Release Notes: Item 2403-02 (supplemental)
2024-2025 Regulatory Release
This is supplemental information for reference to the initial 2024-25 Regulatory release.
This year has introduced extensive changes to the financial aid process and has dramatically modified the FINANCIER application processing workflow. Due to the magnitude of this year's modifications, we will be delivering Regulatory releases in multiple releases. The first release will focus on the ADD process, so that schools may begin loading ISIRs as quickly as possible.
Due to the shear volume of modifications, we will reference both Department of Education (DoE) materials and/or WolffPack (WP) generated materials to prevent duplication.
Department of Education
- FSA Handbooks, Manuals, or Guides page for your reference.
- 2024–25 FAFSA Specifications Guide (March 2024 Update #2) "Master List"
- Of particular note is the DoE Volume 1 - Summary of changes document.
Some highlights include:
- The former Central Processing System (CPS) was modernized and transitioned to the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) under the FAFSA Simplification Act.
- Legislation changes: There are two pieces of legislation that are guiding many of the changes to the FPS system. One is the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE Act), and the other is the FAFSA Simplification Act.
- The FUTURE Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to disclose certain federal tax information (FTI) to the U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid (FSA).
- The FAFSA Simplification Act represents a significant overhaul of federal student aid, including the FAFSA form, need analysis, and many policies and procedures for schools that participate in federal student aid programs, including:
- Some of the Major FPS changes:
- FSA ID required for applicant and contributors
- ISIR record layout: The ISIR file length has increased from 4,600 bytes to 7,704 bytes. The ISIR layout can be found (in PDF format) at the DoE link for Volume 4 of the Specifications Guide.
Another major change made is that all numeric fields in the ISIR record are left justified and are no longer zero-filled to fill the full length of the field. From the DoE:.
Table 1-3: ISIR Record Layout Numeric Field Changes
| 7-character field with a value of $-123.40 |
ISIR value |
Notes |
| FPS (2024–25 and forward) |
-123 |
Negative values are one byte longer to allow for the negative sign. Value is left justified. Cents are not included. |
| CPS (2023–24 and prior cycles) |
000012C |
Negative values use a signed numeric character to indicate the negative value and are zero-filled to the field length of seven bytes. Cents are not included. |
- Edits, rejects, and comment codes: All system edit numbers, record reject numbers, and comment code numbers have been revised because of the system edit changes. Details about the specific edit and reject changes can be found in Volume 5 – Edits and Rejects, while details on the Comment codes changes can be found in Volume 7 – Comment Codes.
Specific notes (from DoE) regarding the Edits, Rejects, and Comments are:
- Edits – We added new “procedural” edits that remove data that was submitted by the applicant or other contributors that was not required for the calculation of the SAI. For instance, the PDF FAFSA FPS model determination edit 1004 determines that an applicant who filed using the PDF FAFSA is independent, but their parent provided their information on the PDF FAFSA form. Because the parent information is not required to calculate the SAI for an independent applicant, the FPS edit deletes the parent information from the student’s record maintained in the FPS. As a result, the parent information is not included in the FAFSA Submission Summary.
- Rejects – As a result of edit changes there are a substantial number of new rejects and we deleted many of the former reject reasons. All remaining rejects that carried over from the prior cycle have been renumbered.
- Comments – In prior cycles we had multiple versions of comment codes, including versions from the online FAFSA form, the FAFSA Partner Portal, and EDExpress. The comments were worded slightly differently to reflect the type of the input and the mention of buttons or functionality. For 2024–25 we condensed the comment text to one set of comments that are used across all systems. The comment text is rewritten for the new edits and follows plain language standards. The comment numbers have been renumbered to reflect new and removed comments.
- Unusual circumstances and special circumstances definitions:
The definitions of these terms have been aligned with those in the Higher Education Act:
- "Unusual circumstances" now refers to scenarios that prevent dependent students from supplying parent information and may result in a dependency override.
- "Special circumstances" now refers to financial situations in which an FAA may determine a professional judgment is warranted.
- Also of interest is the DoE 2024-2025 FAFSA Pell Eligibility and SAI Guide.
- Finally, a note about the display of the new (Federal Tax Information) FTI information, per: Federal Tax Information must be labeled as confidential per: (GENERAL-23-34) Access and Use of Federal Tax Information (FTI) for Federal Student Aid Programs Beginning with the 2024-25 FAFSA Processing Cycle The FAFSA Simplification Act permits institutions, and state higher education agencies administering institutional and state-based financial aid, to use FAFSA information, including FTI, for the application, award, and administration of financial aid to the applicant.