Review of Recent Announcements

As a service to its participating schools and lenders, Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority offers the following review of recent announcements and releases from the U.S. Department of Education and related sources.  These reminders cover topics of general interest and importance that relate to the administration of federal student aid.

Electronic Announcements

Date: December 4, 2007
Summary: The 2008-2009 CPS Web demonstration site, available beginning December 5, 2007, contains most of the features of the production versions of FAFSA on the Web and FAA Access to CPS Online (including Return of Title IV Funds) with preloaded test data. Username and password are required.
http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/1204WebDemoSiteAvail0809.html

Date: December 4, 2007
Summary: The calendar year 2008 FFEL variable interest rate for those PLUS/SLS promissory notes that provide for a calendar year adjustment based on the “91-day Treasury Bill” method is 8.42 percent [4.67% (91-day T-bill average) + 3.75%].
http://ifap.ed.gov/ffelvarrates/1204PLUSVariableRates08.html

Date: December 13, 2007
Summary:  The Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) School Relations Center will conduct Common Record Manual Verification and Structured Application Testing for the 2008-2009 Award Year from January 2, 2008 through July 25, 2008. The testing provides schools and third party servicers an opportunity to test business processes and system software with the COD System prior to the transmission and processing of actual production data.
http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/1213SchoolTesting0809Correction.html

Date: December 17, 2007
Summary: In addition to the Federal School Code search already available on FAFSA on the Web, the Code list of participating schools is available in PDF format on the IFAP Web site.
http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/1217FederalSchoolCodeListAvail.html

Date: December 19, 2007
Summary: The 2008-2009 PDF versions of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSAA) are now available.
http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/121907PDFFAFSAs0809.html

Date: December 21, 2007
Summary: CCRAA Operational Implementation Guidance—a new question relating to the TEACH Grant Program will be included on the 2008-2009 FAFSA on the Web, but not on the paper FAFSA. The question is intended to assist in identifying potentially eligible TEACH Grant recipients.
http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/122107CCRAANewTEACHGrantQuestionAddedtoFOTW.html

Date: December 21, 2008
Summary: Availability of EDExpress for Windows 2008-2009, Release 1.0, which contains Global, Application Processing, and Packaging functionality.
http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/010308AvailEDExpress0809Rel1.html

Conferences and Presentations

Date: December 7, 2007
Summary: The 2007 FSA Federal Student Aid Conference presentations for all general sessions and all breakout sessions have been posted to the IFAP website.
http://ifap.ed.gov/presentations/07FSAConference.html

Dear Partner/Colleague Letter

Date: December 18, 2007
ANN-07-24
Summary: Recorded Internet Briefings (Webinars) on new Title IV Student Assistance Legislation and Regulations presented by Jeff Baker on December 5 and 12, 2007 are now available. Each recording lasts approximately 1 and 1/2 hours, and will be available until March 5, 2008.
http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/ANN0724.html

NSLDS Reference Materials

Date: December 21, 2007
Section: Newsletter 16
Summary: Discusses the upcoming implementation of an email notification process that will replace NSLDS User ID and Password letters as well as Enrollment Late Letters.
http://ifap.ed.gov/nsldsmaterials/NSLDSNewsletter16.html

Verification Worksheets

Date: January 4, 2008
Summary: Availability of both the Dependent and Independent Verification Worksheets in PDF format.
http://ifap.ed.gov/vgworksheets/0809VerifWkshts.html

Any questions related to this Bulletin should be directed to UHEAA Policy and Training at 801.321.7166, or by e-mail to mjohnson@utahsbr.edu.

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