Peralta Fit/Gap Analysis

Functions To Be Implemented03/27/2010

Peralta Fit/Gap Analysis# Topic/

FunctionalityFit/Gap Description/Comments/

Solution

7 Search Match capability Gap/Implement

Bring new field into SAFE for PeopleSoft Student ID. For Financial Aid counter staff, there is a need to limit full SSN view. Others in FAO will need to view full SSN. Do students have an ID card? Is the PS ID on it?

8 Bio/Demo update options Gap PeopleSoft update for names into SAFE is currently turned off. We will need to push student data from SAFE into integrated data repository. ISIR has the more accurate student info?? FAFSA address is the student address that should be stored in repository. Date of Birth is very important and should be stored as well. This should come from ISIR. We need input from both Admissions and Records. Need to decide who has most accurate data to use.

14 Schedule processes to run overnight or run at individual desktop

Gap Don’t necessarily want to load ISIRs on-demand during the day. May not even want to do it every night. Peralta can currently run/print individual letters, but can’t as batch. That would be nice.

15 Create ISIR load report to identify students eligible for the BOG A, B, or C fee waiver

Gap According to Peralta, there is a need for a report to identify BOG C eligibility only. Note: BOG C is packaged on award letter.

Want an export from PS into SAFE of BOG C eligible students.

18 Audit trail of ISIR Corrections Gap There is an audit trail but not specifically an audit trail for Corrections. Peralta wants a way to store multiple ISIRs so that FAAs can go back and select older ISIR as active. There should be automation to not override existing ISIR.

ISIR Processing

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Peralta Fit/Gap Analysis page 2

# Topic/Functionality

Fit/Gap Description/Comments/Solution

20

Track all ISIR transactions in chronological order

Gap/Implement SAFE mainframe doesn’t currently do this because not all ISIRs are stored. For SAFE-Web, we can implement this.

21

View text detail associated with ISIR Comment Codes, ISIR Reject Reasons, and SAR C Flags

Gap/Implement Mouse over on comment code numbers to view entire text.

Currently the FAAs need to do a PF9 to view the comment code text from one of the FAFSA screens.

ISIR Processing




4 Track all required verification documents

Fit/ Change Peralta wants to be able to perform single key action that allows FAA to say all documents have been received and verified. Currently, this has to be done at the individual document level and verification is on separate screen.

5 Track data verification was completed and by whom

Gap/Implement

It is desirable to identify person who worked on file by their logon.

6 Prevent disbursement if verification incomplete

Gap/Implement

On SC55, it would be nice if system wouldn’t let you go forward if verification code is not ‘y’ e.g. stop packaging if verification is incomplete.

7 Set up tolerance levels Fit/Implement Ex. If student exceeds the $300 award for work study ($300 is the set tolerance level), Peralta wants to be able to go back, review and change award level. A report would help that shows when a student is approaching tolerance level of award.

8 Request additional information from students after verification process is complete

Fit/Update SC13 is old and cumbersome, but works. Peralta wants to be able to send their own letters w/o merge with their own comments. Regents formatting of letters was horrible. The Colleges would like to be able to add a free form paragraph specific to an individual student when necessary.

9 Auto-load tax data into verification component directly from ISIR record

Fit/update If student uses IRS match on online FAFSA, this is automatically done. Checkbox in future?

Verification




2 Automatically assign required documents based on a student’s ISIR Comment and/or Reject Codes as well as other additional documents required for PCCD-specific processing- the requirement is to assign documents in an automated process to a group of students, preferably following an ISIR load

Gap/Implement

Document database; assign paragraphs related to comment and reject codes. We already have a number of letters assigned related to certain ISIR comments.Want more automation of tracking items – the assigning of documents according to information that comes in on FAFSA. On SC53, it takes them through packaging. They want flag set to stop awarding if verification not complete

In Regents, student could not be processed/packaged if the student verification worksheet wasn’t completed. All docs need to be turned in for packaging.

3 Record the same document (checklist item) for a group of students. For example, 20 dependent verification worksheets are received for 20 different students, and rather than accessing each individual student record to record receipt of the document, running a process to automatically complete these documents in batch. Note that recording a document for just one student is also an option.

Gap/ For Future Implementation

Would have to revise how we do batch inputs. Discuss look and feel of SC13. Discuss having a way to check off multiple fields at once when all documents are received. (SARA has this capability)

Checklists, Communications, & Comments




4 Setup and create as many different types of letters as needed by the 4 separate community colleges within the district

Gap/Implement

Currently in Mainframe SAFE there are only 99 documents available. There need to be 99 each.

Need to be able to email letters. Attachments did not work before – too many bounced back.

All students are supposed to have Peralta email addresses. Students need to activate these but there is a learning curve. The preference would be to only communicate with them through Peralta email. This would make is easier to implement attachments.

8 Ability for the front counter staff at each separate college to easily view a summary of any checklist items (documents), communications (letters), and comments for individual students

Gap/Implement

This is different than the universal screen. There needs to be security in regards to which fields they can view.

Checklists, Communications, & Comments




1 Track A&R data about a particular student at the term level, including academic career, program, plan, GPA, enrollment data & FA load

Gap/ Implement

A&R is PeopleSoft language. We can see enrollment data on SC11 but can’t view GPA unless they run SAP on student. This would be nice to have. Would need to pull in data from PS and maybe increase major field length.

Need to see enrolled units; possibly by college, must see SAP field to enter major, GPA, combined units and when units are taken e.g. 4 at 0002, 4 at 0005, 4 at 0008 = 12 units.

3 Use a census, or ‘freeze’ date, that is different from Student Records – this is not required

Fit/Change in Future

Want to be able to use different date than normal census date to know which students fall below ½ time. Don’t want to freeze anything. Would be nice to have this automated in the future.

Financial Aid Terms




3 Recalculate student budgets based on actual enrollment

Fit/Implement SC15 – currently doesn’t calculate automatically for AYR.Use MLMT.

Student Budgets

Item Types/Fund Management



3 Develop detail, summary, and matrix reports by fund and aid year

Fit/Improve SB37, can use PK56 (querying tool) Fine tune and make more ad hoc



Fit/Gap/ Implement?

Description/Comments/Solution

2 Mass Package a group of students Fit/Review to see if current batch job works for Peralta

Batch exists but Peralta doesn’t currently use. Peralta can do student by student on SC53. This needs to be updated.

4 Create equations that will select students as well as perform calculations to determine specific amounts

Gap/ Review For Future

Currently available – but not used by Peralta?

5 Repackage students based on enrollment changes throughout the aid year

Gap/Implement

Note from Judy “We have been using a 100% enrollment award. Implement MLMT, Pell and Cal Grants

8 Auto-package state grant funds according to delivered eligibility table

Gap/ Not now, Maybe Later

Note: state grant eligibility rules need to become part of the packaging criteria for state grants. Cal Grant most problematic – different system. Have students meet Title 5 eligibility.

9 Create multiple versions of the financial aid award letter

Gap/Implement

To be included in general discussions regarding letters

Awarding/Mass Packaging




10

Create item-type specific award messages that will appear on every award letter if the student has been awarded that fund

Gap/ Implement in Future

Electronic award letter – mouse over of item. Maybe through student portal.

11

In addition to reflecting a student’s awards, ability to include Cost of Attendance and EFC information on any version of the award letter.

Gap/Implement

This is desired.

13

Print an award letter for a single student or easily print award letters in batch

Fit/ Implement

For general discussion on letters

14

Label letters as either original or revised with the revision number included

Fit/ Improve Either have 2nd award letter or be able to mark revision more clearly

15

Provide self-service options to the students so they may view their award info online via the portal, as well as make changes to their award information

Gap/Implement in the Future

Portal view is desired at a later date to allow students to look at FA Awards and document info via their PeopleSoft portal. However, portal should be view only





18

Automate summer financial aid packaging, particularly Pell Grants

Gap/For Future Implementation

Not sure how year round Pell will go. At this time the colleges award Summer Pell manually. Checkbox for year round Pell only to be extracted in run (for summer 2011)

19

Track VA Benefits from ISIR and include as a resource for awarding

Gap / More Research Needed

These fields have been removed and are no longer being tracked per regulation and specification changes from the DOE.

For Cal Grants needed to factor into COA. Huge gap between state and fed funding. Small number of students. Needs state legislative change – more research needed.

20

Retain historical information on award letters including, but not limited to the following: processing date, identifiers of the counselors who made the award, type of assistance offered, amount of award and any special comments

Gap/Implement

In Regents, FAO logged on was recorded as performing any kind of action.

In SC13, we record initials. It would be nice to have person who issues award or send letter recorded.





21 Integrate sources of aid that are not awarded by the financial aid offices (such as EOPS)

Fit Thru PD Screens/Incorporate Functionality into SAFE?

This is a manual process and is entered on SC15. Chafee grants, private scholarships come in separately. ONLY FAO ENTERS AWARDS. Other departments may have limited view only access.

Need to be able to view outside awards – done through PD screens. They hand check to student but want it to show in history. Load from PS?





2 Place disbursement holds Fit/Implement When they get warrant registers to hold check. SC25 – place them in 00 so check won’t run. ‘T’ for tentative, ‘F’ for final – for disbursement to happen. Not in Paid status. SC15 and Sc25 – change status

It would be nice to have info on the warrant register that indicates that the check should be held.

3 Set a review flag indicating the student’s file is complete

Gap/Implement

Currently have to do line by line. Would be really nice to do in one click. For verification – need to set flag to ‘y’. For origination screen SA21, if you don’t set on SC25, it doesn’t get set on SA21. When you finish SC13, have flags on SC55. Set automatically. If verification fields on SC55 were on SC13, you could populate them and it would auto populate SC55 and SA21 as well.

5 Track loan entrance and loan exit interview completion on the Packaging Status Summary page

Gap/ For Further Discussion

Will there be a separate loan section or should loans be kept together with Packaging? Needs further discussion. Any notes for loan entrance or exit can be in notes (not separate screen). Should common loan screen (modify for direct loans) include entrance and exit dates? Loan notes could be on Sc23.

Status Summary Pages




1 Place holds Gap/Implement Update

Sometimes, students are close to being completed and FOAs will order check but place on hold (mark in pen) on check to bursar. It would be nice to have warrant register right on screen. There is still a need to print warrant register because students still come in person. Warrant register is printed as part of check writing process.

Assigning and Tracking Holds



2 Communicate with students via letters, notifying them of SAP status and requirements for reconciling SAP

Fit/ Implement Update

Peralta does have letters and they are different for each college. These are sent after SAP is run and grades are posted. If grade comes in late, after posting, it needs to be updated manually on SC57. It would be nice to have automatic rerun of SAP (SAP is currently only run 1x/term). There may be programming needed on PeopleSoft side. If we could only extract from students who have late grades entered for updates.

Satisfactory Academic Progress




7 Compare the amount of financial aid disbursed to the amount of financial aid applied via the SF Group Post process

Gap/ Implement in Future

INTERFACE TO PS STUDENT ACCOUNTS: Peralta programming necessaryNeeds to be added by District to PeopleSoft disbursement batch summary so that SF Group Post process can process asynchronously and prepare an automated comparison of expected disbursements to actual SF Group Post results

When we run checks in SAFE, we will need to tie into General Ledger. We wouldn’t put data directly into student account until we have interface. * Very important for audit issues

9 Automatically post non-federal aid to a student’s account without using SF Group Post

Fit Thru PD Screens/Implement in SAFE

Needs to be provided by District within the PeopleSoft disbursement processing.

10 Apply any and all financial aid to any and all charges on a student’s account, including but not limited to parking fines, late fees, etc.

Gap/ For Further Discussion

Needs to be provided by District within the PeopleSoft disbursement processing

The Board of Trustees wants FAOs to do this. Students have to agree to have fees deducted. Universities currently do this but community colleges don’t. PS check delay is problem Lots of extra fees these days; health, Easy Pass, etc.

Authorization/Disbursement




1 Track Federal College Work Study earnings based on payroll information

Gap/ Implement

Dual systems; parallel loads; FWS uploaded to SAFE from payrollPeralta built program to extract from payroll but want to do automatically – query from payroll at college level and upload to Safe

3 Identify students as Community Service employees

Gap/ Implement

SAFE’s work study programs have not been updated in a few years. Great for FISAP if student can be flagged. It will be categorized on FISAP.

4 Develop report to track earnings, and identify students who are close to, or already have, exceeded their work study award

Gap/Implement

This would be nice. A Flag to indicate that a student is close to exceeding award is desirable.

5 Package work study based on ISIR question

Gap/Implement

Would like this as an optional parameter for packaging rules.

6 Continue to maintain Access database of all student employment management at Laney College

Fit/ Implement

Implement at all colleges until PeopleSoft becomes reliable.

Student Employment



Fit/Gap/ Implement

Description/Comments/Solution

1 Process loans using FFELP CommonLine standards

Gap/ Implement?

Peralta doesn’t use this. Move by Fed Gov’t to direct loans – may not need for anybody. Revisit.

3 Track paper loan checks Gap/ Implement?

4 Process PLUS loans Gap/ Implement?

5 Track Entrance Interview Gap/ Implement?

6 Track Exit Interview Gap/ Implement

CommonLine Loan Processing




3 Reconcile PS disbursements to COD disbursements

Gap/ Do Not Implement?

Not a financial aid disbursement action; this is a student finance processing actionNeeds to be provided by District within the PeopleSoft disbursement processingWe reconcile SAFE disbursements with COD disbursements. Tom runs separate report. Ability to run on-demand report between SAFE and COD.

Pell Payment Processing




2 Determine who requires a R2T4 calculations

Gap/ Implement??

Currently R2T4 is not calculated in SAFE. Can this be done in SAFE?Post to COD

3 Calculate R2T4 in SAFE for multiple students based on SR withdrawal and notify FA regarding refunds

Gap/ Implement?

Peralta does have to post money after it has been returned to COD. To post immediately to student disbursement screen would be quite a step saver. Today this is a manual process. Need to research. Money has not been reconciled between college and district. How do other schools do this?

Return of Title IV Aid

Self Service# Topic/

FunctionalityFit/Gap Description/Comments/

Solution

1 Students can review award information via Self Service

Gap/ For Discussion

Board of Trustees wants this. For discussion with Minh and Teresa. Very desirable. Data mart requirements

2 Students can accept or decline awards via Self Service

Gap/ For Discussion

3 Students can view any outstanding documents they must still turn in to the financial aid offices

Gap/ For Discussion




1 Create FISAP report for each individual college

Fit/Update Cross enrollment needs to be made easier. Need a page or fields that show a student’s enrollment in all colleges

2 Create ad hoc reports Fit/ Update Yes. To see students enrolled less than ½ time, students that are on honor roll, etc. Don’t want to lose existing reports but want to be able to do these on demand.

3 Produce Fund Management reports

Fit?/ Implement

Does PCCD have the capability to produce the reports they currently need? Talk to Judy L to see if there are additional fund management reports she wants

4 Download Query results in Excel Fit/ Update SAFE provides data export capability; it is PCCD choice if Excel is used for spreadsheet import

A lot of PeopleSoft reports can be downloaded and imported into Excel. It would be nice to add more automation here.

Reporting




1 Track awards from the EOPS office and include in the student’s aid package

Fit/ Update FAO uses EOP Department lists; enters awards and orders checks manually; SAP is same Don’t want to let EOP edit reports. They provide report and FAO manually enters info. Can we upload spreadsheet into SAFE? There are not many of these now.

2 Process aid for students who don’t apply for federal aid, but qualify for district or state aid such as Chaffee Grant, BOG, CAL Grant, outside scholarships, Americorps, etc

Gap/ Implement

FAOs manually enter these. CalGrants is on chopping block for community colleges. It would be nice to upload these automatically. Standalone systems. They need ability to always add student manually into SAFE system for MIS reporting. FA elements (status, income, need) need to be merged into a transmission file to send to State. We currently have this but it was missing in Regents. BOG requirements for dependent status are different than Fed requirements. ** Need separate page for student BOG and send page to Recalc

3 Process BOG Tuition Waivers – consider using CC Apply

Gap/ Implement

See #2. Not considering CC Apply

4 Process CAL Grants Gap/ Implement

Actual CAL Grant eligibility must be separately determined or set up within SAFE packaging criteria. Judy has provided Web Site links. ESI to review. See #2

5 Process any and all other forms of state and district aid programs – the financial aid offices are required to consider all sources of state and institutional aid when determining a student’s eligibility for federal funds

Fit/Update Ability to add any outside funding is a fit. Peralta uses PD screens to record check no, etc. *Move PD data into SAFE

Non-Federal Aid Programs




2 Determine Ability to Benefit (ATB) Gap/ Implement

ATB determination is to occur outside of SAFENeed field on screen to check box. Universal place to confirm. Type of Test – 1-English, 2-Spanish; Scores? – Pass/fail is fine; Date (important)Is this used by other colleges/universities? If not, make college-defined fields. Would be nice to have on SC13

4 Track a student’s residency for COA and awarding purposes

Gap/ Implement with PS Problems Fixed

CC Apply System (Peralta’s enrollment system). To import admissions app and what they use to import residency problems – there are PS problems (name problems) and these need to be fixed first. Problems with updating student residency in PS

Miscellaneous

Documents

Peralta Fit/Gap Analysis