6.9.0.0 Product Brief

Product Release Summary

This Product Brief includes a summary of Regent 6.9, information on key enhancements, and direction to additional documentation and information.

Product Release Description

The 6.9 release addresses product defects as listed in the “Bugs” section of the Release Notes, and also enhancements and new features including:

• Implement Use of Federal UUIDs within Regent (RS-27551)

• Update Census Date and Census Unit Determination Logic in Regent (RS-28455)

• VWS Display Process for Self-Identified Tax Filing Contributor but No Return on File Per IRS (RS-28240)

• Disabled 'Pell Eligible' ISIR Flag Check for Provisional Independent Students (RS-28194)

• New Setting to Cease ISIR Matching for Inactive Students (RS-25202)

• Update to Fund Setup Logic and Validation (RS-28189)

• Allow a Negative AGI in 24-25 Access Application (RS-27979)

• New Configurable Setting Allows Clients to Display Custom Staff Message in UI (RS-26687)

• New REST APIs Created to Facilitate File Imports and Exports (RS-28252)

Further details on enhancements/new features and a complete list of bug fixes as well as any new scripts and data views can be found in the Release Notes. 

The Release Notes also contain information on new configuration options.

Other Documentation 

In addition to the Product Brief, the following documentation is also available: 

System Requirements

Any client currently using Regent Award may take Regent 6.9 for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Review may take Regent 6.9 for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Access may take Regent 6.9 for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Fund may take Regent 6.9 for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Award may take the Regent 6.9 version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Review may take the Regent 6.9 version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Fund may take the Regent 6.9 version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Some Regent Access clients may take the Regent 6.9 version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade. Please work with your Account Manager for additional information. Note: All current customer-specific functionality in the legacy portal may not be available in the new Student Experience portal at this time.

Clients using Regent Award for Salesforce will not need to upgrade to a new Salesforce application version in order to continue current functionality.

Special Notice to Regent Review Clients Regarding 2025-2026 Verification Worksheet Smart Form (Does not apply to Regent Access):

Starting in the 6.9.1 Release, Regent Award and Regent Review clients can import, display, award from, and make corrections to the 2025-2026 ISIR. Noting the Verification Worksheet (VWS) will NOT be available until the 6.10 Release, special consideration is needed for ISIRs that are flagged for verification and imported prior to 6.10.

Clients may opt to handle the VWS assignment process in one of the following ways:

1. Import ISIRs starting in the 6.9.1 Release (VWS will not be assigned):

   1. When the Verification Worksheet is available in the 6.10 Release, assign the document to students with ISIRs imported prior to 6.10 via the Document Assignment Tool in Regent.

      1. To use the Document Assignment Tool, clients must first build a query in the Query Tool (using ISIR FAY and ISIR Verification Status), as noted in screenshot below, which will identify students flagged for verification. 

         1. 

      2. Please work with your Account Manager/Project Manager to enable Query Tool for document assignment.

   2. When the Verification Worksheet is available in the 6.10 Release, clients can create an Import Student Document file (ISD) and include students selected for verification who require the Verification Worksheet Smart Form. The ISD file will be imported into Regent and the VWS will be assigned to the students in the file.

   3. Clients can have students complete a paper Verification Worksheet (provided by the client). The paper document can be managed outside of Regent, or a "non-Smart Form" document assignment configured to trigger, for tracking the status of the paper document. Clients can transition to using the Verification Worksheet Smart Form when it becomes available in the 6.10 Release.

2. Clients can hold 2025-2026 ISIRs and NOT import until 6.10 Release is available with VWS functionality.

For #1 above, W-2 and Tax Transcript request documents can still be configured to assign based on ISIR import prior to 6.10. If W-2s are provided by the student prior to completion of VWS, the client may need to manually update the W-2 document requirement (triggered by the VWS completion) to the appropriate status.

New Feature Overview for Regent 6.9

Implement Use of Federal UUIDs within Regent (RS-27551)

A new permission option under Enterprise → Institution → Campus and Site → Student Permissions allows clients to determine whether the FAFSA, Transaction, and Person UUIDs will fully display or be partially masked under the ISIR Details → Transaction Identification tab and ISIR Compare screen for 2024-2025 and subsequent years. When the permission setting “Full UUIDs always Unmasked” is enabled, the full UUID will display to the user.

When the permission setting “Full UUIDs always Unmasked” is disabled, only the last grouping of characters will display to the user.

When the permission setting “View Full UUIDs via ‘View Full UUIDs’ icon” is enabled, the last grouping of characters will be displayed with an icon that will present the full UUID.

Update Census Date and Census Unit Determination Logic in Regent (RS-28455)

Configuration options for term census dates have been refined. A new ‘Census Date Option’ field was created in Institution Setup and Campus Setup to control how the system will apply Census Dates configured on Term Setup to determine enrollment for Pell Grant awarding. This selection will apply to current and future terms, there will be no impact to past terms. When clients upgrade to the 6.9 Release, the system will continue to respect current configuration until the client makes any changes, in which the guidance should be followed.

This field offers the following choices:

1. No Census Date Used (Pell Enrollment Intensity Percentage (EIP) will continue to recalculate throughout the term)

2. Always use Full Term Census Date (New field ‘Full Term Census Date’ on Term Setup will be used for all students)

3. Always use Multiple Census Dates (Use Census Dates #1 through #4 on Term Setup with current multiple census date functionality)

4. Use Multiple Census Dates unless course enrollment spans all configured dates, then use Full Term Census Date

5. Use Multiple Census Dates unless course enrollment exists for Census Date 1 and at least one other configured Multiple Census Date, then use Full Term Census Date (For cases when a single census date is used for enrollment in either full term or more than one module, but multiple dates are used when students enroll for fewer modules/periods in the term).

If the selection is not equal to ‘No Census Date Used’ or ‘Always use Multiple Census Dates’, a new ‘Full Term Census Date’ field will be required. This is the date during the term on which course enrollment will be evaluated to determine number of units used in Pell Grant awarding. The field may be used in conjunction with Multiple Census Dates, depending on the configuration of ‘Census Date Option’ in Campus Setup. Clients currently configured with just one Census Date will have the value mapped to the ‘Full Term Census Date' for current and future terms​. All past terms will copy the date into ‘Full Term Census Date’ but the value will also remain in Census Date 1. ​Editing of a past term will force removal of Census Date 1.

If the selection is equal to either ‘No Census Date Used’ or ‘Always use Multiple Census Dates’, the ‘Full Term Census Date’ field will be optional.

For more in-depth information about the new census date options, Customer Zone Knowledge Base pagehttps://regenteducation.atlassian.net/wiki/x/UAEuEhas been updated.

Additionally:

1. Census EIP calculations are updated to ensure that future, non-withdrawn courses in the term are properly included in the determination of census units. Attendance is not required in these courses if their end dates are after the student’s current census date.

2. Student Level Census (if the student is first packaged with a valid ISIR for the current FAY after the current census date, the student’s first packaging date is used for census) will apply in all such cases unless Pell is imported for the FAY in a Pell Year-to-Date ('Rebuild') file. In such cases, the student’s initial packaging for the period occurred in the legacy system and not in Regent.

   1. Note: Regent will always apply the ISIR Packaging Date, formerly known as the 'Determine Student Census' field. The field has been removed from Institution Setup and will always apply without requiring additional configuration.

3. The ‘Alternative Census Date’ field on Term Setup has been removed. For any clients currently using this field with more than one Census date configured on a term in Term Setup, an automatic build script will migrate the ‘Alternative Census Date' value to the ‘Multiple Census Date 2’ field in the database.

Note: Schools should review their term configurations and ensure each ‘Pell Recalculation Date’ is configured to be on or after the Term End Date. That configuration will ensure the Pell Enrollment Intensity Percentage (EIP) is correctly adjusted for any unattended units, if a student is initially packaged for a FAY after the term’s configured census dates have passed.

VWS Display Process for Self-Identified Tax Filing Contributor but No Return on File Per IRS (RS-28240)

2024-2025 FAFSA processing has resulted in unanticipated situations when the contributor reports they filed a US tax return but the IRS reports ‘No Return on File’ (IRS Response Code not equal to 200) or blank. The Verification Worksheet (VWS) has been updated to identify this scenario and display a new question to ask the contributor ‘You reported that you filed taxes, is this correct?’. Upon confirmation that taxes were filed, the VWS will move the applicant to a tax filer VWS flow.  If the applicant does not confirm taxes were filed, they will remain in the non-tax filer VWS flow.

A script (RS-28526) was created for clients to identify impacted students. Please reach out to your Project Manager or Account Manager to request the execution of this script. It is recommended that this script not be executed until after the client has upgraded to the 6.9 Release. Clients should review ISIRs for identified students and request students update the data as needed or clients update the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP) as appropriate.

Disabled 'Pell Eligible' ISIR Flag Check for Provisional Independent Students (RS-28194)

In general, Pell should not be awarded to a student unless the ‘Pell Eligible’ flag is TRUE on the student’s ISIR. While schools are required to make estimated Title IV award offers to Provisionally Independent students, ED does not include the ‘Pell Eligible Flag’ on ISIRs for these students. This was not publicized in advance but was discovered by Regent users in production with ISIR data. 

Regent has updated the award estimation process for Provisionally Independent students to continue to check all eligibility requirements for Pell Grant with the new exception of the ‘Pell Eligible’ flag. 

New Setting to Cease ISIR Matching for Inactive Students (RS-25202)

A new configuration option ‘Cease ISIR Matching for Inactive Students’ has been added to the ISIR Settings section of Institution Setup and Campus Setup. When ‘Yes’ is selected, imported ISIRs will not be matched to students if the student has an ‘Inactive’ status. If the student returns to Active status, ISIR matching will resume for the student.

The field on Institution Setup has options of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. By default, the selection made on the Institution Setup field will be inherited by the field on Campus Setup, but can be changed.

Note: If Inactive students are included in batch packaging runs, ‘Cease ISIR Matching for Inactive Students’ should be kept at ‘No’ to avoid packaging with outdated information.

Update to Fund Setup Logic and Validation (RS-28189)

Regent has improved and streamlined the Fund Setup screen.

• Several fields have been renamed for clarification, such as ‘Official Fund Name’ updated to ‘Official Type’ and ‘External ID 2’ to ‘Account ID’ (database field names did not change).

• Multiple fields have been moved to better group functionality together.

• Less commonly-used fields were moved to Advanced Options.

  • 

• Help text has been added to better describe functions.

• On the General sub-tab, the Save/Cancel and Refresh/Edit buttons were also added to the bottom of the screen to decrease required scrolling.

• Validation was added to prevent different values in Fund Scope and Budget Scope.

• To make annual updates easier, some FAY-based configuration settings will be automatically applied to future FAYs without needing to add the future FAY in configuration. Starting in 6.9, Regent will continue to apply these settings in future years until configuration is added for a new FAY with updated values.

  • If clients want the setting to apply to future FAYs, configure it for the current FAY and do not configure any later FAYs. Regent will continue applying the setting to future FAYs.

  • These settings include:

    • SAI Minimum/Maximums

      • If clients do not want this setting to apply to future FAYs, create a new FAY and configure the setting with the appropriate values or placeholder $999,998 minimum and maximum values. See example below:

        

    • Award Minimums/Maximums

      • If clients do not want this setting to apply to future FAYs, create a new FAY and configure the setting with the appropriate values or placeholder zero values. See example below:

      • 

    • Eligibility and Awarding Per Payment Period (Formerly named Amount Per Payment Period)

      • If clients do not want this setting to apply to future FAYs, create a new FAY and configure the setting with the appropriate values or a placeholder zero flat amount value. See example below:

      • 

  • Note: 'Begin and Cease Auto-Packaging Settings' and 'Cease Disbursement Settings' were not included and schools will still need to configure those two settings for each FAY.

Allow a Negative AGI in 24-25 Access Application (RS-27979)

In the 2024-2025 Access Application, contributors can now enter a negative value for adjusted gross income.

New Configurable Setting Allows Clients to Display Custom Staff Message in UI (RS-26687)

There is a new configuration option to add a custom staff message to the Staff User Interface Dashboard screen. A new field, ‘Display Staff Dashboard Header Text’, was added to the Default Settings section of the General tab of Institution Setup. When enabled, the user will be prompted to input a message in the ‘Staff Dashboard Header Text’ field. When the option is enabled and a message is entered, the text will be displayed in a textbox on the top of the Dashboard screen for users with the ViewStudents permission. The permission must be set at the Institution level to display the message. If a user has the ViewStudents permission enabled for more than one institution, they will only see the message configured for the first institution, ordered alphabetically, for which they have access.

New REST APIs Created to Facilitate File Imports and Exports (RS-28252)

Regent has developed three new REST APIs to help facilitate file imports and exports.

1. The “Upload” API allows users to stream files into Regent and initiate a related process.

2. The “List Files” API allows users to get a list of files available for download, either from the Process Log or Azure Data Factory storage depending on the specified Process Type.

3. The “Download” API allows clients to get files out of Regent.

APIs can be used to automate State Grant awards processing and many other process types. Clients should work with their Account Manager to set up APIs as needed. 

Known Issues for Regent 6.9