As part of their ongoing Better FAFSA support strategy, the federal government has outlined what institutions can expect over the next several days in terms of implementation support. These resources include a technical update to the SAI formula, the release of 100 test ISIRs, open-source tool enhancements, and testing for FTI-SAIG mailbox connectivity.
POSTED DATE: February 27, 2024
AUTHOR: Federal Student Aid
ELECTRONIC ANNOUNCEMENT ID: GENERAL-24-13
SUBJECT: Additional 2024–25 FAFSA Partner Preparation Support
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) will continue its partner preparation efforts related to the 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) launch and upcoming transmission of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs). In the coming days, we will provide several types of additional support.
- We will make a technical update to the Student Aid Index (SAI) formula.
- This technical update to the SAI formula will ensure full alignment with the FAFSA Simplification Act and result in putting additional aid in the hands of students that will help them attend college for the 2024–25 award year. This update will be implemented without a change to the overall 2024–25 FAFSA timeline.
- The SAI formula for dependent students was previously calculated using a minimum threshold on the allowance for negative income earned by dependent students (e.g., the Student’s Contribution from Income). As we finalized preparation to deliver completed applications to schools in the first half of March, we identified that the bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act did not specify an income floor for dependent students. Implementing a floor would be inconsistent with the letter of the law.
- The change will ensure that the Department is in full alignment with the FAFSA Simplification Act and will not affect the Department’s timeline for delivering completed applications to schools in the first half of March. The technical updates to SAI Formula A will be reflected in the ISIRs that are delivered to schools and state aid agencies in the first half of March. Combined with other implementation efforts, 7.3 million students in total are expected to be eligible for Pell Grants in the 2024-25 award year. Since the new 2024–25 FAFSA form became available on Dec. 30, more than 4.7 million forms have been successfully submitted.
- The Department will work with colleges and vendors to put this update into effect in the coming days and will be available to provide technical support and assistance to institutions through its FAFSA College Support Strategy. Our top priority remains ensuring all students receive the federal financial aid they are entitled to and help more families pay for college.
- Additionally, over the next week, the Department will begin to deploy FSA and nonprofit support to lower-resourced colleges. These personnel will conduct needs-assessments and provide dedicated help to schools that are preparing for and processing student aid offer packages. We have received inquiries from over 100 institutions through our Concierge Service and have already followed up with these colleges to identify the specific needs for each institution. The Department has also started proactively reaching out to additional colleges with high Pell enrollment, resource constraints, and other needs to offer support based on their needs.
- This week, we will release a test data file of approximately 100 system-generated test ISIRs.
- These system-generated test ISIR data will cover different student scenarios. There will be dependent student records with one or two parents, independent student records with and without a spouse, and records reflecting the new provisionally independent student status. These records will also provide examples of federal tax information (FTI) retrieved from the IRS, showing if the IRS FTI can be used, and when to use self-reported FTI. There will be examples of all three formulas (A, B, and C) used to calculate the new SAI along with the intermediate values, Max Pell Indicator, and Min Pell Indicator. Lastly there will be some rejected records which will not have an SAI but will include the associated reject codes.
Note: The test files for dependent students will not reflect the SAI update detailed above.
- We will continue to update additional test ISIRs and open-source tools stored in a public U.S. Department of Education GitHub repository.
- On Feb. 16, 2024, we began publishing additional test ISIRs, along with new open-source tools intended to assist schools and vendors with testing their systems. Since then, the materials in that repository have been updated as follows:
- Several field and formatting updates have been applied to the eight published test ISIRs.
- A community contributor added test ISIR files intended to assist testing systems using progressively larger batches of ISIRs.
- The open-source tools have had some small feature enhancements.
- Details of these changes can be found in the changelog in the repository. In addition, updates to the test ISIRs will be available on the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Knowledge Center.
- On Feb. 16, 2024, we began publishing additional test ISIRs, along with new open-source tools intended to assist schools and vendors with testing their systems. Since then, the materials in that repository have been updated as follows:
- We will execute a test of partners’ connectivity to active FTI-SAIG mailboxes.
- This week, we will transmit a test file to all active FTI-SAIG mailboxes. Active FTI-SAIG mailboxes have been assigned to partners who have signed and submitted the updated Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) enrollment agreement. In addition, the partner must have installed updated SAIG software to participate in the test.
- The purpose of the test is limited to assuring that a test file can be received in the active FTI-SAIG mailbox and retrieved by the associated partner.
- The test file will be sent in the SAIG message class ISRF25OP and its content will include the date sent and a message noting that it is a test file. The test file will not mimic an ISIR file and should not be downloaded into the partner’s system. Testing is optional.
- Note: If your organization has not yet completed the steps described in the Electronic Announcement Updated SAIG Enrollment Agreement Available Oct. 23, 2023 – Required Steps to Receive 2024–25 ISIRs, please act immediately to ensure your new FTI-SAIG mailbox is ready. In addition, updated SAIG software must be installed for your organization to access 2024–25 ISIRs. If you have questions, please contact the FPS Help Desk (formerly CPS/SAIG Technical Support) at 1-800-330-5947 or by email at support@fps.ed.gov.
Monitor the FSA Knowledge Center for updates about all these support activities.
Contact Information
We welcome our partners to continue to submit questions related to the 2024–25 FAFSA launch, using the Contact Customer Support form in FSA’s Partner Connect Help Center. To submit a question, please enter your name, email address, topic, and question. When submitting a question related to this Electronic Announcement, please select the topic “2024–25 FAFSA.”
SOURCE: (GENERAL-24-13) Additional 2024–25 FAFSA Partner Preparation Support