On Friday, the Department of Education issued two reminders for institutions regarding the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System.
The first was to remind institutions and third-party servicers that contact information in the COD System must be kept current. ED provided information on how to update contact information if necessary.
The second was to remind institutions that as the 2025–26 award year ramps up, they should be aware of key processing trends and scheduling tips in the COD System to avoid delays and smooth operations.
Submitting Updates to School Contact Information
Changes to the Pell Grant and Direct Loan financial aid officers’ contact information are made via the COD website by the COD Security Administrator (School User Level 5). To view and/or update the current contact information for these officers, complete the following steps:
- Log in to the COD website.
- From the School tab, select the “Financial Aid Contact” link (located under the School Information menu). The School Financial Aid Contact Information screen displays the current information for the school.
- Update or add new contact information by clicking on the “Update” or “Add New” button in the heading for the officer to be updated.
- Complete the new information and submit the changes, which will be processed and updated immediately on the COD website.
Changes to other school information cannot be made via the COD website and must be made using the Electronic Application for Approval to Participate in Federal Student Financial Aid Programs (E-APP) within 10 days of the change (see Volume 2, Chapter 5 of the 2024-2025 Federal Student Aid Handbook for a list of changes that must be reported).
This includes changes to the following information:
- School name
- School address (including any branches and locations)
- Names of the president, chief financial officer, and financial aid administrator (or equivalent titles)
- Telephone numbers and email addresses for the above officials
When updating your schools’ information, please keep in mind these formatting rules:
- Do not use ALL CAPS in the name, address block, or copy section at the bottom of the letter (Cc: CFO, FAA, FSA staff).
- Include a comma between city and state (e.g. Anywhere, MD)
- Include leading zeros for OPE ID numbers (e.g. 00371400)
Once the updates to the E-App are processed, the COD website is usually updated within 24 hours. If you have other questions about this communication in the COD System, contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978. The contact center is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday. You may also email CODSupport@ed.gov. For help completing the E-App, please email CaseTeams@ed.gov.
Peak Processing Period for the 2025-26 Award Year
To assist schools with planning and processing, the Department of Education reminds you of the following:
- Origination and disbursement responses are processed throughout the day and are often sent to schools within hours. During this peak period, batch processing may take longer. In the unlikely event batch processing takes longer than 24 hours, the FSA Partner and School Relations Center will contact affected schools on the next business day.
- Mondays and Tuesdays are the heaviest processing days. If your school has system flexibility in scheduling batch submissions, you may want to consider sending data later in the week.
- All system-generated responses (see the full list in Volume 2, Section 2 of the COD Technical Reference) are processed once a day at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time (ET) for activity that occurred the preceding day. As with batches, in the unlikely event system-generated response processing takes longer than 24 hours, the FSA Partner and School Relations Center will contact affected schools on the next business day.
- Most schools may submit actual disbursement records (Disbursement Release Indicator (DRI) equals “True”) up to seven calendar days in advance of the disbursement date. This applies to all award types.
- Contact Information: If you have questions, contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978. The contact center is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. You may also email CODSupport@ed.gov.
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