Release Notes: Item 1402-01

Direct Loan Screen (with User Guide Updates)


This release item updates FINANCIER to support the 150% Direct Lending rule for COD processing of loans disbursed to first-time borrowers after July 1, 2013. The rule limits the period of time in which a student can receive subsidized loans to 150% of the length of the student's academic program. For the Academic Year tag in the loan export record, FINANCIER has always sent a begin date for the first term (typically fall) and an end date of the last term in the calendar (usually summer). COD now requires that the academic year dates include trailing terms only when loans are actually awarded for those terms, so that COD can calculate the student's subsidized usage based on the length of the loan period and academic year.

To comply, FINANCIER changes include:

When a loan is created, FINANCIER now automates the setting of academic year dates and loan periods as follows:

When a Fall/Spring loan is awarded, FINANCIER sets

When a Spring/Summer loan is awarded, FINANCIER sets

When a Fall only loan is awarded, FINANCIER sets

When a Spring only loan is awarded, FINANCIER sets

When a Summer only loan is awarded, FINANCIER sets

Loans that require individual adjustment can be updated manually. The Direct Loan screens now contain updatable Academic Begin and End dates, with a field to lock the academic year and/or loan period against further update. Values are A (lock the academic year), L (lock the loan period) and B (lock both the academic year and loan period). You can reset the lock as needed.

The DL Awarding program, WFAWDLNN, has been correctly setting the Loan Period for DL loans. For each loan-specific transaction, it now examines the new Lock flag during the awarding process to determine if the Loan Period dates should remain unchanged. It calls a new subprogram, WFAWDLDN, to set the academic year dates on new loans and to examine existing loans and resets academic year dates if required. For example, if a Summer loan is awarded to a student who already had Fall/Spring loans awarded, ALL the loans must be adjusted to reflect a Fall/Summer academic year. WFAWDLDN is called for DL awards only, once per student:

Since this logic is invoked for ALL transaction types, the dates are examined during a Cancel transaction. For example, if a student has a Fall/Spring Subsidized loan AND a Summer Unsubsidized, AY dates will span Fall through Summer for both loans. Then, if the Summer Unsub is canceled, all (unlocked) loans will have their AY dates recalculated to Fall/Spring.

The conversion program also calls WFAWDLDN and performs the same date recalculation logic. It produces a Processing Count report (number of records read, locked, updated and bypassed) and a detail report ("FINANCIER Direct Loan Dates") listing loans by student, with columns for Aid Year, SID, Name and Loan ID, and AY Dates. Locked loans are included in the detail report, tagged as locked in the AY Dates column.

Implementation Notes