On Monday, September 30, the Department of Education made the EDExpress Release 1.0 available for the 2020-2021 packaging year so schools can begin downloading FAFSA documents for the new aid year. EDExpress is a fully integrated software package provided by the U.S. Department of Education that allows schools to process, package, and manage student financial aid records electronically in an easy-to-use Windows format. This release will not overwrite previous year cycles, however, it will create the new cycle for the 2020-2021 FAFSA data to be downloaded.
Updates to the EDExpress format were made on the global functionality and application processing modules. There were no updates to the packaging modules at this time. Updates include:
- Change of cycle reference, message codes, and color-coded splash screen. Labels and references have been updated to reflect the “2020-2021” aid year. The icon and splash screen color of EDExpress has been updated to orange to correlate to the new aid year and match the FAFSA form.
- New indicator on the ISIR for Children of Fallen Heroes. This indicator identifies applicants who may be eligible for the maximum Pell Grant award and other Title IV funds as if they have a zero Estimated Family Contribution (EFC). Eligible students include dependents of a police officers, firefighters or other public safety officers who died in the line of duty. The new field, labeled CFH Indicator, is printed in the FAA Information section of the ISIR.
- Revision and removal of questions due to the new tax forms implemented in 2018.
- Revision of tax form questions to remove references to 1040A or 1040 EZ tax forms and include the new IRS forms, 1040NR and 1040 NR-EZ.
- Removal of exemption-related fields for students and parents.
- Revision of questions to ask whether students and parents completed the Schedule 1 form.
- Combination of questions about “untaxed portions of IRA distributions” and “untaxed portions of pensions” for students and parents.
- MyStudentAid mobile app added as an application source and transaction data/source type. This will allow viewers to determine if the application was completed or corrected through the MyStudentAid Application.
- The values will include:
- 8A = Application submitted through the mobile app
- 8R = Application renewal submitted through the mobile app
- 8C = Application correction through the mobile app
- 8E = EZ Application submitted through the mobile app
- 8G = EZ Application correction through the mobile app
- The values will include:
At this time, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriation has not been approved. Therefore, the Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedule used by the Release 1.0 Packaging module is based on the 2019-2020 Pell Grant payment and disbursement schedules in Dear Colleague Letter GEN-19-01, posted on January 23, 2019 to the IFAP Web site. After ED’s Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriation is finalized, we will update the Pell Grant Payment Schedule, if necessary, through a future release of EDExpress.
EDExpress is now available for downloading through the IFAP website under “Software and Other Tools,” called express21r1.exe. EDExpress 2020-2021 is supported currently for the Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 operating systems. For more information on the installation or for the desk reference packet, downloads are available below.
Cover Letter
Desk Reference
Installation Guide
Sources:
https://fsadownload.ed.gov/Repository/EDExpress2021Sept/EDExpress2021R1CoverLetter.pdf
https://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/100119The2021FAFSAFormStudentAidMobileAppAvail.html