Understanding Submission File Types & Your Transmission Schedule

Resources

• Understanding Submission Schedule Presentation PDF
• Advanced versus Early Registration Flyer
• Advanced versus Early Registration Video
• How to Report Enrollment for Summer & Other Non-Compulsory Terms Flyer
• Enrollment Reporting Programming & Testing Guide
• Online Transmission Schedule
• Check Your Knowledge:

Transcript
hello and welcome to part one of the Enrollment Reporting webinar series. We will review the enrollment file transmission schedule and file types. The agenda for today's presentation will be the submission file types, transmission schedule, timely reporting, email notifications and then some best practices. The Clearinghouse was created to serve as a trusted agent to our participating institutions and our services are designed to facilitate compliance with FERPA, the Higher Education Act and all other applicable laws. As your third party servicer, we will provide enrollment and deferment information to guarantee agencies, lenders, servicers and the Department of Education on your institution's behalf. The information loaded into our database can be used for other Clearinghouse services such as StudentTracker and verifications. In order to ensure that the data is sent to NSLDS in a timely manner, we have established a set of of guidelines for submitting your enrollment files. This presentation will go over those guidelines. The following file types are utilized for Enrollment Reporting and compliance. Early registration, first of term subsequent of term, graduates only, summer first, summer subsequent and non-compulsory and non-- summer file types. It is important to note these files must be submitted and processed in chronological order. This means that before you could begin reporting a new term the final file for the previous term will need to be fully processed into our database. The advanced registration and DegreeVerify file types are files your institution may submit but they are not used for compliance reporting. I'm now going to review the various file types and the purpose that they serve. Early registration files are optional files used to report students that are registered for the upcoming required term so we do not accept them for non-required terms such as optional summer and other non-compulsory terms. The data from these files can be used for compliance reporting purposes as well as verification purposes. If your institution is submitting an early registration file the Clearinghouse recommends sending this file between the second and 10th day of the term. For example, if the term begins on August 15th, your early registration file can be submitted any day between the 16th and the 25th. The purpose of submitting within this time frame is to help avoid certain SSCR error logic for the NSLDS SSCR roster process. Because these files are submitted before school's add drop period is ended we do not accept less than halftime or withdrawn statuses. Students in these statuses will be rejected from the file. First of term files are required file type for required terms. These files are used to capture the initial enrollment for students at the start of the term so all students that are enrolled should be reported. The Clearinghouse recommends that this file is certified and submitted after your institution's ad drop period has ended but within 30 days of the original term begins date. If your institution's add drop period ends the first day of the term, we would recommend waiting to submit the first term until the second day of the term to avoid certain SSCR error logic for the NSLDS SSCR roster process. The error report for the first term files may Auto post to the web before an analyst can perform an initial review of the file. When a first term file is process the Clearinghouse will calculate a withdrawn status for any student that was not included on the file but has been reported previously with an active enrollment. I will provide an example on the next slide. In this example, Robert student was reported throughout the spring 2023 term as 3/4 time with the term dates 11162023 to 51223. Robert decides not to enroll in summer or return for fall 2023 term but does not notify his institution of his plans to not return. If Robert is omitted from the first of term file and still has an active status in the Clearinghouse database, we can assist with closing out his record. To capture the withdrawn status in order to properly close out Robert's record, the Clearinghouse database will autogenerate his record onto the file and will calculate a withdrawn status and a status start date equal to the term end date that was reported on his record for the spring term which in this example is 5122023. After your first of term file has been processed, subsequent of term files are used to report enrollment status changes throughout the term. The Clearinghouse recommends submitting enrollment files on a monthly basis and will typically recommend setting up the subsequent of term files to arrive 30 to 45 days from the previous file certification date. The error report for subsequent of term files may autopost to the web before an analyst can perform an initial review of the file. Typically schools will submit three to four subsequent term files per term. This includes the last regular enrollment file for the term which the Clearinghouse often refers to as the final file for the term or the end of term file. This file should be submitted no more than 5 days before the term end date and no later than 30 days after the term has ended. Your end of term file should capture the final enrollment status changes for the term including withdrawn and graduated statuses, if possible. If you are not able to generate students that have graduated by the time your end of term file is submitted, they can be reported on your graduates only file. Graduates only also known as grad only or G only files are used to report students that have graduated from a given term at the campus and/or program level with the appropriate status start date. Grad only files were originally intended to report only students that have graduated but with the continuing evolution of enrollment reporting we have expanded the types of enrollment status we allow on this file type. This includes students that need to be reported as withdrawn as well of students that are actively enrolled but need a separation status applied to one or more programs. For participating DegreeVerify and G from DV institutions, we strongly encourage submitting grad only files in addition to the degree files. Grad only files are the only type of file that can be processed after a new term has already been reported but it is ideal for schools to submit their grad only file before reporting a new term especially if student graduates and then immediately reenroll but we know sometimes it can't be avoided. For more information regarding reporting graduates file and the G from DV we have two additional webinars available on demand or check our events calendar for the next live presentation. The summer first file is considered to be the first term file for a non-required summer term. Summer subsequent is considered the subsequent file for a non-required summer term. When sending a summer file only includes students that are taking classes during the summer and only report a student as withdrawn during the summer if the student has officially withdrawn and is not returning to to your institution in the fall. Reporting optional summer data helps accurately depict students enrollment history especially if they are working towards a degree or eligible to graduate at the end of the summer term. Summer data is still eligible to be sent to NSLDS and non-direct lenders. For optional summer terms, we strongly recommend submitting at least twice throughout the term but strongly encourage maintaining a month reporting schedule. The error report for summer first and summer subsequent may autopost to the web before an analyst can perform an initial review of the file. For required summer terms, files will continue to be processed following the standard reporting guidelines. For more information relating to Summer reporting, there's a link to our audit resource department summer reporting flyer, their on demand webinar on summer reporting, as well as a link to the compliance Central page. Non-compulsory and non-summer files are used to report any non-standard and non-required terms that do not fall under the summer term category such as May Masters or J terms. Non-compulsory terms are terms that students are not required to take courses in to still be considered as continuously enrolled. Non-compulsory terms should be included on your Clearinghouse Enrollment Reporting schedule. These terms are typically much shorter than other terms and often only one submission on the schedule. When reporting enrollment files during these non-compulsory terms, only include students that are taking classes during these optional terms and only report a student as withdrawn if the student has officially withdrawn and not returning to your institution in the next required term. Data submitted on non-compulsory files is eligible to be sent to non-direct lenders and NSDLS. Advanced registration files are optional files that are not used for a compliance reporting and the data is not eligible to be sent to NSLDS or other non-direct lenders. Advanced registration files allow a student to obtain early verifications for computer software discounts, housing verifications and more as result of their enrollment for those institutions that participate in Student Self-Service. These files are used for verification purposes only and not included in the students enrollment history. Advanced registration data is available for verification through Student Self-Service until the first day of the term or until early registration or first term data is loaded into the school whichever happens first. These files are not attached to the schedule and are auto-processed by our system so they are not reviewed by an analyst. If you would like to find more about implementing advanced registration, please feel free to reach out to our client success team. DegreeVerify files are not utilized for Enrollment Reporting purposes and are not the same as graduates only files. We have included the degree file type in this presentation because the processing of these files relates to the Enrollment Reporting process. The schedule can be updated online in tandem with the enrollment schedule and both degree and enrollment files are processed by the data operations team. DegreeVerify files also called degre degree or DV files. DegreeVerify files are submitted only by institutions that participate in our DegreeVerify service. They're used to report degrees and certificates your institution has awarded and are used for verification purposes only. Degree files should be reported to the Clearinghouse after your institution runs the degree audit and once most of your degrees have been confirmed. If additional degrees are awarded after the degree file has been run, you may submit additional degree files. We do not advise submitting the the degree file until after the term has ended but recommend it should arrive before reporting the enrollment on the new term. This is especially true for a G from Degree participants. As mentioned before, we strongly encourage institutions to submit both DegreeVerify files and grad only enrollment files. If even if you participate in G from Degree service. If you would like to find out more about implementing DegreeVerify service, please feel free to reach out to our client success team. Establishing and maintaining accurate transmission schedule on the Clearinghouse website will help ensure that your institution is reporting enrollment data in a timely manner. With the help of the Student Clearinghouse reporting guidelines, your transmission schedule also known as submission schedule is designed to help keep your school in compliance with reporting requirements set forth by the Department of Education and helps keep your institution on track when the next enrollment file is due. Evergreen is an automated process used to assist schools with maintaining their transmission schedule from year year once a file is processed. This means once your institution submits an enrollment file on the scheduled date and the data from your file is loaded into the Clearinghouse database, that schedule date is automatically added to your transmission schedule as a placeholder for the next academic year. For example, if your institution is scheduled to submit your first of term file on September 8, 2024, once that file is processed into our database, it'll automatically go on the schedule for September 8th 2025. You can edit your transmission schedule on our secure site by either adding a new submission or overt typing existing schedules. To access the transmission schedule, you will log into our secure website and click on the student reporting tab. Then click on data reporting dashboard link. You can either click the left menu button to expand the options, click on enrollment reporting, then click on future transmission. Or you can click on enrollment reporting icon without expanding the menu. Or you can click enrollment reporting tile in the reporting box under the needs immediate attention box. You'll be taken to your institution's current enrollment schedule. To update the schedule, click create or edit transmission schedule hyperlink. I'll will not be covering how to make adjustments to this submission schedule today, however, we do have a tutorial on this topic. It is important to keep your transmission schedule up to date and submit enrollment files in a timely manner because the Department of Education and NSLDS requires institution to certify all federal aid recipients at least every two months. Be sure to report enrollment status changes to the Clearinghouse as swiftly as possible because the Department of Education requires status changes to be sent to NSLDS within 60 days of the date of determination. In order to help facilitate the schedule that your school has created we have an automated email reminder system. In preparation for an upcoming file a reminder email will be sent before the file is due and if we don't receive this scheduled file additional reminder emails are sent. As you can see from the right column the longer a file is passed due the more contacts will be included on the email reminders. These roles should be assigned to individuals from both the Registar's office and the financial aid office. With compliance reporting, we have critical deadlines to meet that impacts student loan dispersement and your school's eligibility to administer title four loans. To that end, we do everything in our power to keep you on track with your reporting schedule and compliance obligations. Keeping an updated Clearinghouse School contact list is important so that the Clearinghouse connects with the right people about critical enrollment reporting updates and reminders. The maintenance of the contact list falls to the chosen user administrators at your institution. In addition to the emails reminders we may also attempt to reach out directly by phone. This reminder process is applied when files are pass due or if we have files in-house with an error report posted to the website for review. If and when calls are made, they may come from someone in the data integrity and operations Department and/or from your assigned client success manager. After an extended period a member from our audit Resource Center will reach out to someone in your financial aid office to stress the compliance ramifications of not reporting in a timely fashion. Based on what we covered today here are some reporting best practices. Submit on time and in sync with your submission schedule and file type. Update your submission schedule with any changes as soon as you are aware. Keep your submission data and submission data alternate contacts updated. Save and process your error resolution on the web reports in a timely manner. Update your student information system with any changes you make on your error reports to avoid future errors and warnings. Contact School Ops at studentclearinghouse.org or 17374 24880 with any questions related to Enrollment Reporting. On-demand content and future live presentation events can be found on the Clearinghouse Academy website. With tha,t I'm going to go ahead and close out of the presentation. Before I do I just want to recommend that everyone should log in to the Clearinghouse website to go ahead and just review your Enrollment Reporting schedule. Thank you for joining and have a good rest of your day.