O D_Reqs_-_Sec_6_-_O D_Web_Support_-_Final_v.3_UPDATED_2-28-14.pdf

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-1 O&D Web Support Services

Section 6. Web Support Services Solicitation ED-FSA-14-R-0013

6.0 Overview

6.0.1 Purpose and Objectives

The Origination and Disbursement (O&D) Web Support Services function shall fulfill FSA’s need to provide borrowers, schools, FSA staff, Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), and involved third parties with the ability to maintain and manage all aspects of the loans and grants processing via web interfaces.

In addition, Web Support Services shall support applicants in completing the required steps of the federal student aid process, such as signing Master Promissory Notes (MPNs) and completing counseling, as well as providing general information regarding federal student aid via a web interface.

FSA has established the following business objectives for the Web Support Services function:

• Increase use of self-service interactions;

• Improve the level of customer satisfaction by ensuring ease-of-use and completeness of functionality for all stakeholders;

• Reduce cost, where practicable, by increasing transparency of cost and cost drivers and providing FSA oversight tools to manage operational costs effectively;

• Enable ever-greening of technology (i.e., ensure ready adaptability to new technologies and best practices);

• Support severability from O&D umbrella contract; and

• Provide “Demonstration Sites” to improve training and understanding the functionality of the Web modules.

6.0.2 Scope

Web Support Services shall support the operation, maintenance, and hosting of the following web support components:

• O&D Web – this module shall provide a centralized site for schools’ Financial Aid Administrators (FAAs), third-party servicers working on behalf of schools, FSA staff, CSRs, and other authorized users to perform a variety of functions related to the loans and grants processing activities, management, and reporting for Title IV Programs.

• Applicant Web – this module shall provide borrowers with capability to perform required award origination and management functions. Applicant Web shall also provide general federal student aid information and links to other relevant web sites as required by FSA. Today, much of this functionality is provided by StudentLoans.gov and TEACH-ATS.gov.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-2 O&D Web Support Services

6.0.3 O&D Architectural Framework

Figure 6-1 illustrates the role of the Web Support Services function in the Origination and Disbursement Requirements Functional Architecture.

Figure 6-1: Web Support Services modules within the O&D Requirements Functional Architecture.

Submission O&D Processing Results / Reporting

O pe ra tio ns

Su pp or t

Cu st om er

Se rv ic e W eb

Su pp or t

Co rr es po nd en ce

1 O&D Web refers to O&D web site(s) for use by schools, Customer Service Representatives, and FSA.

2 Applicant Web refers to O&D web site(s) for federal student aid applicants (students, parents, endorsers) (currently StudentLoans.gov and Teach-ATS.gov).

3 Paper MPN refers to processing of paper Master Promissory Notes (currently covered as “Ancillary Services” in the FEBI contract but expected to move to O&D).

Origination & Disbursement (O&D) Requirements – Functional Architecture

Technical Operations Support

Re po rt in g M od ul e

O

D O pe ra tio ns

P or ta l

Applicant Support

School Support

O&D System

Loan Distribution

Lo an s & G ra nt s P ro ce ss in g SAIG

(Batch)

O&D Web1

Applicant Web2

Paper

MPN3

Originations & Disbursements

Processing Financial Processing

Student to

School Level

Booked Loans

Submission Methods

Sc ho ol s

Ap pl ic an ts

Funds Management

(School Funding)

O&D Web

Applicant Web

Program Management Office Support

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-3 O&D Web Support Services

6.1 O&D Web

6.1.1 Overview

The O&D Web shall provide a centralized website for schools’ Financial Aid Administrators (FAAs), third-party servicers working on behalf of schools, FSA staff, CSRs, or other authorized users to perform a variety of functions related to the administration and management of federal loans and grants processing.

Figure 6-2: O&D Web Functionality and Users

As shown in Figure 6-2 above, O&D Web shall provide its defined and authorized users with the following areas of functionality, which are detailed further in this section:

• View General Information – Shall include news and updates including legislative, process, and FSA changes, correspondence, and other general information regarding a borrower, award, school, and xml documents.

• Search record– Shall allow users to search for web information by person, award, school, batch, endorser, and by specific users of the web module.

• Create record(s) – Shall allow users to create person records, awards, and disbursements.

• Requesting Information –Shall allow users to request and re-request reports and documentation via the O&D Web using XML file format including, but not limited to, the Grant Data Request and the Direct Loan and TEACH Grant Rebuild files.

• Update record – Users of the O&D Web shall have the ability to update person records, awards, and disbursements.

• Disburse and Store Reports - Shall provide a repository and disbursement mechanism for certain reports, as required by FSA. In addition, some reports/files are sent to SAIG mailboxes.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-4 O&D Web Support Services

• View Funding Information – Shall display school financial and funding information, refund information, and cash activity.

The following is a list of the key enhancements that FSA requires:

• Provide a “demonstration site” for training and to allow third parties to explore the functionality of the O&D Web module. All demo site modernization and updates shall be synched with the existing O&D development cycle to assist schools and third party developers with understanding O&D Web changes and updates.

• Increase self-service capabilities using web-based tools.

• Publicize and provide an avenue for communication to the general public and O&D users using various social media platforms.

• Improve the closeout functionality to allow schools to close out all programs and award years for Grant programs.

• Provide schools with more efficient and flexible student aid processing options such as allowing Schools to submit awards for all programs for more than one student and one award at a time.

• Enhance the online disbursement reporting and payment analyst processing to mitigate the problem of high levels of records from older awards remaining in the queue for extended periods of time.

• Enable more real-time processing and updating of data in the O&D Web to allow users to retrieve and view data in a timelier manner.

• Expand on-demand reports available online and enhance school reporting options to better reflect user preferences for ad hoc requests.

• Include Campus Based program school level award and disbursement information in the O&D Web school funding page.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-5 O&D Web Support Services

6.1.2 O&D Web Business Requirements

A. Search Functionality

O&D Web shall offer a variety of search capabilities regarding student/borrower, award, batch, and user information. These search capabilities include:

• Person Search shall allow users to search for individuals based on student and borrower demographics (e.g., SSN and name) and display all awards and disbursement information for each person. This feature shall return personal information on the borrower including contact information and personal status data such as if he/she is a dependent of a deceased 9/11 veteran. It shall also return award completion status information, (e.g., if a borrower has completed his/her Entrance Counseling.)

• Counseling Search shall allow a user to view the completion status of the interactive counseling sessions that schools and/or the programs require for students to complete using the Applicant Web. The O&D System shall receive, process, and store counseling data sent from the Applicant Web; send it to the relevant schools; and make it available for search and viewing via O&D Web.

Additionally, users shall have the capability to download all search results to an Excel file as needed. The types of counseling tracked by the O&D system shall include initial and subsequent TEACH counseling TEACH exit counseling, entrance counseling, exit counseling, and financial awareness counseling.

• MPN/ATS Search shall allow users to search for either Master Promissory Notes or TEACH Agreement to Serve (ATS) information on file. This includes status (e.g., if a MPN or ATS is linked), important dates, and student details regarding a student’s ATS and eMPN. Additionally, O&D Web shall allow users to view a PDF version of the signed eMPN, paper MPN, and the ATS on file; as well as download search results to an Excel file as needed. O&D Web shall display the details and shall allow a user to create an award for the selected MPN/ATS for the applicant directly from the returned search results.

• Direct PLUS Loan Request Search shall allow users to search for Direct PLUS Loan Requests. O&D Web shall display the details and shall allow a user to create an award for the selected PLUS loan applicant directly from the returned search results; as well as download search results to an excel file. This feature is elaborated later in this section.

• Credit Check Search shall allow a user to search for a credit decision status or to request a credit check for a particular student/applicant. In addition, the credit check search allows a user to view the credit checks detail report for each borrower and allow users to download search results to an Excel file. When credit checks are completed on the web, the details and results shall be stored based on time/date/user/borrower identifiers etc.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-6 O&D Web Support Services

• Applicant Search shall display all the applicant federal student aid eligibility data, packaged as Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs), that the O&D system receives from the Central Processing System (CPS) as a part of the daily file. O&D Web shall also provide the user the ability to search the Pell Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) History, which is described below.

• Award Search shall enable a user to search and view a person/student’s Title IV award information given the award identifier. Some awards do not have award identifiers, thus a user must search using one of the other search methods such as the person identifier.

• School Search shall enable a user to search for information related to schools that the user has a defined relationship with. This capability shall also return the amount of funds that the school has drawn but the O&D System has not received disbursements for, as well as, the school’s current CFL and other available O&D information such as funding data, refunds, reporting, correspondence, each cash transaction, and the amount of that cash transaction that has been substantiated can be viewed on the COD web site.

For schools the user does not have a defined relationship with, O&D Web shall provide financial aid contact information for that particular institution and financial summary data.

• Batch Search shall enable users to search for Common Record documents by date range, by batch ID, or by SSN. The SSN and Date range search shall have other options and filters such as award year and batch type that can be added before or after searching. The batch detail shall provide the exact data that was submitted in a batch from the school or web as well as show the exact data sent in the responses.

• User Search shall allow users to search for users.

• Endorser Search shall allow a borrower to search for and view PDF copies of endorser addendums. User's shall retrieve the copies by inputting the borrower, student, or endorser SSN's.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-7 O&D Web Support Services

B. Create Record(s)

The O&D Web Create functionality shall allow authorized users to create records via the web. The O&D web module shall support the following create functionality:

• Person Create shall allow a user to create a new Person record by entering the required personal demographics (e.g., SSN, DOB, and name).

• Award Create shall provide an avenue for schools to create Awards for all programs.

• Disbursement Create shall allow a user to create one or more Disbursement records for a newly created or existing Award record by providing key disbursement information, e.g., gross amount, disbursement date, etc. The total of all Disbursement records for an Award may not exceed the award amount.

C. Request Record(s)

• Grant Data Requests shall be available for Pell and TEACH Grants. Pell Grants will have six reports that may be requested. These reports shall include:

Electronic Statement of Account (ESOA) Multiple Reporting Record (MRR) Reconciliation Report, Year to Date Report (YTD), Potential Over-Award Process (POP) Report, and Verification Status Report. For TEACH only MRR is available. Any report requests shall be available in the institutions SAIG mailbox within 24 to 48 hours.

• FAC Rsp Request and PLUS App Rsp Request shall allow schools to submit a request to the system to re-send all of the PLUS Request and Financial Aid Contact (FAC) responses.

• Rebuild Search Services shall allow schools to request a rebuild file. There are 4 types of rebuild file requests: date range, award ID, award year, or SSN. The system shall create a flat file with all of the data to allow the school to import the information into their system.

• Request Post Deadline/Extended Processing shall allow institutions to request Post Deadline/Extended Processing for the Direct Loan, Pell, ACG, National SMART, and TEACH programs via the O&D System. Institutions shall be automatically notified if the request is accepted, denied, or sent on for manual approval. If approved, a school shall submit the necessary adjustments during the timeframe determined by FSA.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-8 O&D Web Support Services

D. Update Record

• Person Update shall provide an authorized user the ability to update an existing

Person record in the O&D System, using the Person’s key personal demographics, i.e. SSN, DOB, and name.

• Award Update shall enable a user to update an existing Award record by modifying specific award information, e.g., zeroing the award amount, or by creating new Disbursement records.

• Disbursement Update shall allow a user to update an existing Disbursement record by modifying key disbursement information, e.g., disbursement date, accepted amount, etc.

E. General Information

• School Information shall include information such as eligibility status, funding, processing options, and other “School Profile” information. Schools shall be able to track their cash on hand against what they have disbursed to students via the O&D Web module. In addition, schools shall be able to view and re-request any correspondence related to Pell Grants, ACG SMART Grants, TEACH, or the Direct Loan Program sent to an institution either electronically or via the SAIG mailbox, through email, or via U.S. Postal service to assist with the control of funds.

• Financial Aid Contact shall provide a School Administrator user the ability to update Direct Loan Financial Aid Officer and Pell Financial Aid Officer information for schools. Note: All Personnel changes to a school’s Financial Aid Administrator, Chief Financial Officer, and President/Chancellor/CEO shall be made via an entry on www.eligcert.ed.gov and shall be changed within 10 days of the event that caused the change of contact.

• Awareness shall provide information updates and news releases that identify important messages from FSA about the origination and disbursement of Title IV loans and grants such as legislative changes and processes.

• All Awards shall display a list of Award records reported to the O&D System during a given award year. Additionally, O&D Web shall allow a user to view Award records for the current and three most recent award years in which the student was granted awards.

• Award Details shall display the details for a Title IV Award record such as the student’s enrollment date, the award amount approved and disbursed, the endorser information, whether the student was selected for verification, and the percentage of eligibility used.

• Award Disbursements shall display additional information for all disbursements for a given award (e.g., disbursement date, accepted amount, and processed date).

• Disbursement Details shall display the details for a given Disbursement record including disbursement date, accepted amount, status (e.g., Disbursed), date disbursed, and date processed for all programs (grants and loans).

• History shall display a sequence of events for this disbursement such as adjustments made and substantiation.

http://www.eligcert.ed.gov/

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-9 O&D Web Support Services

• Batch Information shall display all origination and disbursement information that an institution submits in a batch.

• Person Information shall list information specific to a particular person including:

o All of the Direct Loan Awards originated for this Person o The Person’s Pell awards from all schools for current and previous years for which an award was received along with all relevant Pell information. In addition, O&D Web shall provide access to the Pell LEU History, which shall display the student Pell Grant history including Pell Eligibility Used and Total Amount Disbursed.

o Person’s MPNs on file, important dates, and link status to originated awards.

o Person-related activities that have occurred (e.g., an MPN received).

o The ability to view, print, and request a mailed copy of all correspondence that has been sent to the Person who has attended or is currently attending an institution.

o Information associated with loans that have been discharged or had payments to servicing applied.

o A person’s loan and servicer relationship information.

• Federal Loan Servicer Information shall provide links to the web sites of the Federal Loan Servicers.

• Action Queue contains disbursement records that are identified as awaiting some “action” by the school or FSA Payment Analyst. The action queue shall also be used to search for past disbursement records that are still pending. An FSA Payment Analyst shall review and process any record in the review status before a response can be sent to the corresponding institution.

In addition, the Action Queue shall assist schools with reconciliation before a program year closeout. Institutions shall be able to view past anticipated disbursements and compare to the institutions internal records to see if they should have been disbursed or reduced to zero.

FSA requires the Action Queue offer an automated function to prevent the Payment Analysts from resolving any new records until records from older award years are resolved in order to alleviate the problem of having a high level of records from older award years remaining in the queue for months. In addition, users shall have the ability to view each student’s verification status code entered by the school in the Action Queue.

• Maintenance shall provide the ability for Federal Student Aid and Customer Service users to perform maintenance on award, promissory note, and ATS note data in accordance with existing operational procedures.

F. School Financial Information

• Summary of Financial Info shall display detailed information regarding the cash balance of an institution. This information shall support the institution with

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-10 O&D Web Support Services reconciling year-to-date totals. This data shall be pulled from the night before processing and displayed in School Account Statement (SAS) format.

• Funding Info shall display a complete summary of a school’s funding status for the Pell, ACG, National SMART, TEACH, and Direct Loan programs. This shall include historical CFL information, available balance, disbursement, and drawdown data and returned funds. This data shall be viewable both by Program and by Award Year. Additionally, FSA would like to enable an interface with eCB to include Campus Based program school level award and disbursement information on the O&D Web school funding page. The school funding page shall be one page that shows each disbursement as well as the history of events that have occurred for the disbursement.

• Refunds of Cash Information shall list the program and award specific refunds of cash returned to O&D. FSA’s recommended refund of cash method is through G5, but if an institution returns a paper check it shall be displayed in O&D Web. Paper checks are only processed for Direct Loans. However, the refund screen shall display all refunds from G5 as well as paper checks. In addition the screen shall have the ability for a user to enter a new paper check or make an update to a previous paper check.

• Balance Confirmation shall provide a method for schools to confirm the closeout balance at the end of the award year. Currently, schools have the capability to complete the closeout process for Direct Loan and TEACH programs/award years;

however, FSA requires functionality that allows schools to close out all programs and award years for Grant Programs as well.

In the event the ending balance is zero, FSA shall send a Zero Balance Confirmation letter. The institution must then access O&D Web and confirm the zero ending balance. If an institution’s ending balance is not zero, FSA shall send a Remaining Balance letter. Once a school is closed out, they will not have the ability to adjust any financial information unless they have been re-opened or granted Extended Processing.

• Events shall help institutions track the funding activities that have occurred (e.g., a CFL change).

G. Reporting

• Report Selection shall allow an institution to modify the format of how they wish to receive certain Title IV program reports. All previous award year report options shall be carried over to the next award year.

• O&D Reports shall provide access to available reports on the O&D Web site such as the Pending Disbursement List, SSN/Name/Date of Birth Change Report, and the Verification Status Report (please see Section 5 for more information on O&D Web Reporting). Several examples of O&D supported reports include:

o The ATS Discharge Report o Direct Loan Reports

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-11 O&D Web Support Services

FSA requires that the O&D Web reporting function shall expand on-demand reports available to internal and to school users. Users should have the capability to create parameter driven reports including parameters such as date range, loan type, cash, schools, etc.

Furthermore, reports and/or web screens should be modified to remove inactive loans and limit the number of award years where applicable. O&D shall provide a global online view of cash summary information with user defined parameters for internal and school users.

H. Access Requirements

To access the O&D Web module, a school or Third-Party Servicer shall get access via PM/AIMS. The school shall designate a School Security Administrator who shall be responsible for establishing other users and associated procedures. The O&D Web functions available to each user account shall be determined by the level of access designated by the School Administrator for each defined user. Each user is granted an access level ranging from 1(Lowest)-5 (Highest). User access shall be secured by a designated token or a user name and password.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-12 O&D Web Support Services

6.2 Applicant Web

6.2.1 Overview

The Web Support shall provide applicants with various required award origination and management functions through the Applicant Web module (Figure 6-3), which may consist of one or more applicant-facing web sites such as the currently-provided StudentLoans.gov and TEACH-ATS.gov. Applicant Web shall also provide general federal student aid information and links to other relevant web sites as required by FSA. All websites shall be 508 compliant and shall support all FSA supported browsers. General enhancements regarding Applicant Web include the following:

• Provide demo versions of the Applicant Web counseling tools that are available to third parties that do not have user access.

• Ensure Websites are available for mobile applications.

Figure 6-3: Applicant Web Functional Architecture

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-13 O&D Web Support Services

6.2.2 Loans Web Management Functions

As depicted in the Figure 6-4 below, the Loans Web Management Function supports several mission centric business needs regarding the federal student aid lifecycle. A user shall have the capability to complete and submit a pre-defined list of applications and or requests via the web module. Subsequently, the Web application shall create a secure profile for the borrower that allows the user to review and print their previously submitted material as well as any correspondence communicated throughout their loan repayment lifecycle. This information is stored and transmitted to the O&D Web module and the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) where it is reviewed and approved as needed by schools, Applicant Support Center CSR’s, and FSA users. The web module shall offer the defined functionality for users to complete:

• Direct PLUS Loan Requests

• Electronic Master Promissory Note (eMPN)

• DL Entrance and Exit Counseling

• Repayment Plan Requests and Co-Sign Applications

• Financial Awareness Counseling

• Endorser Addendum

• Electronic Correspondence

• Deferment/Forbearance Forms

• Loan Consolidation Application

Figure 6-4: Applicant Web-Loan Web Management High Level Functionality

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-14 O&D Web Support Services

The Applicant Web module shall support the following Federal Direct Loan web management functions, which are currently provided by studentloans.gov:

A. Core Award Completion Functions These functions are core award functionality that must be completed. These functions do not have to be submitted electronically; however, their completion is vital to the completion of the corresponding program.

• eMPN

The Applicant Web shall enable applicants to complete, submit, and print their electronic MPNs for all Federal Direct loans through the Applicant Web.

eMPNs shall be stored and maintained in an Applicant Web Database. The Applicant Web Database shall be hosted at Federal Student Aid’s Virtual Data Center (VDC) and shall store the images for Master Promissory Notes and Endorser Addendums.

• DL Entrance Counseling

Applicant Web shall enable undergraduate and graduate students to complete Direct Loan Entrance Counseling, which provides information on the Direct Loan process and ensures that the borrower understands the financial responsibilities and obligations he/she is assuming. If a student has not previously received a particular loan type (subsidized/unsubsidized or PLUS), under the Direct Loan Program or Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, the Federal Government requires each student to complete loan Entrance Counseling.

• PLUS Loan Requests

Applicant Web shall allow parents and graduate students to complete a Parent or Grad PLUS Request, including an authorized credit check. O&D shall continue to receive, process, and store award and disbursement records submitted by schools [or third party servicers] for the Direct Loan Parent and Graduate PLUS programs, regardless of the schools Website participation options.

• Endorse a Direct PLUS Loan

Applicant Web shall allow a person enlisted as an endorser by an applicant, whose PLUS application’s credit check was declined, to complete an Endorsement Addendum. The Endorser Addendum shall represent the endorser’s agreement to repay the Direct PLUS Loan if the borrower becomes delinquent in making payments or defaults on the loan. The endorser may not be the student on whose behalf a parent obtains a Direct PLUS Loan.

A Direct PLUS Loan borrower with adverse credit who has completed a Direct PLUS Loan Request shall have the capability to print an endorser addendum.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-15 O&D Web Support Services

• DL Exit Counseling

Applicant web shall allow Student borrowers graduating, leaving school, or dropping below half-time enrollment to complete Exit Counseling to obtain important information regarding repaying Federal Student Loans.

B. Special Award Completion Functions

The contractor shall be responsible for building, maintaining, and supporting several loan related forms and applications. This responsibility includes the design of the e-form, processing, data storage, data transmission to the servicers, problem resolution, and implementation support.

Additionally, Applicant Loan Web shall support the following:

• Income Driven Repayment Plans Request and Co-Sign Applications;

o Income Based Repayment (IBR) o Pay as you Earn (PAYE) o Income Contingent Repayment (ICR)

• Deferment/Forbearance Form

• Direct Loan Consolidation Application

Applicant web shall provide the capability for users to submit, review, and print a loan consolidation application via the Loan Web Management module. This application shall be pre-populated using the FSA existing National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). The LC application shall be accessed using the users secure and pre-determined identity management tool.

• O&D Documentation

Applicant Web shall allow a student to view and print relevant documentation generated by the origination and disbursement process, such as:

o Disclosure Statements o Completed MPN’s o Direct PLUS Loan Requests o O&D Correspondence (Correspondence Retrieval) o Completed Endorser Addenda

• Document Extenuating Circumstances

An applicant with declined credit shall be able to initiate the process of providing documentation of extenuating circumstances related to the adverse credit decision.

C. General Information & Other Related FSA System Functions

• General Info

Applicant Web shall provide general information regarding federal student aid programs, recent changes to the federal student aid process, what an applicant will need to complete the process, and frequently asked questions.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-16 O&D Web Support Services

• Financial Awareness Counseling (FACT)

The Financial Awareness Counseling is an optional tool that shall provide borrowers with relevant tools and financial information to assist them in understanding their financial aid and manage their finances. Schools may elect to receive Financial Awareness Counseling responses and determine the frequency to receive those responses. School users will also be able to search for and view Financial Awareness Counseling completion information and counseling responses on the O&D Web module.

• Repayment Estimator Tool

The Repayment Estimator Tool shall provide borrowers with the ability to calculate their expected repayment amount using various payment options.

• Sign-up for Electronic Correspondence, Users shall have the capability to sign up to receive electronic correspondence notifications via email/text. The actual correspondence is posted and retrieved from the Applicant Web. The permission to send electronic correspondence includes permission for the federal servicer to communicate with the borrower electronically rather than through paper correspondence.

• Gateway/Access FSA info and tools regarding:

o PIN.ed.gov o FAFSA.ed.gov o Studentaid.gov o LoanConsolidation.ed.gov

6.2.3 TEACH Web Management Functions

As shown in the Figure 6-5 below, the TEACH Web Management Function supports several mission centric business needs regarding the submission and acceptance of a TEACH Grant. A user shall have the capability to complete and submit their ATS application and complete their TEACH Grant counseling online.

Subsequently, the Web application shall create a secure profile for the borrower that allows the user to review and print their previously submitted material as well as any correspondence communicated throughout their Grant lifecycle. This information is stored and transmitted to the O&D Web module and the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) where it is reviewed and approved as needed by schools, Applicant Support Center CSR’s, and FSA users. For more information regarding the submission of a TEACH ATS application and the TEACH counseling, please see Section 3.4.2 of this document.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-17 O&D Web Support Services

Figure 6-5: TEACH Web, High Level Functionality

The Applicant Web module shall support the following grant web management functions:

A. TEACH Grant Completion Functions

The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program provides funds to students who plan to complete postsecondary education that qualifies them for a teaching career, and who agree to serve as a highly qualified teacher full-time for at least four years at an educational institution serving low-income students in a high-need field. All applicants for the TEACH Grant must complete TEACH Grant Counseling and complete an Agreement to Serve (ATS) each year before receiving the grant. A user shall use their FSA Personal Identification Number (PIN) to access, complete, view, and print their TEACH Grant Counseling and their ATS.

• TEACH Grant Counseling

Students interested in applying for the TEACH Grant must complete special TEACH Grant counseling, which explains their responsibilities and obligations upon receiving the TEACH Grant. TEACH Grant Counseling shall consist of initial and/or subsequent counseling that include a TEACH Grant overview, the student’s TEACH Grant ATS, the student’s service obligation and the conversion of a TEACH Grant to a loan. The Applicant Web shall allow a student to complete the TEACH Grant Counseling online, transmit the proof of completion to the O&D System and notify the provided school. Previously completed TEACH Grant counseling shall be viewable and printable via the Applicant Web module.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6-18 O&D Web Support Services

• Agreement-to-Serve (ATS)

Applicant Web shall provide students applying for the Federal TEACH Grant with the ability to complete and submit their Agreement-To-Serve document. The ATS shall confirm a borrowers acceptance of the obligations of the TEACH Grant.

Applicant Web shall require students to complete the TEACH Grant Counseling prior to accessing and submitting the ATS. All personal information such as name, SSN, and school shall be pre-populated from the FSA PIN Website. Additionally, a user shall be able to view and print their completed ATS via the TEACH Grant website. The ATS shall consist of the following:

o School Info, such as the year for which the student is receiving the TEACH Grant and the name and location of the school where the student is receiving the TEACH Grant.

o Student Info, such as a student’s contact information and two references.

o Review and Sign shall allow a user to review and sign the ATS via an electronic signature.

o Submission shall allow a student to review their ATS and submit the application electronically via the TEACH Grant website.

B. General Information & Other Related FSA System Functions

Applicant Web shall provide general TEACH Award Information explaining the TEACH Grant, its terms, obligations, and application process. The Contractor shall update the ATS database password provided by Federal Student Aid quarterly. The ATS Web site shall be hosted at Federal Student Aid’s Virtual Data Center (VDC).

6.3 Non-Functional Requirements

6.3.1 Key Performance Indicators

FSA requires agreed upon service level agreements to serve as operational targets for such activities as site availability and outage response time. However, FSA is open to recommendations for appropriate service levels to achieve the following business objectives identified in the beginning of this Section.

FSA currently maintains the service level specified in Appendix D of this document. FSA intends to maintain this service-level and also supplement this with additional key performance metrics and related service levels as needed.