The Department of Education has discovered an error in the FAFSA that generates an inaccurate SAI calculation for dependent students who reported assets on their application; students who did not report assets are not impacted. Institutions who received ISIRs prior to March 21 should follow the guidance below to ensure that their students receive an accurate financial aid package.
If you received ISIRs for Dependent Students prior to March 21, 2024:
- For a dependent student without assets, continue processing as planned.
- For a dependent student with assets, the ISIRs delivered prior to March 21, 2024, will be reprocessed by the Department. As an interim fix, schools and states can recalculate the SAI to develop a tentative aid package for an affected student without waiting to receive a reprocessed ISIR.
- Complete instructions for calculating an SAI are available in the 2024-25 Student Aid Index and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide or by viewing the Student Aid Index (SAI) webinar broadcast on June 22, 2023 and available in the FSA Training Center.
The full announcement (GENERAL-24-24) follows:
POSTED DATE: March 22, 2024
AUTHOR: Federal Student Aid
ELECTRONIC ANNOUNCEMENT ID: GENERAL-24-24
SUBJECT: Update on 2024-25 FAFSA Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) Delivery
This electronic announcement provides an update for institutions and vendors as they continue to receive Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and package financial aid offers for students. To date, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) has processed more than 1.5 million FAFSA applications and delivered ISIRs to the majority of schools, states, and designated scholarship organizations. We expect to continue delivering a significant volume of ISIRs over the coming days.
At this time, schools and states can and should begin processing ISIRs and preparing aid packages for students. If a school needs assistance getting started, the Department continues to provide resources to help. Please see the “Need Help?” section at the end of this announcement and get in touch now.
Earlier this month, we started delivering ISIRs to schools in batches that increased in volume in order to test, identify, and address any issues as we ramped up ISIR processing and delivery. As we started to deliver ISIRs at scale, we identified an issue that we want to bring to schools’ attention. This issue should not prevent schools from processing ISIRs and preparing aid packages, and only affects ISIRs delivered prior to March 21, 2024. To date, we have delivered over 1.3 million ISIRs to schools that are NOT affected by this issue, and schools can process those records as planned. The Department has also resolved the issue for all ISIRs delivered on and after March 21, 2024.
Today, the Department is releasing information to support institutions, software developers, and states to answer common questions that have been raised and providing resources to troubleshoot known issues. This Technical FAQ and Known Issues Guide will document and respond to frequently asked questions about production ISIRs for the 2024-25 FAFSA year. We will update this Guide regularly through March and April 2024 as we continue to receive and respond to questions from partners. In addition, the Department is hosting a webinar on March 22 and will continue to provide these opportunities for communication on an ongoing basis.
Incorrect Dependent Student Contribution from Assets
The FAFSA Processing System (FPS) was not including all data fields needed to correctly calculate the Student Aid Index (SAI) for dependent students who reported assets. The FPS used the student’s Adjusted Net Worth of Businesses and Investment Farms to calculate the Student Contribution from Assets (ISIR field 328) and should have also included the student’s Current Net Worth of Investments and Total of Cash, Savings, and Checking Accounts. This resulted in an SAI that was lower than expected and an inaccurate total Student Contribution from Assets value.
This issue resulted in inaccurate ISIRs for dependent students with assets delivered to FTI-SAIG mailboxes prior to March 21, 2024.
If you received ISIRs for Dependent Students prior to March 21, 2024:
- For a dependent student without assets, continue processing as planned.
- For a dependent student with assets, the ISIRs delivered prior to March 21, 2024, will be reprocessed by the Department. As an interim fix, schools and states can recalculate the SAI to develop a tentative aid package for an affected student without waiting to receive a reprocessed ISIR.
- Complete instructions for calculating an SAI are available in the 2024-25 Student Aid Index and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide or by viewing the Student Aid Index (SAI) webinar broadcast on June 22, 2023 and available in the FSA Training Center.
While the Department has resolved this issue, we will add this information to the 2024-25 FAFSA Issue Alerts page and communicate with schools about reprocessing affected ISIRs once those details are finalized.
Need Help?
For technical issues related to ISIR processing:
- For support with your SAIG agreement and mailbox, or for help with technical issues related to ISIR processing, the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP), or EDExpress, contact the FPS Help Desk (formerly CPS/SAIG Technical Support) at 1-800-330-5947 or by email at support@fps.ed.gov.
- For issue alerts, visit this 2024-25 FAFSA Issue Alerts page.
- For general questions related to the 2024-25 FAFSA, we welcome our partners to continue using the Contact Customer Support form in FSA’s Partner Connect Help Center. To submit a question, please enter your name, email address, topic, and question. When submitting a question, please select the topic “2024–25 FAFSA.”
To request assistance with financial aid management systems configuration or processing applications:
- For schools that need direct technical assistance related to processing applications and packaging aid award offers, please continue submitting your requests to the College Support Concierge mailbox CollegeSupportStrategy-FAFSA@ed.gov.
Attachments
The Department of Education strives to make all content accessible to everyone. While this document does not currently meet the standards of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, Federal Student Aid is working to create an accessible version. If you need access to this document before the accessible version is available, please contact the Information Technology Accessibility Program Help Desk at ITAPSupport@ed.gov to help facilitate.
Technical FAQ and Known Issues Guide in PDF Format, 7 Pages, 217KB
SOURCE: (GENERAL-24-24) Update on 2024-25 FAFSA Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) Delivery