Release Notes: Item 1609-03

Direct Loan Import

This release corrects an issue involving the updating of NSLDS Subsidized Loan usage data by the Direct Loan Import process.

Previously, if a student had a subsidized loan with corresponding NSLDS usage data recorded, an incoming record for an unsubsidized loan could wipe out the Sub Usage Period and/or the Sub Usage Limit Applies flag. This happened because the program looked for the <SumActualSubUsagePeriods> and <SubsidizedUsageLimitApplies> tags, which are actually present only in the subsidized loan import XML. When either tag was not found in the unsub XML data, the value was assumed to be zero (Usage Periods) or blank (Limit Applies), and the NSLDS Usage Period would be overwritten with a zero, or the Limit Applies flag with a blank. The correction checks for the two subsidized-loan-only tags in an incoming record and does not update the student's NSLDS field if the corresponding tag doesn't exist.

For the <SumActualSubUsagePeriods> tag, the corrected program uses an XML tag that is not otherwise used in FINANCIER processing (and confirmed not used in client code) - <SumActualNonCredTeacherCertSubUsagePeriods>. (This workaround means the PDA does not have to be modified.) When there is no <SumActualSubUsagePeriods> tag, the program loads an indicator into the unused <SumActualNonCredTeacherCertSubUsagePeriods> tag, and does not overwrite the student's Sub Usage Period (WF-NS-C-SUB-USAGE-PD).

For the <SubsidizedUsageLimitApplies> tag, the corrected program determines whether a Y or N was moved to the Limit Applies PDA field. If a Y or N exists, it updates the NSLDS Sub Usage Limit Applies flag (WF-NS-C-SUB-LE-FLAG). If it’s blank, no update is made to NSLDS.

To retrieve lost NSLDS data, you can request and import SU (Subsidized Usage) records for affected students from COD. The release includes modifications to enable loading of the SU document type.

Implementation Notes