Support for 2021-2022 Verification Requirements Changes in 5.4.3.0

The information in this document is intended to provide client guidance for use of the enhancements in Regent 5.4.3.0 to support the new verification requirements for 2021-2022.  These requirements were announced by the Department in the Changes to 2021-2022 Verification Requirements Dear Colleague Letter on July 13, 2021. 

In a July 19, 2021 communication, Regent provided initial client guidance comprised of a combination of recommended client actions in current Regent Review/Regent Award and advisement of upcoming supportive enhancements in the newly scheduled 5.4.3.0 Regent Release. Please review the guidance in that document.

Additionally, the notes below provide more information on the enhancements provided in the Regent 5.4.3.0 Release as related to the Regent support of the verification changes.    

Waive Student Document Requirements 

• Script RS-21834 - this is a 2 part script as described below for Regent Review and Regent Award Clients  
  • Part 1:
    • Regent Review Clients will use this script to apply newly-configured Document Due Dates or Expiration Dates to existing student document requirements.
      • Document Due Dates and Expiration dates were implemented in Regent 5.4.1.0.
    • Regent Award Clients will use this script to apply newly-configured Document Due Dates or Expiration Dates to existing student document requirements.
      • Document Due Dates and Expiration dates were implemented in Regent 5.4.1.0.
  • Part 2:
    • Regent Review-Only Clients will also use this script to assign Due Dates/Expiration Dates to newly-created document requirements and to update document statuses accordingly.
      • Regent Review-Only Clients should schedule this script as part of their daily runbooks as long as they elect to use document Due Dates and/or Expiration Dates.
    • Regent Award Clients - This process is managed by Batch Packaging (BP).  If BP has run within an environment within the last month, this second portion of the script will not be applied.
  • Note: Activity Log Entries will document any changes made via this script.

• Client Actions: TEST IN QA PRIOR TO MAKING ANY CHANGES IN PRODUCTION
  1. Update document Expiration Date configuration with dates in the past for any 2021-2022 document requirements you are electing to waive. The document requirements will waive as part of Batch Packaging for Regent Award clients, and per script execution for Regent Review clients.
     1. See Document Setup Data Elements for more information on configuration.
     2. Example to set an expiration date of 1/1/2021 for a FAY-scoped 2021-2022 document:                                                                    
  2. Open a new CZ Support ticket with category Data Script to request running the RS-21834 ‘Apply Expiration Date to Existing Student Document Requirements’ script in your QA instance, and subsequently in Production if the results are as expected.
  3. Review Results in QA
     1. Regent Award Clients:
        1. Confirm Expiration Dates on existing open documents have been updated
        2. Confirm appropriate Activity Log Entry
     2. Regent Review-Only Clients:
        • Confirm Expiration Dates on existing open documents have been updated
        • Confirm documents have correct document status (‘waived’)
        • Confirm appropriate Activity Log Entry was made
  4. Update the CZ Support ticket when the results are validated and work with your Account Manager / Project Manager to run the RS-21834 Script in your Production instance.
  5. Validate Production Results
     1. Regent Review-Only clients should work with their Account Managers / Project Managers to have this script scheduled to run daily as part of the Runbook if wishing to continue to waive document requirements as they reach their expiration dates.
     2. Regent Award Clients will only run this script again in the future should they change document Due Date and/or Expiration Date configurations and want those changes applied to existing documents.
        1. Note: If you plan to assign the document to additional students on an ad hoc basis moving forward, ensure the document configuration is updated to assign appropriate future Expiration Dates to newly created document requirements and consider whether the document status upon expiration should be configured as ‘Unsatisfied’ rather than ‘Waived’ depending on the use case.

Verification Worksheet (VWS) Document Persistence Logic for Manual Use

As users may wish to assign 2021-2022 verification worksheets to students on an ad hoc basis, logic has been updated so that all ISIR-assigned supporting document requirements do not have to be assigned for the VWS logic to waive them.

• Previous VWS automation waived any ISIR-assigned verification documents that were not needed. If the VWS determined an ISIR-assigned document such as a tax form was not needed because the student completed DRT and if the tax form was not available to be waived, the VWS would error.
• With this enhancement, the VWS will automatically create and waive any unneeded documents typically assigned at ISIR import.
• If clients have disabled ISIR assignment for certain verification-related documents, they are responsible to ensure those documents necessary to complete verification for a specific student are assigned manually.

Clients do not need to take any action beyond upgrading to the 5.4.3.0 Release and ensuring appropriate documents are assigned for those manually selected students in order to support this specific enhancement.

As noted in our 7/19/2021 Regent Response to ED Changes for 2021-2022 Verification communication, Regent currently supports selecting students for the Verification Worksheet and standard verification flow only if they have been selected for verification on the ISIR.

Update ISIR Verification Status to ‘S’ (Configuration Option and Script)

Functionality has been added to Update Unverified 2021-2022 V1 ISIRs to Verification Status of ‘S’

• There is a New Configuration Option to ‘Set Verification Status’ that allows clients to specify which Verification Status should be assigned automatically upon import of a new ISIR selected for verification from a particular Tracking Group for a specific FAY.
• Script RS-21835 to ‘Set Verification Status for Existing ISIRs’ can be requested to update ISIR verification status for existing ISIRs based on the ‘Set Verification Status’ configuration.

• Client Actions: TEST IN QA PRIOR TO MAKING ANY CHANGES IN PRODUCTION
  1. Configure ‘Set Verification Status’ in the ISIR Settings section of Institution Setup to assign status ‘S’ (Selected but not Verified) to students in the V1 Tracking Group for the 2021-2022 FAY.
     1. Configuration is not visible until you click on EDIT in Institution → ISIR Settings section
     2. Click Save
     3. Reload RNA
     4. Confirm setting is visible 
     5. Configuration must be set before RS-21835 script is run
     6. This configuration will be applied in V1 cases where verification inheritance does not apply.
     7. The configuration option will not apply if the ISIR is set to inherit a status of ‘Verified’.
     8. If no value is configured for a FAY and Tracking Group, the status of ‘N’ (Not Verified) will be set by default for students selected for verification (current functionality - applies to V4 and V5).
     9. The RS-21835 script will only update ISIRs currently in ‘N’ status – it will not update ISIRs that have already been verified
  2. Open a new CZ Support Ticket with category Data Script to request running the RS-21835 ‘set Verification Status’ script in your QA instance, and then in Production if the results are as expected.
  3. Review results in QA
     1. Verification statuses updated based on configuration.
     2. Appropriate Activity Log entries document the scripted updates.
  4. Update the CZ Support ticket when the results are validated and work with your Account Manager / Project Manager to run the RS-21835 Script in your Production instance.
  5. Validate Production Results
• Regent Review and Regent Award clients may request the RS-21835 script again in the future should they choose to make additional changes in the ‘Set Verification Status’ configuration they wish to have applied to existing ISIRs currently in ‘N’ status.

Support Verification Status of ‘S” the same as ‘Verified’ for Regent Award

Regent Award has been updated so the following EST validation errors will not trigger because an ISIR has verification status ‘S’.

• EST-0011 – ‘RNA – ISIR - Award [{0}] is blocked due to ISIR without verification. Complete verification using the verification/correction wizard and clear all ISIR related tasks (when applicable)’
• EST-0036 – ‘RNA – ISIR - Disbursement [{0}] is restricted due to ISIR without verification. Complete verification using the ISIR verification/correction wizard and clear all ISIR related tasks (when applicable)’. 

Regent Award has been updated so the following COD Export validation error will not trigger because an ISIR has verification status ‘S’.

• # 18 –‘The ISIR related to this Award is selected for verification has not been verified; setup prevents this from being exported at this time.  Only applies to Pell and DLSubsidized and when Setup indicates to not export to COD in this case.’

Regent Award will now treat an ISIR in ‘S’ status as ‘verified’ when applying Direct Loan Precedence Rules for Assigning FAYs/ISIRs.

Regent Award will now treat an ISIR in ‘S” status as ‘verified’ when determining whether need-based Title IV funds should be included in an R2T4.

Clients do not need to take any action beyond upgrading to the 5.4.3.0 Release to support this specific enhancement.

New Configuration Options