Open in new tab: (print)

Release Notes: Item 2406-04 (packaging)

2024-2025 Packaging Release

Due to the extensive changes of this year's financial aid modifications, FINANCIER withheld the annual packaging modifications until the ADD Load processing could be delivered.

Please note: This will reference and build off of the release notes from the 2024-2025 Regulatory release and the associated supplemental notes.

We have attempted to minimize code changes wherever possible, i.e. Fund Attributes (including Packaging Attributes) are all still respected as previously defined.

Packaging changes:

Field changes
• Some fields used by the packaging routines are no longer available in the ISIR file. As a result, some fields are now defined in the AIDYEAR file and/or are pulled from other sources:

  Field specific changes to packaging fields and/or fields of note
  (#-prefixed fields are progam variables)

  Packaging field	FINANCIER file location	Notes
  #FED-EFC	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M1-FC	Did not change, just a reminder that this is now derived from the SAI M1 column
  #EFC	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M2-FC	Did not change, just a reminder that this is now derived from the SAI M2 column
  #FC	#EFC	Did not change, just a reminder that this is now derived from the SAI M2 column
  #PC	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M2-PC	Did not change, just a reminder that this is now derived from the SAI M2 column
  #SC	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M2-SC	Did not change, just a reminder that this is now derived from the SAI M2 column
  #PELL-COA	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M1-BUDGET	Did not change, just a reminder that this is derived from the M1 column
  #COA	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M2-BUDGET	Did not change, just a reminder that this is derived from the M2 column
  #PELL-NEED	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M1-NEED	Did not change, just a reminder that this is derived from the M1 column
  #NEED	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M2-NEED	Did not change, just a reminder that this is derived from the M2 column
  #AY-DEP-STAT	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-M1-DEP	Did not change, just a reminder that this is derived from the M1 column
  #ISIR-PELL-ELIG	WFISR25D.WF-IS-C-PELL-ELIG	Did not change
  #CPS-RECVD-DATE	WFISR25D.WF-IS-C-APP-RCPT-DATE	New. Previously used WFISR25D.WF-IS-C-ORIG-DATE
  #INT-WORK	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-S-INT-WS	New field, no longer available on the ISIR file, collected by schools
  #ISIR-INT-WORK	N/A	Not available on ISIR
  #P1-LEV	N/A	Not available on ISIR.Previously: WFFED25D.WF-FE-P-P1-LEV
  #P2-LEV	N/A	Not available on ISIR.Previously: WFFED25D.WF-FE-P-P2-LEV
  #ISIR-S-DEG	N/A	Not available on ISIR
  #S-DEG	WWSTDNTD.WW-ST-AC-DEG	No change
  #S-CLASS	WWSTDNTD.WW-ST-AC-CLS	No change
  #S-TIM	WWSTDNTD.WW-ST-RT1-TIM	No change
  #NS-PERK-TOTAL	WFNSL25D.WF-NS-PERK-TOTAL	No change
  #FE-HSG	WFAIDYRD.WF-AY-S-HSG	New field, no longer available on the ISIR file, collected by schools
  #FISAP	WFISR25D.WF-IS-FISAP-TOT-INC	Renamed. Previously: WFISR25D.WF-IS-C-FC1-FISAP

Direct Loans
• No limit changes are required for Sub and Unsub Direct loans per the DoE Annual and Aggregate Loan Limits page. (Note: Loan limits are stored in the annually delivered WFPKPnnL)
Pell
• Pell LEU logic remains the same, and at this time, the only required direct changes to packaging logic for the 2024-2025 Aid year effect the Pell awarding process. With the new Pell changes, there is no longer a table lookup. In an effort to simplify Pell, there is now a direct calculation (along with student specific edit criteria) to determine a Pell award.
• To this end, we have added year specific logic that will invoke a new external subroutine DETERMINE-PELL-AWARD (WFPKDPAE) to the Pell logic in the copycode WFPKPAKC. Because the previously used PELL-LOOKUP subroutine was NOT year specific, we needed to make the new routine be able to access year specific files (as we will need to look at the ISIR file). Using an external subroutine to route to a year specific subprogram (WFPKD25N) should allow us to not have to recompile previous year's packaging routines, moving forward from this year.
• The Pell award logic uses a calculation, which can be boiled down to one of 3 instances (min & max amounts will be adjusted annually):
  • A Maximum Pell Grant Award (Max Pell - $7395)
  • Calculated Pell Grant, determined by subtracting the student’s SAI from the annual published maximum Pell Grant amount (The SAI can have a negative value (-1500) for the 2024-2025 Aid Year. For packaging purposes, a negative SAI is treated as a 0.)
  • A Minimum Pell Grant Award (Min Pell - $740)
• Also of interest is the DoE 2024-2025 FAFSA Pell Eligibility and SAI Guide.
• Note: If the applicant’s SAI is greater than zero, the student’s scheduled Pell Grant award is calculated by subtracting the SAI from the maximum scheduled Pell Grant award amount for the year. (as denoted on page 25 of: FAFSA® Pell Eligibility and SAI Guide) Additionally, the award must be rounded to the nearest $5, per 401(b)(1)(B)(ii) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

FINANCIER changes

• Reminder: While EFC has been replaced with an SAI calc, please be aware that while FINANCIER has been changed in a number of locations to that end (including some screens changes discussed below), FINANCIER has "reused" some fields (starting in the WF-AIDYEAR file, but also the WF-LOAN and WF-FUND files) in an attempt to minimize potentially extensive file and programming changes (i.e. the FC/SC/PC fields are still referenced as before). This has allowed for FINANCIER to reduce code modifications in NEED calculations (including packaging).
• Packaging changes
• Code modifications have been made to remove a Pell table lookup and add a new year specific Pell calculation. (The annually delivered year specific subprogram will contain Pell minimum and maximum values.)
• Note: While referencing the DoE site/pages listed above, we have driven the modifications for the Pell calc primarily off of the 2024-2025 Federal Student Aid Handbook in PDF Format (specifically Chapter 2 of Volume 7: Calculating Pell Grants). Additionally, the Handbook also has a chapter specific to (chapter 3 of Volume 3) Packaging Aid. To that end we are:
• Determining if a student is eligible for Maximum Pell by looking at the contents of WFISR25D.WF-IS-C-MAX-PELL-IND
• Determining if a student is eligible for Minimum Pell by looking at the contents of WFISR25D.WF-IS-C-MIN-PELL-IND
• Calculating a tentative Pell by subtracting the student's SAI from a maximum Pell
• Verifying that a potential Pell award does not exceed a student's COA (capped at COA and not rounded to nearest $5)
• Verifying that a calculated Pell award is not less than a minimum Pell
• Rounding any remaining potential Pell awards top nearest $5
• Verifying that overawarding doesn't occur (especially due to minimum PELL AWARD)
• Added an edit to check for a blank SAI (effective 2025+). This will happen after the edit for Pell eligibility, so a student with no Pell eligibility and a blank SAI will report as Pell ineligible. While this shouldn't really happen in theory, there have been some reports of students who are tagged as Pell eligible and have no SAI.
• Screen changes
  
  (change references from EFC to SAI - now year specific):
  • Fund Attributes -> Packaging attribs/restrictions
  • Loan Snapshot
  
  Note:For dictionary values / fieldhelp, while we have not modified the file and reused the fieldname, the field's extended description has been adjusted for year specific values. (The loan snapshot help does not reference the EFC so no changes were done.)
  • WFFPACKD.WF-FP-EFC-CHECK
  • WFFPACKD.WF-FP-MIN-EFC
  • WFFPACKD.WF-FP-MAX-EFC
  • FPS Communication
  
  (tweak display of SAI to show blank for a blank SAI and "0" for an SAI of 0 on the FPS screen. Consistency amoung all screens will be delivered in a future release. For now the blank and zero should display reliably on the FPS screen.):
  
  Also Note: You may need to review your fund specific packaging attributes. While the fields on the Fund Attributes->Packaging Attributes have been modified to reference SAI, you should be reminded that the value of SAI (for the 2024-2025 Aid Year) can go as low as -1500. For funds other than Pell, any SAI less than zero is treated like a zero, therefore, the lowest Min SAI you can set is a zero. You may need to modify your Fund's minimum SAI if you use that option for funds other than Pell. (Pell Fund does not allow for the setting of Min and Max SAI)

Implementation Notes

This item is required at all client sites but might have been previously updated manually.

Please remember that you may need to review your institutional packaging requirements (as well as cross reference with the field notes above) to determine if additional institutional specific modifications are required.

1. Load the new and updated modules from the SYSOBJH input files (sy240604.txt + sys2406b.txt)in the attached zip file. Or, you may apply source changes manually for the updated modules. Click on the "mods" link next to the module name for the Differences Report, which shows the previous and current versions of the module side by side.
New modules:

Data areas:
• WFPKP25L - year specific packaging LDA

Copycode/Maps/Subroutines/Subprograms:
• WFPKDPAE - DETERMINE-PELL-AWARD routing subroutine
• WFPKP25N - year specific packaging logic
• WFPKD25N - Year specific Pell calc


Updated modules:

Data areas:
• WFISX25D (mods)
• WFISY25D (mods)
• WFPKPAKL (mods)
• WFPKPAKD (mods)

Copycode/Maps/Subroutines/Subprograms:
• WFPKPAKC (mods)
• WFFPACKM (mods)
• WFCPI25M (mods)
• WFFPACKP (mods)
• WFISX25E (mods)
• WFISY25E (mods)
• WFLNSNPM (mods)
• WFLNSNPN (mods)
• WFPKPAKB (mods)


You may execute a CATALL, or you will need to restow the following dues to copycode and data area changes:
• WFPKFNDN
• WFPKP14N
• WFPKP15N
• WFPKP16N
• WFPKP17N
• WFPKP18N
• WFPKP19N
• WFPKP20N
• WFPKP21N
• WFPKP22N
• WFPKP23N
• WFPKP24N
• WFPKPAKB
• WFPKPAKN
2. Load the Dictionary Import file (dc240604.txt) from the zip file into the FINANCIER Dictionary using the Dictionary Import program (WCDICIMB).
3. You may need to roll any institutional packaging routines.