Attachment A - FSA Current State TIVOD FINAL 20230922.pdf

FSA CURRENT STATE

September 2023

Student Aid Life Cycle

Awareness Application Disbursement Repayment Customer access information for Federal financial assistance and FSA in coordination with school financial aid offices

FSA in coordination with school financial aid offices

FSA through school financial aid offices

FSA through third-party servicers, collection agencies

▪ Customer learns about federal student aid options through online resources and the school financial aid office

▪ Applications are submitted online through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

▪ Customer receives results of the FAFSA

▪ Funds are disbursed through school financial aid offices

▪ Customer is assigned to a third-party servicer

▪ After graduating school and a short grace period, customer begins making interest and principal payments

▪ Customers delinquent for more than one year enter default

▪ FSA, through its vendors and collection agencies, pursues default resolution

FSA CURRENT STATE AID LIFE CYCLE HAS FOUR MAJOR PHASES, FROM

AWARENESS TO REPAYMENT

FSA PROCESSES MILLIONS OF APPLICATIONS EACH YEAR TO ORIGINATE AND

PROCESS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN FEDERAL AID

Awareness Application RepaymentDisbursement

Title IV Aid Recipient FAFSA® Federal Loans

U.S. Department of Education

Schools

Federal Work-Study

Grants

Title IV Direct Loans

FFEL

Perkins

Title VII HEAL

Financial Aid Package

In School

Grace

Repayment

Deferment

Forbearance

Other

Default

Federal Loan Servicers

FFEL Lenders / Guaranty Agencies

Forgiveness

Cancellations

Discharge Student Loan Forgiveness

Business Process

Operators

Paid in Full

FSA Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Architecture

TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT IN THE STUDENT AID LIFE CYCLE…

DCC CPS

Awareness Application

COD

Disbursement

School Financial Aid Offices (~5500)

DMCS

Default Servicing

BPOs Collections

FSA Schools Federal Loan Servicers** Manage all phases of data management, processing and engagement

FSA BPO

**Perkins loans are serviced separately by Educational Computer Services Inc.

Repayment

1 2 3

4 5 6 3

EDMAPS / FTI-DM

…IS SUPPORTED BY A COMPLEX SERIES OF INTERFACING SYSTEMS

COD: COMMON ORIGINATION AND DISBURSEMENT

Purpose and context

▪ The Common Origination and Disbursement system is the FSA’s processing platform overseeing the disbursement of aid funds, including Pell Grants & Direct Loans, to participating Schools and the origination of corresponding aid securities following disbursement.

▪ COD coordinates with CPS to estimate appropriate disbursement amounts and originate appropriate student-specific securities.

▪ COD transfers originated loans to third-party servicers to begin servicing functions. COD allocates loans to servicers using Loan Distribution Engine, which randomly assigns new borrower accounts to servicers within the parameters of established quarterly allocations based on servicer performance and evaluations.

▪ COD was implemented in 2002 as part of an Accenture contract initiated in 2000. COD was based on a TSYS credit card account template adapted for the student loan landscape.

COD was migrated from the TSYS data center to the Cloud in 2018.

▪ COD operates a website (cod.ed.gov) allowing users to track funding levels, create/change award and disbursement data online and launch requests to assist with data reconciliation between Schools and the COD System.

DISBURSEMENT AND REPAYMENT

SYSTEM INTERACTIONS

COD

Treasury

CPS FMS

FSA

Partner Connect

AIMS

PEPS

PAS

DMCS

NSLDS

DCC

EDMAPS

COD

Commerce

Federal Loan Servicers

Education

Schools

Credit Bureaus

NSLDS: NATIONAL STUDENT LOAN DATABASE SYSTEM

▪ The NSLDS is a centralized repository managing data for federal student aid recipients, lenders, guaranty agencies, servicers, and Schools for eligibility determination, Participation Management, & Oversight.

▪ NSLDS processes and maintains data pertaining to the following Title IV programs: campus-based programs, Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP), Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), and Federal grants.

▪ NSLDS also processes dozens of ongoing programs throughout the lifecycle of the loans for various other systems, including: pre- and post-screen student eligibility confirmation for CPS; Enrollment Reporting data and Exit Counseling Completion data to Federal Loan Servicers; main source of data for students to login and view loan history and change enrollment data

▪ NSLDS is the communication hub for: batch processing completion notices to FSA/NSLDS members; new user access notification to ED and ED Contractors; late Enrollment Reporting notices are sent to school’s enrollment reporting Points of Contact.

▪ NSLDS was first implemented in 1994 and has undergone substantial upgrades over the years, often to implement functionality associated with programs mandated by new legislation.

▪ In 2022, NSLDS was re-platformed to the Cloud.

▪ NSLDS operates a website (nsldsfap.ed.gov) for Financial Aid

Professionals to access data in NSLDS.

NSLDS

FMS

COD

EDMAPS

eCDRA PEPS

CPS

FSA

Partner Connect

DCC

PAS

AIMS

DMCS

Health & Human Services

Homeland Security

Social Security Administration

Treasury

Veterans Affairs

DefenseFFEL Lenders

Federal Loan Servicers

Schools

Guaranty Agencies

NY HESC

Education

SYSTEM INTERACTIONS

EDMAPS: ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYTICS PLATFORM

SERVICES

▪ The Enterprise Data Management and Analytics Platform Services (EDMAPS) system is a unified data platform housing and integrates current and future Next Gen FSA systems.

EDMAPS provides FSA with a more flexible technical architecture allowing FSA to respond to policy reforms and data requests more effectively.

▪ It also allows FSA to collect more data than it has in the past, providing additional insights into its programs and portfolio;

improved oversight of vendors; and enable a holistic view of operations.

▪ Contains the following components:

– Enterprise Operational Data Store (ODS) Platform – provides a common environment to host multiple applications’ databases leveraging a common set of tools and standards

– Enterprise Data Warehouse & Analytics (EDWA) – provides a Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) engine for performing analytics, statistical modeling, machine learning, and full financial aid lifecycle reporting of FSA’s data

– Master Data Management (MDM) – provides master data services for developing the “golden record” for certain entities. The current platform focuses on the person data entity

– Data Lake – provides for the management of ingesting, curating, and archiving high volumes of structured and unstructured data

▪ EDMAPS was implemented 2021.

▪ EDMAPS has no public websites.

EDMAPS

FMS

COD PAS

NSLDS

CPS

FSA

Partner Connect

DCC

PAS

DMCS

Federal Loan Servicers Schools

Guaranty Agencies

ED

Medallia

FTI-DM

Education

FTI-DM: FEDERAL TAX INFORMATION DATA MART

▪ The FTI Data Mart provides an analytics and reporting system, using IRS provided Federal Tax Information (FTI), in a highly secured environment (1075 GSS) which meets the use and constraints requirements of the Internal Revenue Code § 6103.

▪ The FTI is ingested into the data mart from a data feed from the FTI Module (also within the 1075 GSS) and joined with data ingested from EDMAPS, FSA’s central data repository.

▪ The FTI DM provides the Department of Education the ability to use income information in analyses and reporting so long as the actual protected FTI data does not leave the 1075 GSS.

▪ In order to meet the security requirements mandated by IRS for the use of its data:

– Users must undergo strict training regarding the use of the data and understand the penalties for unauthorized access, unauthorized use, and any release of IRS data.

– Any data or reports leaving the FTI DM must be reviewed for any potential disclosure of IRS provided data. The disclosure review assures the data/reports are in accord with approved data use cases, do not include any IRS provided data elements, and do not provide PII. Data must be aggregated so as not to enable PII reverse engineering.

– Data Leak Protection (DLP) is used to ensure no data labeled or tagged as FTI is released.

– Access to the FTI DM is available only through the Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) maintained by the provider of the

1075 GSS.

▪ FTI Data Mart was implemented in 2023.

▪ FTI Data Mart has no public websites.

FSA'S REFERENCE DATA MODEL SUBJECT AREAS FOR TIVOD BUSINESS DATA

A FEW KEY FSA SYSTEM DESCRIPTIONS

• Determines a borrower’s eligibility for federal loans and notifies students and educational institutions of the results of the eligibility calculation, drawing primary data from borrower’s FAFSA applications, internal databases (NSLDS), and various external sources, including the SSA, DOJ, and DHS

• Performs image and data capture of paper applications, developing and managing the mainframe eligibility determination system, providing Web-based applications and services, developing personal computer (PC) based financial aid software, printing and mailing eligibility documents

• CPS supports Participation Management (PM) for FSA Title IV programs

CPS – Central Processing System

• Customer "digital front door," for federal student aid experiences from application through student loan repayment

• Interfaces with:

• COD – to add/update/retrieve demographic, tax, loan information

• CPS – to allow the mobile app to submit the

FAFSA

• DMCS – to retrieve discharge related information

• NSLDS – to add/update/retrieve contact information, ombudsman data, enrollment data etc.

DCC – Digital and Customer Care

• System tracking and managing collection activities associated with defaulted accounts no longer managed by the servicers.

• Interface with:

• COD – sends data on grants and loans.

• DCC – retrieves discharge related information

• NSLDS – weekly data exchange to update student loan history

• FMS – exchanges payment data to account for full loan portfolio which is passed onto G5

• Servicers – exchanges default data monthly, rehab direct loan and FFEL data

DMCS – Debt Management Collection System

• Consolidates and manages all financial transactions from FSA's feeder systems from loan disbursement through the repayment cycle

• Interface with:

• COD – exchanges data about G5 and other financial transactions.

• DMCS – exchanges Treasury reports, general ledger summary, loan transfer data etc.

• NSLDS – transfers lender demographic information

FMS – Financial Management System

• A unified digital frontend platform for school partners, financial institution partners, FSA staff, and contractors involved in the administration of Title IV financial aid for postsecondary education.

• Provides centralized access to FSA policy, guidance, and training and through its web application consolidates access to distinct FSA websites.

Partner Connect – FSA Partner Connect

SYSTEM ACRONYMS

Acronym System Name AIMS Access & Identity Management System

BPOs Business Process Operators

COD Common Origination and Disbursement

CPS Central Processing System

DCC Digital Customer Care

DMCS Debt Management Collection System eCDRA Electronic Cohort Default Rate Appeals

EDMAPS Enterprise Data Management and Analytics Platform Services

FMS Financial Management System

Acronym System Name FTI-DM Federal Tax Information Datamart

FTIM Federal Tax Information Module

HOPS HEAL Online Processing System

NGDC Next Generation Data Center

NSLDS National Student Loan Data System

Partner Connect

FSA Partner Connect

PAS Person Authentication Service

PEPS Postsecondary Education Participants System