Introduction 

This Business Process Analysis (BPA) and System Configuration document describes the functionality and configuration settings related to ISIR document management in Regent Award.  

• This document defines the following associated with ISIR data management: 

• The Regent Award product workflow for importing ISIR files and deviations to that workflow. 

• The Regent Award logic for matching ISIR documents. 

• Specifications for client-specific configuration of the following: 

  • Data requirements  

  • Communication 

  • User Roles 

  • Documents 

  • Tasks 

  • Additional Configuration 

Process Overview 

This section describes the default behavior of Regent Award processes associated with managing ISIR data used for verification and packaging of Title IV funds.   

The school downloads ISIRs from the SAIG mailbox daily and transfers the file(s) to the Regent Award File Watcher folder, ISIRLoad_FW or receive files from the SAIG mailbox from within the Regent Award application.  The frequency of this process will be defined in the school’s Runbook. Regent Award can automatically detect when a file is placed in the File Watcher folder and begin the ISIR import process.  Any file that fails the ISIR file validation check will result in an error on the Regent Award Process Log for the ISIR import process, and an email notification regarding the failure will be sent to a customer-defined email address.   

Regent Award also provides the option to manually import ISIR files using the import process option, Import ISIR, in the Regent Award user interface.   

SAIG Mailbox Integration 

Schools can send and receive files from the SAIG mailbox from within the Regent Award application. Schools can configure which Regent Award Processes to use with the Regent SAIG integration functionality.  For a given process type, message classes supported by that file type will be sent to/received from SAIG if the process type is configured for use with SAIG within Regent Award, and the Message Class is configured as "active."  Schools can further choose to have Regent automate SAIG transmission/receipt of the configured process file types or to manually transmit/receive the files to/from SAIG.  Schools can also re-transmit previously sent files as needed, reset their SAIG login credentials with SAIG, or save their SAIG login credentials that were synced with SAIG by other means. 

Regent installs the TD Client software provided by the Department of Education on Regent servers for client access in support of file transfer automation to/from the school’s main SAIG mailbox. Schools electing to use this option will be responsible for the maintenance of their SAIG credentials in Regent Award as the password will be encrypted.  Schools have sole authority to manage the timing and content of file creation and transmission. 

Regent does not interface with the school’s SAIG mailbox but utilizes the TD Client software to support file transactions. School users will continue to be able to log into the SAIG mailbox by other means. 

Schools must register their Public IP Address for the Regent Award Application Server from which SAIG processing takes place via FSASchoolCyberSafety@ed.gov to ensure this is a trusted IP address.  The following information will need to be provided: 

• Name of Institution 

• Address of Institution 

• Office of Postsecondary Education Identifier (OPEID)  

• List or Range of IP Addresses Used by Institution  

• Information Technology (IT) Contact at Institution (Name, Email, Phone Number) 

Regent Education will provide schools with the appropriate information for the Range of IP Addresses.  However, it is the school’s responsibility to provide this information to the U.S. Department of Education.   

Import Process 

The Import ISIR process attempts to match each ISIR to an existing student record in Regent Award.  Matched ISIRs display on the ISIR tab of the student record.  The following section describes the matching logic applied to associate an imported ISIR to a student record. 

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Case One: SSN, DOB, First Name AND Last Name Match 

Regent Award first attempts to match the ISIR to a student using social security number (SSN), date of birth (DOB), and first and last name combination.  The ISIR must contain the Federal School Code (FSC) for the Institution, Campus, or Site on the student record in Regent Award.  If a match occurs, the ISIR is associated with the student. If no match is found, Regent Award will check case two. 

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Case Two: SSN, DOB, Last Name Match 

If the prior case fails to return a match, Regent Award attempts to match on SSN, DOB, and last name combination.  The ISIR must contain the FSC for the Institution, Campus, or Site on the student record in Regent Award.  If a match occurs, the ISIR is associated with the student. If no match is found, Regent Award will check case three. 

Case Three: SSN and DOB 

If the prior case fails to return a match, Regent Award attempts to match on SSN and DOB.  The ISIR must contain the FSC for the Institution, Campus, or Site on the student record in Regent Award.  If a match occurs, the ISIR is associated with the student. If no match is found, Regent Award will check case four. 

Case Four: Unmatched ISIR 

If Regent Award fails to match the ISIR with a student using the requirements in case three the ISIR is considered unmatched.  Unmatched ISIRs are placed in a staging queue to be matched automatically by Regent Award at a later time. 

Regent Award attempts to rematch unmatched ISIRs in the staging queue after the completion of the Student Batch Load (SBL) import process.  The ISIR matching logic is applied to new student records created in Regent Award from the SBL import.  Regent Award also re-attempts to match unmatched ISIRs to existing student records during a nightly, scheduled process. 

Active ISIR Rules 

 Regent Award is designed with a rule set to determine whether an ISIR is made “Active” during the Import ISIR process.  If the ISIR does not meet the appropriate criteria, the ISIR remains “Not Active.” Please see Appendix for the ISIR Active Rules.  

• Step 1: Regent Award first evaluates all the scenarios that will not make an ISIR active. Users may view these cases in the Make this the Active ISIR column on the Appendix where the value is “No.” 

1. If the ISIR meets one of these criteria, Regent Award stops reviewing and marks the ISIR as “Not Active.” 

• Step 2: If the ISIR does not meet some criteria from Step 1, Regent Award evaluates the scenarios that will make an ISIR Active. Users can view these cases in the Make this the Active ISIR column on the attached spreadsheet where the value is “Yes.” 

If the ISIR meets one of these criteria, Regent Award makes the ISIR “Active.”

Applicant Generated Selected for Verification ISIRs 

To ensure applicant changes to verified ISIRs are reviewed, Regent Award ensures that, once verification is completed, an applicant-generated ISIR will not automatically be made active. 

If the existing Active ISIR for the Federal Award Year (FAY) is “Verified,” and the newly received ISIR Source of Correction is "Applicant," the newly received ISIR will not be made active automatically by Regent Award unless the newly received ISIR has a new Verification Tracking Group for the student and the FAY. If there is a change to the Verification Tracking Group on an ISIR that is generated by the applicant, the ISIR will be made active and NOT inherit the prior verification status.  

Regent Review Smart Forms 

Regent Award offers the ‘Verification Worksheet (VWS),’ for the V1 group, and ‘Verification Worksheet (VWS) -V5,’ for the V5 group, as a Smart Form via Regent Review product licensing. When a student’s ISIR is selected for V1 or V5 verification, Regent Award populates the appropriate document in a ‘Needed’ status. This form allows the student to complete the verification worksheet questionnaire online via the Regent Student Portal, displaying only the questions required for the student’s verification group.    

Once all questions have been completed, the student will be prompted to sign the document either using the paper signature process or the electronic signature (e-signature) process. Upon submitting the signed form, the document status is changed to ‘Received’ in Regent Award and staff users can review the application by downloading the associated attachment on the Document Requirement tab.   

If a subsequent ISIR is imported with a change to the student’s verification group after the student has started or completed the Verification Worksheet, Regent Award populates a ‘Verification Worksheet-Change’ document, which will include any question required for verification for the new verification group.  Information previously provided by the student will be prepopulated and the student will have the ability to review and edit any previously provided information prior to submission. Regent Award will also ‘Waive’ the original Verification Worksheet form so it does not appear as the student must complete both.  

Regent Award will only auto-populate the initial Verification Worksheet once per FAY (apart from a change to the verification group as mentioned above.) Therefore, if inconsistencies are found during the verification process and corrections are required by the student, the User must ‘Waive’ the original Verification Worksheet document status and manually add the ‘Verification Worksheet-Revised Request’.  The User should also add a ‘Reason’ on the document to display on the Student Portal.  

Smart Form Signature Process 

Regent Review is configured with a Verification Worksheet Smart Form, which includes dynamic text to accommodate all verification groups for both independent and dependent students. The dynamic form incorporates smart logic to minimize the number of questions the student is required to answer. The Verification Worksheet document requirement is assigned to students upon ISIR import if the student is selected for verification. The form is accessed and completed via the Required Documents portlet on the Regent Student Portal.   

Upon completion of the Verification Worksheet Smart Form, students have the option to sign the document via the e-signature, paper signature process or to send via mail. All options are presented to the student after completing the Smart Form. 

If the student chooses the paper signature process, an unsigned PDF copy of the completed form will be auto attached to the document requirement in the portal and Regent Award, while the document status will remain as ‘Needed’.  Student must download the completed PDF form, sign, scan, then upload the signed document back to portal. The document status will then be updated to ‘Received’. 

If the student chooses the paper mail in process, an unsigned PDF copy of the completed form will be auto attached to the document requirement in the portal and Regent Award, while the document status will remain as ‘Needed’.  Student must download the completed PDF form, sign, and mail the document to the address provided by the school. 

If the student chooses the e-signature process, the student will be presented with system capability acknowledgements as well as terms and conditions prior to e-signing the form to ensure the student can successfully complete the process. Upon successfully e-signing the Smart Form, the signed PDF form will automatically be attached to the document requirement in both Regent Award and in the portal and will update to a ‘Received’ status for review. 

ISIR Verification and Correction 

Regent Award supports the verification process via the ISIR Verification/Correction Wizard.  As documents are reviewed, ISIRs can be verified and/or corrected without being transmitted to the FAFSA Processing System (FPS).  When all documents have been reviewed and satisfied, ISIR verification (and any ISIR corrections) can be completed, using the ISIR Verification/Correction Wizard, and the ISIR marked ‘Verified’.   

Users must set the flag ‘Mark Corrections for Submission to FPS’ to ‘Yes’ in the ISIR Verification/Correction Wizard for ISIRs requiring correction.  Users can also set the ‘Packaging Options’ selection to override the default setting and allow packaging against the current active ISIR EFC or use the corrected Active ISIR EFC, rather than waiting for the corrected ISIR to come back from FPS.  Any ISIR flagged for submission to FPS is captured in the ISIR Correction file during the next Export ISIR Correction process.   

The ISIR Corrections report contains the student ID, ISIR correction status, ISIR transaction number, date of the correction, and a summary of the ISIR changes in the correction. This report can be run to identify ISIR corrections that were completed during a specific date range and audit the corrections. 

The Export ISIR Correction process schedule will be defined in the [CLIENT] Runbook.  This process writes the output to the sFTP ISIRCorrection folder for pickup and submission to FPS.   

Ready for Verification 

A student is ready for verification when all documents with the Facilitate Verification and Facilitate Parent/Student IRS Data Match Flag are in ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Waived’ status. The ‘Review Student Documents’ task is automatically populated in the ‘Ready for Verification’ task queue when all documents with the appropriate use types are in a ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Waived’ status for a specific FAY.   

Inherit Verification Status 

Regent Award will inherit the verification status of the previous active ISIR.  Subsequent ISIRs made active (either automatically or manually) inherit the verification status of the prior active ISIR for the same FAY if the verification status is ‘Verified’, ‘Selected but not Verified,’ or ‘Payment Without Verification.’  If the previously active ISIR has a different verification status, the verification status is not inherited. 

Regent Award does not inherit the verification status when an ISIR is processed through the ISIR Correction/ Verification Wizard or when a student is associated to a V-group and subsequently moved to a new V-group. The new ISIR transaction is set to ‘Not Verified’ and must be re-verified. When the verification status is not inherited, the non-verified ISIR is displayed with red text on the student record.  An information icon displays beside the verification status to alert the user that a change in status has occurred. 

ISIR Comparison  

Regent Award provides the Compare ISIRs Wizard to efficiently compare ISIR data on more than one ISIR transaction for the same FAY.  Users have the option to select specific data elements such as student or parent information.  Users also have the ability to select “Only Show Differences” to display only the ISIR fields where a change occurred between the selected ISIR transactions. 

Proof of Identity and Statement of Educational Purpose 

Students are required to provide proof of identity if they are selected for the V4 or V5 verification group. Upon importing the ISIR, Regent Award populates a Proof of Identity and Statement of Educational Purpose document in a ‘Needed’ status.  The student is required to complete the document.  If the student is unable to complete the document in person, the student may provide a notarized copy of the Proof of Identity and Statement of Educational Purpose form. Once the high school completion documentation is received and the Proof of Identity and Statement of Educational Purpose form is completed, the user may update the results of the identity and high school completion status in Regent Award for transmission to FPS. 

Export Student Identity 

Regent Award supports the ability to automatically submit ISIR identity verification results for students in the V4 and V5 verification group. The responsibility to verify student identity and select the verification result for students in V4 and V5 verification groups resides with the user who will be performing this task as part of the overall verification process.   

The Identity Verification Results Wizard is accessed via the ISIR tab and allows the user to select one of the following identity verification results for a student: 

1. Verification completed in person, no issues found 

2. Verification completed using notary, no issues found 

3. Verification attempted, issues found with identity 

4. Verification attempted, issues found with HS completion 

5. No response from applicant or unable to locate 

6. Verification attempted, issues found with both identity and HS completion 

The school has sixty (60) days, from the date of the earliest ISIR with V4 or V5 value was imported, to report the appropriate Identity Verification results. After sixty (60) days have elapsed and an ISIR Identity Verification value has not been reported, Regent Award will automatically set the identity verification result value to “5 - No response from applicant or unable to locate” when the Export ISIR Identity Verification process is executed.  

In addition to these records, the export file will include records that are flagged to re-export any Identity Verification record that has been updated but not exported. The ability to mark a record for re-export is based on the user’s permissions.  

The Export Identity Verification Results Process is scheduled to run daily as described in the [CLIENT] Runbook. The process writes the output to a file on the sFTP site in the ExportISIRIdentityVerification folder for pickup and submission to FPS. 

Auto Setting the Identity Verification Value 

In Regent Award the Export ISIR Identify Verification Process screen has a configurable option to the "Export Students with No Response." If an ISIR Identity Verification value has not been provided for the student, the Regent Award can automatically set the student's ISIR Identity Verification value to “5” (“No response from applicant or unable to locate”) and flag the student for export. The schools can select the number of days from the time verification documents were assigned to the student to when the Regent Award will automatically set the student's Identity Verification value to "5." 

 Unusual Enrollment History 

The Internal UEH Review document can be configured to an ‘Office Use Only’ document that is auto-populated in a ‘Received’ status upon the ISIR Import for students with a 276 or 277 C-Code. The ‘Review Student Document(s)’ task can be configured to trigger upon the Internal UEH Review document being populated in a ‘Received’ status and will be assigned in the Review UEH/Conflicting Information task queue for the initial review.  The Internal UEH Review document can be configured to block packaging and disbursements.  This functionality is introduced in the Document Management BPA.  

Subsequent ISIRs 

A subsequent ISIR is defined as any ISIR other than the initial ISIR received by Regent Award. The initial ISIR can be the 01 transaction ISIR; however, this may not always be the case for every student. When an ISIR is matched to a student, Regent Award determines whether the ISIR should be made active based on the following rules: 

• If no ISIR exists for the student for a FAY, it will be made active 

• Subsequent ISIR will automatically be made active if: 

  • ISIR was pushed by FPS 

  • ISIR was corrected by the school 

  • ISIR was corrected by the student AND it resolved a C-code or reject 

• Subsequent ISIR may be made active manually if the ISIR was corrected by the student AND it created a C-code, rejected or flagged the ISIR for verification 

  • If an ISIR is made active manually, and the transaction number is the same as, or higher than the prior active ISIRs transaction number, the normal document assignment rules will apply at the time the ISIR is made active, and document requirements will be assigned to the student.  Documents will also be auto-satisfied or auto-waived based on the functionality described below. 

  • If an ISIR is made active manually, but the new active ISIR has a lower transaction number than the previously active ISIR, the ISIR-related document requirements will not be auto-assigned or auto-satisfied.   

Subsequent ISIRs that resolve a C-Code in a previous transaction triggering a document to be assigned will automatically satisfy the document(s) associated with the C-Code. Differences between the ISIRs are easily identified using the Compare ISIR Wizard, with differences marked in red in the UI.  

A subsequent ISIR may trigger a task in the Review ISIR queue. When working these tasks, the FA Processor compares the current active ISIR with the new ISIR transaction using the Compare ISIR Wizard and determines if the subsequent ISIR should be made active. There may be instances when there are multiple subsequent ISIR transactions to select during this review.    

If a subsequent ISIR meets the definition of a clean ISIR, no task is triggered and provided the student has no other outstanding documents blocking packaging. 

Special Circumstances Flag 4 

An ISIR imported with a Special Circumstances Flag value of “4” will trigger the ‘Review Dependent Record Unsub Only’ task. This task will be assigned to the ‘Review Professional Judgement’ task queue. Student records with this flag are considered to have an invalid ISIR and will never be included for packaging, even if all documents are in a ‘Satisfied’ status. This will require the user monitoring this task queue to determine when the student is ready to be packaged. 

Annual Regulatory Updates 

Regent Award is updated annually to accommodate ISIR processing regulatory changes for the upcoming Federal Award Years. Schools will be notified by Regent once the updates have been applied to the Regent Award application.   

ISIR Related Tasks 

Ready to Package (RTP) File 

Regent provides integration between its Regent Award product to other financial aid packaging systems.  Students submit the verification worksheet, and other required documents, via the Regent Student Experience.  Regent Award and Regent Review supports schools in reviewing student documents, performing ISIR verification and correction tasks to get the student ready to package.     

When the Ready to Package process is run, an analysis is executed for each student to determine whether the student is eligible to be packaged or repackaged.  The resulting decision is exported per student per FAY on the RTP file.  

Ready to Package Status 

The Ready to Package process is a scheduled process that provides a .csv output file out of Regent Award that can be imported into the packaging system or utilized as a stand-alone file.  This file provides a ‘Packaging Status’ that is either “Ready to Package” or “Pending”.  A student appears on the Ready to Package file with “Ready to Package” status only once per FAY, unless information changes, causing the packaging status to become “Pending”.  

Students that have a ‘clean’ ISIR appear on the RTP file in a “Ready to Package” status.  For an ISIR to be considered ‘clean’ all the Ready to Package criteria must be met: 

1. The active ISIR transaction for the FAY is clean (i.e. not selected for verification and does not populate any documents that restrict packaging). 

2. If the active ISIR has been selected for verification, it must have a verification status or inherited verification status = "Verified". 

3. The current active ISIR does not have a ‘Correction Status’ of ‘Corrected’, ‘Marked for Transmission’, or ‘Transmitted’. 

4. All student documents that are setup to Restrict Packaging and/or Disbursement and are associated to the FAY of the ISIR (AY and PP scope also have a FAY association) or student-scoped are in ‘Satisfied’ or ‘Waived’ status. 

5. All ISIR tasks (i.e. subsequent unclean ISIR) that are setup to restrict packaging for the FAY are in a status of ‘Completed’, ‘Closed’ or ‘Waived’. 

Pending Status 

The Ready to Package process notifies the packaging system that the student should be held from packaging by resending the student on the RTP file with a packaging status of “Pending”.  A packaging status of “Pending” can only be set if the student was previously sent with a “Ready to Package” status.  If a student is determined to not be ready to package, and they were not previously sent on the RTP file, the student is not sent on the RTP file. 

Once a student has been sent on the RTP file, the student’s information may change causing the student to need re-evaluation for potential repackaging.  The conditions that cause the packaging status to change to “Pending” are:  

• New ISIR for the FAY is received and the verification status = ‘Selected, but Not Verified’ for the active ISIR 

• New student scope or FAY scope document is added to the student in a ‘Needed’ or ‘Incomplete’ status 

Once the student again meets the criteria for ‘clean’, the student is sent on RTP file with a "Ready to Package" status again.  The RTP process keeps track of the number of times the student has appeared on the file for the FAY.  

Limitations 

ISIRs may contain a special flag that could impact packaging, including the IASG flag and the Special Circumstances Flag 4.   

If an ISIR is flagged for IASG and is otherwise considered a ‘clean’ ISIR, the student is included in the RTP file.  If the ISIR is flagged for IASG and the student has not met all requirements listed in the “Ready to Package” status section listed above, the student is not included in the RTP file.  The school is responsible for reviewing the student’s IASG flag for eligibility during the packaging process and ISIRs will continue to be imported into the SIS during Iteration 1.  However, a task will be triggered in Regent Award to assist the school in identifying these students that may be eligible for IASG during the packaging process. 

 An ISIR with a Special Circumstances Flag 4 will not be sent on the RTP file since the ISIR received is ‘unclean’.  A task will be triggered to assist the school in identifying these students that need to be packaged but will not be sent via the RTP file.   

If a student is institutionally selected for verification and the verification status is updated to a ‘Selected, but Not Verified’ status, the student will not be exported on the RTP file until all requirements listed in the Ready to Package Status section listed above are met.   

The ISIR transactions in Regent Award must match the ISIRs being packaged and paid on in the SIS.  Therefore, the same ISIR transaction number indicated on the RTP file should be used during packaging process.   

INACTIVE Students 

When a student record is set to inactive, it is no longer sent on the RTP file.  If the student subsequently becomes active is re-exported on the RTP file with the last "Ready to Package" status the student had for the two most current FAYs.  

Configuration 

Data Requirements 

There is no data integration required for ISIR Management. 

Communications Template 

Refer to the school’s Communications Setup Template for configuration details for the following standard Communications. 

Users & Roles Template 

Refer to the school’s User Roles Setup Template for configuration details related to ISIR Management permissions. 

Documents Template 

Refer to the school’s Document Setup Template for configuration details for the following standard Documents for ISIR Management. 

Tasks Template 

Refer to the school’s Task Setup Template for configuration details for the following standard Tasks for ISIR Management. 

SAIG Template 

Refer to the school’s SAIG Setup Template for configuration details for the following standard SAIG message classes for ISIR Management. 

Additional Configuration  

Institutional Settings 

ISIR Settings 

The institution setup in Regent Award is configured with default setting for the ISIR by primary type (most frequent) offered by the institution. Refer to the EnterpriseSetup_Template for default setting selected by the school. 

Electronic Signature Settings 

The institution setup in Regent Award is configured with default setting for Electronic Signature by primary type (most frequent) offered by the institution. Refer to the EnterpriseSetup_Template for default setting selected by the school. 

Ready to Package Settings 

The institution setup in Regent Award is configured with default setting for Ready to Package by primary type (most frequent) offered by the institution. Refer to the Enterprise Setup Template for default setting selected by the school.   

Additional Resources 

Import Process for Active ISIRS 

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Regent Review Document Persistence 

For Regent Review clients, the table below outlines the documents assigned or updated based on completion of the Verification Worksheet Smart Form.