Release Notes: Item 1311-03

2014-2015 Regulatory Release (Source Code Changes, with User Guide updates)

This is the second of two release items which comprise the 2014-15 Regulatory release. This item contains code modifications for 2014-15 Federal processing: ADD Load processing, FM calculations, federal corrections and COD reporting. Item 1311-02 contains the 2014-15 file changes.

Modifications to address any further federal announcements will be issued as needed. 2014-15 packaging is scheduled for release when the Pell tables are available, typically by the end of December. Comment codes will be updated when the "SAR/ISIR Comment Codes and Text" manual is published. An upgrade to COD's XML schema 4.0a is planned for early next year, after testing with COD is complete. FISAP revisions will be released when final specifications become available, usually the following July.

New fields on the ISIR record (WF-ISIR-1415) include:

• Student and Parent Tax Return Filing Status, which add the filing status (single, married with joint return, married with separate return, etc.) to the tax return filing data that is used in need analysis; these are also correctable Federal fields that are added to the FAFSA and Federal Compressed screens
• Student and Parent IRS Display Flags, which describe whether or not IRS data was displayed to a student or parent who used IRS retrieval, and if not, why not; added to the CPS Communications screen

Parent-related fields that previously referred to "father" and "mother" no longer make this distinction, and have been renamed to refer to "parent 1" and "parent 2." Father/mother fields on the FINANCIER screens have been relabeled to Parent 1/Parent 2. Parent fields in the year-specific files also reflect the change, typically using P1 and P2; for example, previous years' WF-FE-P-FA-INC and WF-FE-P-MO-INC (father/mother income) are now WF-FE-P-P1-INC and WF-FE-P-P2-INC.

Most numeric fields (such as AGI, Income Tax Paid, etc.) have increased in size; corresponding fields are enlarged on the FINANCIER screens.

New NSLDS fields, which report information relating to the Direct Loan 150% rule, include a Direct Loan Susidized Usage Limit Applies flag and a Subsidzed Usage Eligibility Used amount. Both are displayed on the NSLDS screen.

Correction Field Numbers have changed due to the insertion of correctable student/parent tax filer status fields on the FAFSA. The Dictionary entries for correctable fields reflect the appropriate year-specific correction numbers.

Verification data for 2014-15 are based on the verification group to which a selected student is assigned. Group V2 (verification required for SNAP) is not in use for 2014-15. A new group, V6, is added; students assigned to V6 must have their Other Untaxed Income verified, as well as other financial information. For detail on this year's requirements see the ED publication GEN-13-16.

The top-level Verification screen displays the fields which can potentially be required. Like last year, fields that do not pertain to the verification group assigned to the student in context are protected against data entry. Untaxed income components are entered at the first detail level; expand (PF9) from the Student or Parent label on Verification screen to reach the untaxed income detail.

The Student and Parent detail screens each contain two columns, Untaxed and Other Utxd. Under the Untaxed heading are listed components required by groups V1, V5 and V6: IRA Distributions, Pensions, IRA Payments and Interest Income, as well as Education Credits. Under the Other Utxd heading are components required only by group V6: Pension payments (questions 45a and 94a on the FAFSA), Child support received (questions 45c and 94c), Living allowances (Questions 45g and 94g), Veterans noneducation benefits (Questions 45h and 94h), Other untaxed income (questions 45i and 94i) and other Money received (question 45j).

Implementation Notes

The attached zip file contains:

• SYSOBJH file (sy131103.txt) with replacement modules for all members in this release. The SYSOBJH file contains 274 NATURAL objects; see the List of Affected Modules for a complete list. Library name: FATEMP
• FINANCIER User Guide update pages (ug131103.pdf) to be printed and inserted into the manual, with update instructions (uginstr.pdf).

To implement the 2014-15 Regulatory release, complete the following steps:

1. Unload the SYSOBJH file in the attached zip file into a temporary library.
2. SYSMAIN the new and updated modules from your temporary library into your development library. When copying the updated versions of source modules, be sure to review your current 2013-14 modules and apply any institutional modifications to the appropriate 2014-15 version.
   The new modules are the year-specific components named W*15*. The updated modules are:
   • WFAIDYND (mods)
   • WFAIDYNS (mods)
   • WFAIDYRD (mods)
   • WFAIDYRS (mods)
   • WFLOGONM (mods)
   • WFMAINFL (mods)
   • WFMCL14M (mods)
   • WFMENUBM (mods)
   • WFNANCLE (mods)
   • WWFXREFL (mods)
   Please note: as described in release item 1311-02, the FISAP income fields in the non-year-specific file WF-AIDYEAR have increased in size to P8. This makes it necessary to modify the Need Analysis Calculation screen maps for previous years (WFMCLnnM) to properly display these fields. We have delivered versions of the year-specific maps for the four prior years (2010-2011 through 2013-2014), but if you are supporting data for additional years, or have modified the Need Analysis Calculations map, you may wish to modify some maps manually. We have supplied a mod file for the 2014 version (WFMCL14M above) to be used as an example.
3. Roll your 2013-14 institutional calculations forward to 2014-15 and make any modifications necessary due to institutional requirements.
• Application Checklist
• Application Requirements
• Budget
• Disbursement Checklist
• Disbursement Requirements
• Loan Certification
• SAP calculation
4. Execute a CATALL against your development library to pick up all data area changes.
5. On the FAO Table maintenance screen (under the System menu), when all FAO-specific calculations are in place, for each valid FAO at your institution, modify the High Year field (WW-TABLES.WW-HI-YEAR) to contain the new aid year.
6. Modify JCL in the ADD Import job (WFADDIMJ) for 2014-15 to accommodate increased ISIR record length of 4700 (Work File 1).
7. Print the changed pages and User Guide update instructions in the zip file.
8. Perform institutional testing. When testing is complete, you may move the released modules to your test and production environments.