Release Notes: Item 1111-02

2012-2013 Regulatory Release (Source Code Changes, with User Guide updates)

This is the second of two release items which comprise the 2012-13 Regulatory release. This item contains code modifications for 2012-13 Federal processing: ADD Load processing, FM calculations, federal corrections and COD reporting. Item 1111-01 contains the 2012-13 file changes.

Modifications to address any further federal announcements will be issued as needed. While the basic changes in support of COD XML schema 3.0e have been made in FINANCIER, publication of the 2012-13 COD Technical Reference manual in November should further clarify new functionality, which could result in additional modifications to the Federal Grant or Direct Loan reporting programs. Discussion with clients, particularly concerning functionality related to new Verification requirements, may also result in some changes. Comment codes will be updated when the "SAR/ISIR Comment Codes and Text" manual is published. FISAP revisions will be released when final specifications become available, usually the following July.

New fields on the ISIR record (WF-ISIR-1213) include:

• Parent Asset Threshold Exceeded (WF-IS-C-ATHRSH-PAR) and Student Asset Threshold Exceeded (WF-IS-C-ATHRSH-STU), with values Y (exceeded) and blank (not exceeded)
• Assumed Parent Asset Threshold Exceeded (WF-IS-CAP-ATHRSH) and Assumed Student Asset Threshold Exceeded (WF-IS-CAS-ATHRSH), with values Y (exceeded) and blank (not exceeded)
• Reject 21 Override (WF-IS-F-REJ21-OVR) - Student’s corrected marital status date is greater than application receipt date and less than transaction receipt date

The Reject 21 Override is added to the FEDERAL record (WF-FEDERAL-1213) and the Federal Compressed screen, and is used like the other verifiable reject override fields. The Asset Threshhold fields are not currently being displayed, although assumptions regarding these fields are displayed, like all assumptions reported by CPS, on the Need Analysis Calculation screen, Reject/Assumption window.

Value sets are updated for:

• the Dependency Override Indicator (WF-FE-F-DEP-OVR) - new value 4 added
• Student and Parent IRS Request flags (WF-FE-C-IRSREQ-PAR and WF-FE-C-IRSREQ-STU) - values 00-04 redefined and new values 05 and 06 added
• NSLDS DL MPN flags (WF-NS-DL-MPN, WF-NS-DLP-MP, WF-NS-DLG-MPN) - new value E added
• Reject codes (WF-FE-C-REJ1) - new reject 21 added
• NSLDS Loan Status Code (WF-NS-L01-STA) - new value PD added

There are no changes to the Correction Field Numbers this year.

Verification data for 2012-13 include:

• Family size and number in college
• Receipt of benefits under the Food Stamps - Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP), if an independent student or dependent student's parent reported the receipt of these benefits on the FAFSA by a member of the household; used to determine whether the student is eligible for an Automatic Zero EFC or the Simplified Needs Test
• Child support paid
• For tax-filers: AGI, federal tax paid and untaxed income (untaxed IRA distributions, untaxed pensions, education credits, IRA deductions and tax-exempt interest)
• For non-tax-filers: student/spouse/father/mother income from work

The 2012-13 Verification screen displays the mandated fields. For untaxed income, we recommend entering individual components at the detail level so that it's clear to the Verification Overlay which component(s) to correct if the total of untaxed income doesn’t match the federal total. Expand (PF9) twice from the Verification screen to reach the untaxed income detail.

For number in family and number in college, the 2012-13 Verification Calculation checks student fields for independent students and parent fields for dependent students. For everything else it checks student fields for independent students and both student and parent fields for dependent students. For the dollar fields, each component must be within $25.

Implementation Notes

The attached zip file contains:

• Instructions file (readme.txt) with sample JCL for unloading the source code to a temporary library.
• SYSTRANS file (st111102.txt) with replacement modules for all members in this release. The SYSTRANS file contains 271 NATURAL objects; see the List of Affected Modules for a complete list. Library name: FATEMP
• FINANCIER User Guide update pages (ug111102.pdf) to be printed and inserted into the manual, with update instructions (uginstr.pdf).

To implement the 2012-13 Regulatory release, complete the following steps:

1. Unload the SYSTRANS file in the attached zip file into a temporary library.
2. SYSMAIN the new and updated modules from your temporary library into your development library. When copying the updated versions of source modules, be sure to review your current 2011-12 modules and apply any institutional modifications to the appropriate 2012-13 version.
   The new modules are the year-specific components named W*13*. The updated modules are:
   • WFLOGONM
   • WFMAINFL
   • WFMENUBM
   • WFNANCLE
   • WWFXREFL

3. Roll your 2011-12 institutional calculations forward to 2012-13 and make any modifications necessary due to institutional requirements.
• Application Checklist
• Application Requirements
• Budget
• Disbursement Checklist
• Disbursement Requirements
• Loan Certification
• SAP calculation
• WFLON12N (to create WFLON13N)
Note that the Verification and Verification Overlay are not included in this list. WolffPack has released standard versions of these programs, currently named WXVCN13N and WXVOL13N, that meet the federal verification requirements. After further discussion with clients we will determine whether there is a need for institutional programs to extend or replace any of the standard functionality.
4. Execute a CATALL against your development library to pick up all data area changes.
5. On the FAO Table maintenance screen (under the System menu), when all FAO-specific calculations are in place, for each valid FAO at your institution, modify the High Year field (WW-TABLES.WW-HI-YEAR) to contain the new aid year.
6. Print the changed pages and User Guide update instructions in the zip file.
   In the print version of the User Guide, the Job Setup table (pp. 3-7 thru 3-14), which contains parameters and work file record lengths for batch operations and is usually updated each year for the Regulations release, is being held this year until the release of FINANCIER packaging, when Chapter 3 (Batch Processing) will be entirely replaced. Because there are no substantive Regulations-related changes for 2012-13 jobs, and the table would very quickly be updated again for Packaging, we have chosen to release it just the once. You can assume that the input specifications for the 2012-13 ADD Import/Load, Federal Corrections Export, Direct Loan reporting and Federal Grant reporting are the same as for 2011-12.
   Likewise, minor changes to the program description of the Verification Calculation are being held until the upcoming Chapter 3 replacement.
   These updates ARE included in the desktop non-print version of the User Guide that accompanies this release.
7. Perform institutional testing. When testing is complete, you may move the released modules to your test and production environments.