FAFSA Simplification 2024-2025 Known Issues in ctcLink
The following are details on bugs with the delivered functionality in PRP 2.6 to 3.1 that have not yet been resolved by Oracle and details on known issues in CEMLIs and custom processes.
Last updated 2:47 PM 10/2/2024
Oracle-Delivered Known Issues
Known Issue: When Build FA Term is run for census, students with no enrollment activity for the term have the FA Load value set to N units while Enrollment Intensity remains at it's original value. The expectation is that students with no enrollment activity for the term will have FA Load set to N units and Enrollment Intensity set to zero.
Impacts: FA Processing
Resolution: Fix to be determined by Oracle
Workaround: FA Support has developed a pop update that can be run after the census jobset, to set the enrollment intensity value to zero for students with no enrollment activity for the term. This process is expected to be available to colleges at the end of the week (October 4).
Priority: High
Status: In Progress
PRP 3.1
Known Issue: When FA Term is run for Aid Year 2024, the enrollment intensity percent values on 2025 FA Term are changed (in some cases) from the previously correct values to zero. The issue is not seen for every student, but the subset of cases varies in volume
Impacts: FA processing
Workaround: Do not run EY ISIR Jobset (Aid Year 2023-2024) after implementation of PRP 3.1. In the event colleges need to run 2024, please submit a ticket to FA Support for assistance.
Resolution Timeline: Targeted for Image 34
Status: In Development by Oracle
PRP 2.7
Oracle Bug: 36474036
Known Issue: On the Parent Spouse/Partner tab of the Correct ISIR Records component for Aid Year 2024-2025, the 'Non-US Tax Return' field is not displaying correctly for any non-blank values valid for the Aid Year, based on what is documented in the Federal technical layout. There are six non-blank values that are valid for the field for Aid Year 2025, and these match the values used for the same field on the Parent Information tab, where the field displays correctly.
Impacts: Federal aid awarding
Workaround: No workaround. The full range of translate values are correctly populated for the field on both the staging and application tables, so the issue is only with the display on the page.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: High
Status: Patch in PRP 3.1
Known Issue: Loans are being canceled in Packaging evaluation for students who have not reached their aggregate loan limits.
The bug is causing the dependency status value to be X (dependent students) or Y (independent students) on the STUDENT_AID record.
Impacts: Online packaging, manual packaging
Workaround: Run this query QCS_FA_LN_DEPEND_STAT_BUG to identify these students, find the students with the incorrect dependency status value of X or Y. Once you have confirmed that a student has not reached their loan aggregates & has met all other eligibility to receive the loans, you should be able to award the loan on the Invoke Professional Judgment page.
To determine if a loan will need the dependency status value updated, navigate to Financial Aid > Loans > Direct Lending Management > Override Loan Application Data. Select the Direct Loan Demo Ovrd tab. If the dependency status value is X or Y, override it to D (dependent students) or I (independent students).
The override will then be included on your next outbound loan file.
Resolution Timeline: Partially Resolved
Priority: Medium
Status: Query for workaround is live in PRD. Update in the 08/02/2024 Weekylish Bulletin. Resolved for new ISIRs loaded, but not resolved for the ISIRs loaded before the fix was applied. The same issue exists until FA Support is able to complete the SQL update to update all the students in mass.
The following incorrect behavior has been observed after clicking the “Calc SAI” button without making any data changes:
- Dependent Students (Formula A) is not calculating Payroll Tax Allowances correctly for the Parent, and is not using federal tax paid amount as an allowance against income for the student.
- Independents without dependents (Formula B) is not using the federal tax paid amount as an allowance against income, resulting in calculated SAIs that are higher than they should be.
- Independents w/dependents and tax filing status is 1 (Married filing separately) the calculation is using Formula B instead of Formula C, which means, Federal taxes paid is not being considered as an allowance against income, resulting in higher SAI Calculations.
- Independents w/dependents and tax filing status is 2 (Married filing joint) the calculation is using Formula B instead of Formula C. In some cases, students in this category may also reject.
Oracle has logged it as a bug. Bug 36690305 SFP 2025 JAR File Update #5
Fix is targeted for Image 33 but may be delivered earlier in a PRP patch.
Workaround: Get the accurate SAI from the ISIR Suspense Management page and/or check the FPP in FPS.
PRP 1.3 - 2.6
For the 2024-2025 COD processing, the namespace 2021 should be 2023 as shown below:
<xsd:schema targetNamespace="http://www.ed.gov/FSA/COD/2023/v5.0b"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:cod="http://www.ed.gov/FSA/COD/2023/v5.0b" elementFormDefault="qualified">
However, the file that is generated in PS still shows 2021.
Oracle has logged it as a bug and provided a patch.
Bug 36594096 2024-2025 NAMESPACE IS INCORRECT AFTER APPLYING PATCH 35950393- 2024-2025 AID YEAR COD UPDATE (Doc ID 3021793.1)
As part of the 2024-2025 COD update, the namespace was updated as part of the 5.0b schema update. The initial 2024-2025 COD PRP updates did not include the correct update to the namespace, specifically updating the aid year reference from 2021 to 2023.
Latest Update: RESOLVED. FA Support tested the patch and it was applied in the production environment as of 06/21/2024.
When generating COD Pell outbound file to report disbursement of Pell, the process is populating the enrollment intensity at 100 for students who have an enrollment intensity value <1
Oracle has logged it as a bug.
Bug 36622653 COD PELL OUTBOUND DISBURSEMENT FILE ENROLLMENT INTENSITY INCORRECT IF LESS THAN FULL TIME
Latest Update: RESOLVED. FA Support tested the patch and it was applied in the production environment as of 06/21/2024.
SAIs are doubled on the Estimated Need page in Student Self Service for the 2024-2025 Aid Year. The logic on the page then reduces that doubled amount from the student’s Cost of Attendance, artificially inflating the student’s Estimated Need amount (if they have a negative SAI) or artificially deflating the student’s Estimated Need amount (if they have a positive SAI). This does not occur on staff-facing pages.
As of May 2024, Oracle has determined by way of Bug 36488556 and Doc ID 3015196.1 that a fix is scheduled for Image 33. Resolved
Navigation: Financial Aid > Awards > Award Processing > Assign Awards to a Student > Need Summary tab
Image below: Accurate -1500 SAI and Federal Need on the Assign Awards to a Student page
Navigation: ctcLink Student Homepage > Financial Aid tile > Financial Aid Summary link
Image below: Inaccurate -1500 SAI and Estimated Need on Financial Aid Summary in Student Self Service
Navigation: Financial Aid > Awards > Award Processing > Assign Awards to a Student > Need Summary tab
Image below: Correct 5216 SAI and Federal Need on the Assign Awards to a Student page
Navigation: ctcLink Student Homepage > Financial Aid tile > Financial Aid Summary link
Image below: Inaccurate 5216 SAI and Estimated Need on Financial Aid Summary in Student Self Service
Timeline: Resolves with PRP 3.1
Using the Mass EFC Calculation batch process produces the same issues as using the Calc SAI button. However, if there are students with Reject Reasons (accurate or not), error messages do not return in the Message Log for the Mass EFC Calculation process. The SAI will still update to an Official 0 SAI value. The Dependency Status is removed, and values on the SAI and Flags tab are set to 0.
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Image below: SAI value from ISIR on the 2024-2025 Suspense Management page, Example -1500 SAI
Image below: SAI value from ISIR on the 2024-2025 Suspense Management page, Example 31183 SAI
Navigation: Financial Aid > Federal Application Data > Correct ISIR Records
Image below: Key data points set to 0 or removed, and SAI Status inaccurately set to an “Official” 0 on Correct ISIR Records page True for both Examples
Some SAIs are modified by the new Calc SAI / Mass EFC Calculation logic, even when there are no Override values entered. Oracle has not yet provided an update for this functionality that can be used with confidence.
Navigations Impacted:
- Financial Aid > Federal Application Data > Correct ISIR Records
- Financial Aid > File Management > Mass EFC Calculation
- Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management*
- Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > Process ISIRs*
* Pages impacted if the Call Mass EFC logic is selected in the college’s ISIR Data Load Parameters configuration.
One of the pages with an issue is Correct ISIR Records due to PS SAI calculation not being accurate in some cases. We strongly discourage relying on the SAI calculation derived from the PS SAI calculation processes since the underlying logic still has many reported bugs awaiting resolution from Oracle.
PS calculates SAI during the following processes:
- Loading ISIRs into the Correct ISIR Records page
- Running Mass EFC Calc
- Selecting Calc SAI button
Workaround: The SAI straight from the ISIR file can be found on the 2024-2025 ISIR Suspense Management page.
When Dept of Ed sends an ISIR with a blank SAI, if the ISIR is an Official or Provisional status, it can get loaded into the system with an Official SAI value of zero.
Oracle has logged it as a bug.
Bug 36433624 ISIR RECORDS WITH BLANK SAI LOADING TO ISIR CORRECTION PAGE WITH SAI OF ZERO
Image below: 2024-2025 Suspense Management page shows a student with a blank SAI with Provisional status
Image below: ISIR loaded on Correct ISIR Records page shows SAI value of zero and Official status
Independent students often receive a “Rejects returned by the SAI Calculator” error message after using the Calc SAI button. The Transaction Detail tab displays Reject Reasons that do not accurately reflect the issues with the student’s data that needs to be modified/corrected. The SAI is then inaccurately updated to 0 and the SAI Status is set to "Official", significantly increasing the risk of inaccurate awarding. Similar error messages can occur for Dependent students, as well.
Navigations with Calc SAI Button
- Financial Aid > Federal Application Data > Correct ISIR Records
- Financial Aid > Federal Application Data > Simulate FM
Navigation: Financial Aid > Federal Application Data > Correct ISIR Records > SAI and Flags tab
Image below: An independent student “Rejects returned by the SAI Calculator” error message
Navigation: Financial Aid > Federal Application Data > Correct ISIR Records > Transaction Detail tab
Image below: The student’s Transaction Detail tab inaccurately populates reject reason codes tied to a dependent student
Workaround: Until this is resolved by Oracle, it is recommended for colleges to review the ISIR in the FAFSA Partner Portal to confirm the reject codes associated with the ISIR transaction.
For students with a rejected ISIR, the reject reasons/descriptions may be missing from the ISIR Reject Reasons link on 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Image below: Student with three reject codes in the rejected ISIR transaction
Images below: ISIR Reject Reasons link on 2024-2025 ISIR Suspense Management page does not display the reject codes
Until this is resolved by Oracle, it is recommended for colleges to review the ISIR in the FAFSA Partner Portal to confirm the reject codes associated with the ISIR transaction.
There are cases when both the old and new text for Aid Year 2025 ISIR Reject Reason Codes display in PS.
Image below: Reject Reason Code table in PS shows Reject Code 9/09 tied to Edit 1123 displays old text & new text
Image below: Text in Volume 5 Edits & Rejects FAFSA Specification Guide for Edit 1123
2024-2025 Volume 5 Edits & Rejects FAFSA Specification Guide, p. 22:
https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/202425FAFSASpecVol5EditsandRejects.pdf
There are cases when you load a rejected ISIR transaction followed by an official ISIR transaction for the student, the reject reasons from the rejected ISIR transaction appear on the official ISIR transaction in PS.
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Image below: A student has a rejected ISIR for transaction 01
Image below: The student has a rejected reason code of 12
Image below: The student’s next ISIR transaction (02) is official
Image below: PS shows the student still has Reject Reason 12 on the official ISIR transaction
There are cases when a rejected ISIR transaction is loaded into PS and an additional reject reason code not present in the ISIR appears for Aid Year 2025.
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Image below: The student has a rejected reason code of 12
Image below: The student has a rejected reason code of 12
Workaround: Until this is resolved by Oracle, it is recommended for colleges to review the ISIR in the FAFSA Partner Portal to confirm the reject codes associated with the ISIR transaction.
There are cases when a reject code description in PS does not match the descriptions in the 2024-2025 Volume 5 Edits & Rejects FAFSA Specification Guide
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Image below: The student has a rejected reason code of 15 with description referring to missing parent signature in PS
Image below: The 2024-2025 Volume 5 Edits & Rejects FAFSA Specification Guide shows Reject Reason code 15 is related to NSLDS Fraud Loan flag
Worksaround: Until this is resolved by Oracle, it is recommended for colleges to review the ISIR in the FAFSA Partner Portal to confirm the reject reasons associated with the ISIR transaction.
There are cases when ‘NR’ Data Edits codes display in addition to the ISIR reject reason codes after an ISIR is deleted from a student’s record and then manually loaded. The Data Edits are not displayed prior to deletion.
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Images below: ISIR Reject Reasons link lists only Reject Reasons for student
Images below: After deleting the ISIR and manually loading it again, ‘NR’ Data Edit codes appear
Image below: Volume 5 Edits & Rejects FAFSA Specification Guide shows the edit number for the above ‘NR’ code is Data Edit 1004
There are reported issues with processing 2024-2025 ISIR Corrections in PS but as Dept of Ed is not accepting any batch corrections at this time, colleges will not be using the PS 2024-2025 functionality so the bugs are not mentioned in this document.
“Institutions will be able to submit corrections via the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP) by the end of June. The FPP will allow institutions to submit corrections electronically by entering the data manually in the FAFSA Partner Portal. Batch institutional corrections via the Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) will be available in the weeks following FPP corrections.” Dept of Ed
Oracle Bug 36483199
Known Issue: Students who are being flagged for Mother and/or Father SSN Match in packaging.
Impacts: Federal aid awarding
Workaround: For these students, go to View Packaging Status Summary page and override the Parent(s') SSN on the DB Matches pagelet. Save. Package.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: High
Status: In development at Oracle
ctcLink Custom Processes and *CEMLI Known Issues
*CEMLI = Configuration, Extension, Modification, Localization, and Integration
Known Issue: CBS equation engines are not packaging Okay to Award/Pay equal to '2-Year/Transfer'. CBS equation engines look for a value of Okay to Award/Pay of 'Y'. The equation engines need to be updated to include the new value.
Impacts: Accuracy of awards
Workaround: Run CTC_FA_CBS_ALL_RECORDS to find the '2-Year/Transfer' students and manually award them.
Resolution Timeline: By first week of September
Priority: High
Status: In Progress
Known Issue: WCG Family Income field incorrect in some cases
Some cases are a result of bad data that we were not expecting. For example, Dept of Ed allowed both the Student and Student Spouse or Parent and Parent Spouse to report the same income data even though they filed Married Filed Jointly. The CEMLI needs to be updated to work around this data and prevent doubling of WCG income.
Some cases are where colleges were expecting manually entered AGI to be used in the calculation versus the manually entered earned income. The logic is set up to pull AGI if it's 'FTI' AGI to be similar with previous year's logic of looking for an IRS data field value to determine whether to pull AGI or earned income. However, we've checked with WSAC and they confirmed they're going off a hierarchy and not worrying about values such as the IRS Response code. The CEMLI will be updated to match their hierarchy of 1) FTI AGI 2) Manually entered AGI 3) Manually reported income.
Impacts: Accuracy of WCG awards
Workaround: For these students, manually enter the correct WCG Income and then select Calculate on the WCG Eligibility View page.
Resolution Timeline: TBD
Priority: High
Status: In Progress
Known Issue: The FLF Process is an Enrollment Level Hold process for students who have a FA Load of Less Than Full Time. With the new Enrollment Intensity, different bands of enrollment for anything Less Than Full Time are not able to be tracked in the FLF Process because Enrollment Intensity % is not accounted for in the FLF query or Packaging Variables.
For example, if packaging variables are set to F for Full Time and student is enrolled T (Three Qtr Time) the Service Indicator will be assigned, but is assigned for T (Three Qtr Time), H (Half Time) or L (Less Than Half Time) enrollment values only. The FLF process is not capturing differences in Enrollment Band differences, which will require more manual review to determine if the award should be further reduced to reflect Enrollment Intensity differences (i.e., in 9, 10, or 11 units, Enrollment Intensity at 9 units is 75%, 10 units is 83% and 11 units is 92% of the Full Time award.)
Impacts: FLF Process, and the accuracy of disbursements if manual review is not taken
Workaround: Run the FLF process as usual, but manual Enrollment Intensity calculations need to be made for any student in any FA Load other than Full Time enrollment.
Resolution Timeline: July
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Known Issue: May not be able to be run at this time due to income values is populating with $0 when FAFSA contributors use FA-DDX, this must be fully tested at SBCTC.
Impacts: WCG & College Bound Scholarship Packaging & Bridge grant equations may be inaccurate and need manual adjustment before posting award. WCG & CBS Eligibility View page may be inaccurate.
Workaround: Log into WSAC's Secure Portal to review Quarters of Eligibility (QER) remaining and to view WCG/CBS Repayment information. For Continuing students, pull CTC_FA_CHECKLIST_LIST query to identify students who were in repayment in 2024 AY and check if that information is still current in WSAC Secure Portal for 24/25 awarding.
Resolution Timeline: June 17, 2024
Priority: High
Status: Do not run CBS Inbound Processes in ctcLink on Monday July 1 until FA Support updates the list serv.
Known Issue: WCG Income field is populated with $0 when FAFSA contributors use FA-DDX, requiring colleges to manually populate WCG Income for this population of students.
Impacts: Accuracy of WCG awards
Workaround: For these students run the query CTC_FA_SNG_ALL_RECORDS to identify students with $0 and manually update the WCG Income so that the WCG Eligibility View page calculates correctly.
Resolution Timeline: July
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Known Issue: WCG Family Size field is only pulling in manually entered data
Impacts: Accuracy of WCG awards
Workaround: For these students, manually enter the family size and then select Calculate on the WCG Eligibility View page.
Resolution Timeline: TBD
Priority: High
Status: In Progress
Known Issue: WASFAs cannot be loaded due to WASFA record containing blank values for some required fields. WSACs technical team is working to resolve this issue.
Impacts: Accuracy of State Aid awarding
Workaround: You can manually award these students without loading the WASFA by Aid Year Activating, Build FA Term, Build Budgets, and then award. To determine award amount, log into WSAC's Secure Portal, look up WASFAs on currently summer-enrolled students and manually calculate from MFI for state aid awarding.
Resolution Timeline: July 2024
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Known Issue: Batch CEMLI processes with coding issues will cause ISIR JobSet to run to No Success.
Impacts: Accuracy of data loaded in ISIR JobSet.
Workaround: Work the data you have in the system as of the most recently loaded up until 6/12/2024. For example, begin file review, checklist assignment, communications, awarding on the data already loaded into the system.
Resolution Timeline: Earliest, evening June 14th
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Possible Known Issue: Packaging equations for FWS & CBS are packaging only on enrolled quarters and inflating the amount awarded.
Impacts: Accuracy of awards
Workaround: May need to use Custom Split until it is determined this is a known issue affecting all schools, and until the packaging equation is adjusted.
Resolution Timeline: To be determined
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
FAFSA-Related Known Issues
Known Issue: Globally-assigned unusual circumstances-related checklist (Exx162) assigning to students over the age of 24 and assignining on loaded FAFSAs.
Impacts: Unnecessary checklist assignment and extra communications, resulting on outstanding items on students' To Do list on students who are already independent.
Workaround: Run checklist query and filter on those students who are > 24 years old, and waive the checklist if already assigned. Locally-developed steps sent out to DirFinAid list serv on 6/14/24.
Resolution Timeline: July
Priority: Medium
Status: Query review/updates in Progress
Dept. of Ed/File Layout Known Issues
Known Issue: On June 10, 2024, Dept of Ed released an updated NSLDS Transfer Student Monitoring & Financial Aid History User Guide and Record Layouts (June 2024)
The update included a change to the file layout, specifically the addition of the 'Student Aid Index' field. See page 7 on the FSA Partner's Transfer Student Monitoring User Guide (June 2024)
Impacts: FAH/TSM Processing
Workaround: Manually check NSLDS.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: High
Status: Updates to FAH/TSM layout will be in PS the evening of August 29th
Known Issue: Disbursement Detail (DSDF) and Pell Grant Reconciliation Report (PGRC) files have field and file length changes starting 2024-2025
Impacts: Running the Pell Reconciliation Report process is impacted, DL Reconciliation Report not impacted
Workaround: Run report in COD, and compare manually
Resolution Timeline: Tentative September - Early/Mid October
Priority: High
Status: In Progress - FA Support has tested that the DSDF file is not impacted, and runs as expected. A CEMLI is being updated for the Pell Grant Reconciliation PGRC file.
Known Issue: Dept of Ed is not accepting any batch corrections from any software system for the 2024-2025 Aid Year
Impacts: Ability to make batch corrections from ctcLink
Workaround: Make manual corrections in FPP
Resolution Timeline: 2025-2026 AY
Priority: Low
Status: Updated
Leslie Markle
When i try to sign into my fasha it ask for my id and i tryed to send it through my phone it didnt work and now it says it in recovery and i cant get into it and i have to get it done by the 28 of june please help
Kelly Forsberg
Hello Leslie, you can start a FAFSA FSA ID account recovery request by calling 1-800-4-FED-AID (1‑800‑433‑3243). Thanks!