education topics: February 2019

Title IV Loan Programs

The William D. Ford Direct Student Loan program provides subsidized federal loans to undergraduate students. Subsidized means the federal government pays the loan interest while a student is in school. Unsubsidized loans are available to undergraduate and graduate students. Students don't have to start repaying Direct Loans until six months after they leave school. Perkins loans are unsubsidized loans for undergraduate and graduate students with severe financial need. These loans are made through the student's school and must be repaid to the school. Repayment doesn't begin until six months after the student leaves school. Direct PLUS loans are made to parents of dependent undergraduate students and to graduate or professional students. Direct PLUS loans are unsubsidized. Repayment begins 60 days after all of the loan money is disbursed.

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https://www.edvisors.com/fafsa/eligibilitygeneral-requirements

Basic eligibility requirements for federal student aid include citizenship requirements and requirements relating to the student’s ability to benefit from a postsecondary education. The student must:

Be a U.S. Citizen, permanent resident or eligible non-citizen
Have a valid Social Security number (SSN), except for students from the Freely Associated States (e.g., Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau).
Have a high school diploma, the recognized equivalent of a high school diploma (including a General Educational Development (GED) certificate), or have completed a high school curriculum in a home school setting that satisfies the state’s requirements for home schooling. (Students who first enrolled in an accredited college or university before July 1, 2012, may qualify by satisfying alternate criteria, such as passing an approved ability-to-benefit (ATB) test or completing six credit hours or equivalent course work toward a degree or certificate.)
Be enrolled, or accepted for enrollment, as a regular student in an eligible degree or certificate program at a college or university that is eligible for Title IV federal student aid. Students who are simultaneously enrolled in elementary or secondary school are not eligible.

NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide - IFAP: Home

https://ifap.ed.gov/.../NewNSLDSEnrollmentReportingGuide.pdf

NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide November 2018 iii Date Section Appendix H

1.4 Reporting Requirements
Schools are required to certify enrollment at the location level using their eight-digit Office of
Postsecondary Education Identifier (OPEID). However, schools will be given the option to
manage their Enrollment Reporting files at the six-digit OPEID if they so choose. A school that
chooses to manage multiple campuses’ reporting will have the option to receive individual eightdigit OPEID rosters files (one for each additional location of the school) or a combined roster for
multiple locations in one file. Schools will establish their Enrollment Reporting profile using
dedicated screens on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site. Each location that certifies
loans must be signed up for the Enrollment Reporting process through FSAWebenroll, (see
Section 1.6 ). Reporting a student’s enrollment at the main campus level (i.e., OPEID 12345600)
does not satisfy the enrollment reporting requirement if aid was disbursed or the student was
physically attending school at a location (e.g., OPEID 12345601).
To assist with the reporting of enrollment at the location level, NSLDS has established an
Enrollment Administration option that allows campuses that share the same six-digit OPEID
(e.g., OPEID 123456) to establish a location that will report for its own and other locations. As
an example, when the Enrollment Administration option is used, OPEID 12345600 can be
selected to report for its location of 00 as well as for the -01, -02, and -03 locations of OPEID
123456. See Section 3.8.3 for more details.
Below is an overview of the process for Enrollment Reporting and the requirements that schools
must follow to be in compliance:
 The Enrollment Reporting roster file is placed in a school’s (or enrollment reporting
servicers’) designated Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailboxes on the business
day of the month designated by their Enrollment Reporting schedule. Schools may set up
or modify their schedule on the Enrollment Reporting Profile Web page under the Enroll
Tab on the NSLDSFAP Web site. A school is advised that if they use an enrollment
reporting servicer and make a change to the normal reporting schedule, the servicer
should be notified.
 Responses to the Enrollment Reporting roster file are due within 30 days of creation of
the file that is placed in the designated SAIG mailbox. Schools have multiple methods of
responding to the NSLDS Enrollment Rosters. Methods include, batch, spreadsheet
upload, and updating student records on the Enrollment Update link on the NSLDSFAP
Web site. The online and spreadsheet upload processes will update the records in real
time and provide immediate feedback if an error occurs.
Files submitted by batch processes will receive an Acknowledgment/Error File that
contains a count of accepted records and any records containing errors that did not pass
edits for update. If the Acknowledgment/Error File does not indicate any errors (contains
just a header and trailer record), it serves as proof that the submittal file was received and
processed by NSLDS and should be kept for audit purposes.
 If the Acknowledgement/Error file indicates any errors, error records must be corrected
by updating the student’ record online or using the spreadsheet upload option, or by
submitting an Error Correction File within 10 business days of the date it was received.
These errors for the students that failed in the batch submittal process indicate that the
students’ enrollment status has not been updated on NSLDS.
 Students are placed on a roster of the school’s OPEID (8 digits) based on the
student/school relationship in NSLDS. Students can appear on the roster due to:
o The Department’s Common Originations and Disbursement (COD) system
reporting the enrollment location as the enrollment school for the student at the
time of disbursement;
o The federal loan servicers, GA, lender, or Perkins School reporting the current
school location for the student; and
o The school previously certifying the enrollment data for the student at that
location.
 Students are considered to be in-school and continuously enrolled during academic year
holiday and vacation periods, as well as during the summer between academic years
(even if not enrolled in a summer session), as long as there is reason to believe that they
intend to enroll for the next regularly scheduled term. For example, students should not
be reported as: “Withdrawn” at the end of the spring term if they are expected to re-enroll
for the fall term. If they do not return as expected, the status must be changed to
“Withdrawn” within 30 days of that determination, or within 30 days of the start of the
new term, whichever occurs first, with an effective date of the last date of attendance.
 Students that are not on the roster but have received aid (at your school or another school)
may be added to your batch file or reported by using the Enrollment Add page or the
spreadsheet upload option on the NSLDSFAP Web site. The student identifiers in the
added records must match the student identifiers on NSLDS. Students cannot be added to
NSLDS unless a current loan or grant is on the database. If a data provider has not
reported a loan or Pell grant to NSLDS and the school tries to add the record in a batch
process, the student record will be rejected on the Submittal File or Error Correction File.
Likewise, if the student is added on the NSLDSFAP web site, and there is no loan or
grant data in NSLDS, the student will not appear on the school’s roster online.
 A school must correctly report students who have completed a program with a ‘G’ for
“graduated” status rather than a ‘W’ for “withdrawn”. This assists the Department in
identifying individual student completion of programs of study. Further, an accurate
anticipated completion date aids in correct servicing of a student’s loans, avoiding unnecessary early conversion to repayment or too late conversion, causing technical
defaults.

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1.4.1 Reporting Enrollment for Distance Education Programs
There are special considerations for distance education programs in Enrollment Reporting. Per
Department of Education policy, the definition of distance education requires the use of
technology to support "regular and substantive interaction between the students and the faculty."
The technologies may include—
(1) The Internet;
(2) One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable,
microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
(3) Audio conferencing; or
(4) Video cassettes, DVDs, and CD–ROMs, if the cassettes, DVDs, or CD–ROMs are used
in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through
(3) of this definition.
The school must have a policy for determining a student’s enrollment status and use that policy
as the basis of its enrollment reporting. Enrollment Reporting to NSLDS must be based on the
regular and substantive interaction between students and the faculty for students in distance
education courses. For example, a school may have a policy that includes having the faculty
member or an academic support staff member reach out to an online student after the initial week
of non-attendance to determine the cause and remind the student that he or she needs to be
regularly engaged in the course to be successful. If the student does not re-engage in the course,
then the message could become more urgent, notifying the student of possible consequences of
his or her non-engagement.
Allowing a student to go for several weeks without such interaction raises concerns that the
school is not adequately monitoring student behavior. Therefore, Enrollment Reporting or a
change in the student’s enrollment status based solely upon a student’s log in to a Web site is not
sufficient to determine the student’s attendance or lack of attendance in a class.
1.4.2 Additional School Enrollment Reporting Responsibilities
1.4.2.1 Using an Enrollment Reporting Servicer
As with any school/servicer arrangement for the administration of Title IV programs, the school
remains responsible for submitting timely, accurate, and complete responses to Enrollment
Reporting roster files and for maintaining proper documentation in accordance with Federal
Regulation 34 CFR 682.610(c) and 685.300(b). In accordance with 34 CFR 668.25, schools
must report their Enrollment Servicer on the Federal Student Aid’s (FSA's) Application for
Approval to Participate in the Federal Student Financial Aid Programs (E-App)...

Schools must understand that their reporting of data to their servicers may differ from when the
servicer responds to rosters on behalf of the school. You can see the schedule expectations on the
NSLDSFAP Enrollment Reporting Profile page of the Web site. NSLDS will send the roster to
the servicer designated; however, if the response is not received in a timely matter, NSLDS will
notify the school rather than the servicer. Refer to Section 1.8 for more information on the Late
Enrollment Reporting Roster Notification process.
In addition to reporting the servicer relationship on the E-App, schools may designate the
Servicer’s SAIG mailbox to receive the Enrollment Reporting rosters from NSLDS. This may be
done when you sign up for SAIG or at any time thereafter, through FSAWebenroll. The
Enrollment Reporting process, when using a servicer, proceeds as follows:
1. NSLDS sends your school’s Enrollment Reporting roster file to the servicer.
2. The servicer matches the Enrollment Reporting roster file to enrollment data that you
provide to the servicer.
3. The servicer returns the updated Enrollment Reporting roster file (now the Submittal
File) to NSLDS.
4. NSLDS processes the file and returns the Acknowledgment/Error File to the servicer.
5. The servicer corrects any errors and returns the Error Correction File to NSLDS. The
servicer may need to contact the school to correct errors.
Even though a school may use an enrollment reporting servicer, it is important that a member of
the school has a FSA User ID with online enrollment update capabilities. This allows the school
to make immediate enrollment updates to NSLDSFAP to ensure timely:
 Conversion to repayment without loss of the grace period.
 Documentation of enrollment for the granting of in-school deferments.
 Reporting students that have transferred in to the school, when the school is made aware
of the student’s prior Title IV assistance.
 Reporting of enrollment should the servicer relationship change.
Remember, a change of status must be reported in 30 days or on a roster that will be received
within 60 days. Use online enrollment update to ensure compliance with this requirement and
report student enrollment changes when they occur, such as a student withdrawing before the end
of a term.

1.5 Administrative Functions
A school is responsible to report timely and accurate enrollment data. It is important that the
school report the applicable enrollment status, the effective date of the status, and the anticipated
completion date of all borrowers attending its school. The enrollment status categories are:
 ‘F’ (full-time)
 ‘H’ (half-time)
 ‘L’ (less than half-time)
 ‘A’ (leave of absence)
 ‘G’ (graduated)
 ‘W’ (withdrawn)
 ‘D’ (deceased)
 ‘X’ (never attended)
 ‘Z’ (record not found)

If a student has a reported enrollment status of ‘G’, ‘W’, ‘X’, ‘Z’, or ‘D’, he or she will remain
on the Enrollment Reporting roster until two consecutive certifications of the same enrollment
status removes the student from a school’s roster. Enrollment Reporting must be completed in a
timely and accurate manner to meet regulatory requirements. Enrollment information must be
reported within 30 days whenever attendance changes for students, unless a roster will be
submitted within 60 days. These changes include reductions or increases in attendance levels,
withdrawals, graduations, or approved leaves-of-absence. It is the school’s responsibility, as a
participant in the Title IV aid programs, to monitor and report these changes to the NSLDS.
Beginning with the new NSLDS Enrollment Reporting File Layouts (required as of March 31,
2013), the following new optional fields are included:
 Credential Level. Schools (or their servicers) will report the Credential Level of the
academic program that the student completed when reporting an Enrollment Status of
“Graduated – G”. The Credential Level data field is to be reported only with the
enrollment status of “G” and will not be retained if reported with any other status.
The Credential Level codes are:
01 – Undergraduate Certificate
02 – Associate’s Degree
03 – Bachelor’s Degree
04 – Post-Baccalaureate Certificate (including post graduate certificates)
05 – Master’s Degree
06 – Doctoral Degree
07 – First Professional Degree
 Student’s Address – School Reported. Schools (or their servicers) will report students’
permanent home addresses.
 Term Dates. Schools (or their servicers) may report the beginning and ending dates of
the academic term of the student’s current (or most recent) enrollment. Consider for
example, a school that is reporting enrollment for its Spring 2012 term that began on
January 25, 2012 and will end on May 15, 2012. When reporting enrollment for students
enrolled in the Spring 2012 term, the school would report January 25, 2012 as the term
begin date and May 15, 2012 as the term end date. These are optional reporting fields that
will be useful to the student’s loan servicer.
NSLDS is responsible for forwarding reported enrollment data it receives to the appropriate GA,
lender, lender servicer, federal loan servicer, or Perkins Loans school or servicer (only when
requested). These weekly notifications include newly reported enrollment data received from
schools through the batch process and online update processes.

To increase the ease of meeting this requirement, the NSLDS Enrollment Reporting process can
be managed electronically. Managing Enrollment Reporting requires batch and online access.
The electronic exchange of information through the Enrollment Reporting process is done using
SAIG. The enrollment reporting can also be done on the NSLDS Professional Access Web site,
The organization must have both online and batch access. Refer to Section 1.6 for more
information on applying...

1.5.2 NSLDSFAP Online
NSLDS online offers the following Enrollment Reporting functions on the NSLDSFAP Web
site:
 NSLDSFAP Web Enrollment Reporting Profile Web page enables schools to create or
modify their reporting schedule and request an ad hoc roster, set preferences for its
Enrollment Reporting roster files and monitor the enrollment statuses received by
NSLDS in the prior quarter.
 NSLDSFAP Web site displays the school’s roster of students using the Enrollment
Reporting Update link, allowing easy enrollment certification for one or all of the
school’s Title IV aid recipients.
 Students can be added to the school’s roster by simply entering key identifier data [the
student’s SSN, first name, and date of birth (DOB)] using the Enrollment Reporting Add
link. As long as the student exists in NSLDS, the system retrieves the student record for
update.
 NSLDSFAP Web site provides an online file upload process to enable schools to provide
their enrollment updates using a spreadsheet file that can be uploaded using the
Enrollment Submittal link.
 NSLDS stores the full history of reported enrollment information, beginning with the
student status data on NSLDS at the end of 2001. This allows schools to return any
Enrollment Reporting roster—not just the last one created—and provides more complete
information to the loan community

The Enrollment Reporting process for batch and online is described in detail, designating the

responsible party for each step:

1. NSLDS:

A. Adds students with new loans or grants to the portfolio of the enrollment school

OPEID sent from COD as reported with disbursement record by the school to COD.

B. Compiles all students in the school’s portfolio, including new records from COD,

previously certified still active records, students added because of loan records with

updated school codes and Perkins Loan records.

C. Generates the Enrollment Reporting roster file of the students in the portfolio for the

school or schools based on the NSLDS Enrollment Profile Page, “Enrollment

Reporting Preferences, Administration Setup and Schedule”.

D. Forwards the Enrollment Reporting roster file to the school or its servicer through the

SAIG mailbox.

2. School (or administrator or servicer):

A. Receives the Enrollment Reporting roster file (s).

B. Matches the Enrollment Reporting roster file with registration records.

C. Updates the Enrollment Reporting roster file with any changes to each student’s

enrollment status, status effective date, or anticipated completion date fields.

D. Provides correct location code if student is attending a different location of the same 6

digit OPEID.

E. Adds the optional fields of student’s permanent address, term begin and end dates.

F. Provides a credential level for those students with a graduated enrollment status.

G. Adds a Detail record for each new student.

H. Reviews the updated file for valid data to eliminate errors.

I. Returns the updated Enrollment Reporting roster file, now the Submittal File, within

30 days of the creation date with an appropriate certification date to NSLDS,

Goes online at www.nsldsfap.ed.gov and uses on of the online functionalities (update,

add, spreadsheet submittal) to certify enrollment for its students. No roster file will

need to be returned.

3. NSLDS:

A. Receives the Submittal File.

B. Edits (error-checks) the Submittal File contents. If enrollment is updated online, edits

occur as entries are made.

C. Updates the NSLDS database with enrollment data.

D. Returns the Acknowledgment/Error File (containing any rejected records or just the

header and trailer if there were no errors) for any file submitted by batch.

E. Forwards new and/or changed data to each affected loan holder (GAs, federal loan

servicers, lenders/lender servicers, and Perkins Loan schools/servicers).

4. School (or servicer):

A. Receives and saves the Acknowledgment/Error File, and reviews any error records.

Cycle is complete if all records are accepted by NSLDS.

B. Returns the corrected records to NSLDS as an Error Correction File within 10 days of

the date it is sent to the school (or servicer).

Goes online at www.nsldsfap.ed.gov and uses on of the online functionalities (update,

add, spreadsheet submittal) to certify enrollment for its students. No roster file will

need to be returned.

5. NSLDS:

A. Receives the returned Error Correction File and repeats step 3.

B. Forwards new and/or changed data to each affected loan holder.

education topics

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Title IV Loan Programs

NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide - IFAP: Home

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