• Develops and executes technical training and internal communications programs.
• Develops and disseminates information for public distribution, including Federal Registers and System of Record Notices.
• Performs archive and record retrieval.
• Reviews and analyzes customer feedback to ensure technical inquiries and requests for information are met appropriately for all Application Processing supported systems.
• Processes reports for internal and external customers at an aggregate level on system data.
• Performs analysis and generation of Management Information System (MIS) reports.

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School Eligibility Channel

The School Eligibility Channel (SEC) is responsible for providing integrated oversight and management improvement services to institutions receiving student financial assistance program funds, in accordance with policies and procedures established by the Performance Improvement and Procedures Branch. To accomplish this mission, the School Eligibility Channel is divided into the following divisions:

• School Participation Management Division (Northeast, South-Central, Northwest, and Performance Improvement and Procedures (PIP))
• Integrated Partner Management (IPM) Division
• Administrative Actions and Appeals

School Participation Management Division

The School Participation Management Division is responsible for providing integrated oversight and management improvement services to institutions receiving student financial assistance program funds. In performing its responsibilities, the School Participation Management Division is organized into three teams and one branch. The following three teams all perform the same functions:

• School Participation Team - Northeast
• School Participation Team - South-Central
• School Participation Team - Northwest



The three School Participation Teams all perform the following functions:

• Develops, plans, and implements a nationwide program for monitoring and improving institutional compliance with legislation and regulations.
• Consistently monitors schools and their agents through on-site and off-site reviews and analysis of various reports to provide early warning of program compliance problems.
• Conducts analyses and approves institutional applications for Federal Student Aid program funding of all schools seeking initial or renewal certification.
• Processes and maintains schools' Program Participation Agreements, and notices of eligibility for institutions to participate in various Federal Student Aid programs.
• Recommends appropriate actions e.g., methods of funding (reimbursement, heightened cash monitoring, etc.), emergency actions, and limitation, suspension, termination, or fine actions.
• Reviews, maintains, and updates pertinent institutional and student data in various databases.
• Directs all functions related to certification determinations for foreign institutions of higher education including financial analysis, compliance audit analysis/resolution, program reviews, and training.
• Identifies closed, bankrupt, and troubled schools and notifies appropriate Department of Education offices.
• Resolves student loan discharge problems.
• Works with state agencies and accrediting agencies on closed schools and other issues.
• Identifies institutional performance bonds and tuition recovery programs and coordinates these activities.
• Works with State agencies to identify discharged loans for students who are also eligible to receive tuition reimbursements from State bonds or tuition recovery programs.



Each of the three School Participation Teams, are further organized into the following teams which include regional and/or headquarters locations:

School Participation Teams - Northeast

• New York /Boston Team
• Philadelphia Team
• Foreign Schools Team



School Participation Teams - South-Central

• Atlanta Team
• Kansas City Team
• Dallas Team



School Participation Teams - Northwest

• Chicago Team
• Denver Team
• San Francisco/Seattle Team



Performance Improvement and Procedures Branch

• Develops, disseminates, reviews, and evaluates operational policies, procedures and guidelines for the school participation management process.
• Serves as a liaison to FSA's policy organization to provide recommendations for policy development and communicates policy decisions back to the SEC organization.
• In partnership with FSA's policy organization, represents SEC when addressing regulatory and statutory changes with Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE).
• Performs quality control evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the School Eligibility Channel's (SEC) operations.
• Provides on-going training to SEC staff on system enhancements to ensure consistent application of policies and procedures for all institutions participating in the FSA programs.
• Reviews and coordinates the SEC review of Title IV programmatic publications for consistency with established procedures (e.g. FSA Handbook, Audit Guide, FSA Coach, Blue Book).
• Provides on going training to SEC staff on system enhancements to ensure consistent application of policies and procedures for all institutions participating in the FSA programs. The training and communication effort must be coordinated with the Integrated Partner Management (IPM) Division and other SEC organizations.
• Provides direct support to SEC in the resolution of difficult school cases.



Integrated Partner Management (IPM) Division

The Integrated Partner Management (IPM) Division is primarily responsible for managing the systems and operations used for determining eligibility and monitoring the performance of schools that participate in the Title IV programs. To perform its responsibilities, the IPM Division is organized in the following branches:

• IPM Operational Support Branch
• IPM Technical Management Branch

IPM Operational Support Branch:

• Provides system support for application and oversight tools (e.g. the Electronic Application for Approval to Participate in Federal Student Financial Aid (eAPP), eZ-Audit for submission of financial statements and compliance audits through the web, Postsecondary Education Participants System (PEPS), Case Management Oversight (CMO) Net).
• Serves as liaison to business owners to understand all business requirements.
• Manages requests for workflow management.
• Provides system change management support to ensure accurate and timely system updates.
• Performs data management and data quality assurance.
• Manages and supports the risk model which evaluates school data to determine the probability that Title IV funds are at risk.
• Provides reports and data to internal and external customers as required.

IPM Technical Management Branch:

• Oversees lifecycle of the Routing Identifier (RID).
• Manages security processes to protect system assets and resources.
• Serve as Virtual Data Center (VDC) liaison for eAPP and eZ-Audit applications and PEPS system.
• Performs data reconciliation activities.
• Provides training to system users from other FSA service areas and financial partners.
• Develops, maintains and supports ancillary services infrastructure (e.g. imaging, workflow).
• Performs database administration.



Administrative Actions and Appeals Division

The Administrative Actions and Appeals Division administers the Secretary's authority to fine, limit, suspend, terminate and take emergency actions against postsecondary educational institutions, which participate in the FSA programs. In performing its responsibilities the Administrative Actions and Appeals Division:

• Resolves and coordinates appeals by institutions from final audit and final program review determinations.
• Develops and initiates Emergency/Termination/Limitation/Suspension/Fine actions and assists in settlement negotiations with the Department of Education Office of the General Counsel.
• Participates in the development /drafting of revocations and most recertification denials and coordinates reconsideration appeals.
• Initiates debarments and suspensions.
• Issues "Warning Letters" to schools for non-reporting violations prior to imposing sanctions.
• Participates in Model Case Enforcement (i.e. conducts on-site reviews with case management teams).
• Acts as advisory to the school participation management teams on administrative actions.

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