On July 31, Federal Student Aid (FSA) published Electronic Announcement CB-24-16 to alert financial aid professionals that the FISAP due on October 1, 2024, is now available on the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website. If you have already completed your campus’ report, congratulations! If you haven’t, we have some tips for getting back on track and reducing anxiety.
For the newbies out there, FISAP, also known as Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate, is the vehicle by which institutions request funds for the campus-based programs, Federal College Work-Study (FCWS) and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG). But before you can request more money (the Application to Participate), you must report how you spent the funds previously allocated to you (the Fiscal Operations Report). The online form is divided into six sections. Some may not apply to your institution, so first determine what you’ll need to complete by reading the FISAP Desk Reference provided by FSA. There is more detailed information available in the full instructions if you need it and also a course in the FSA Training Center. We suggest you download a .PDF version of the current on-line form so you can see exactly what data you need to collect before you start.
Part I: Identification
This section must be printed and signed (in ink) by the president or CEO of your institution; however, it won’t be available to you until you submit the FISAP. Since you may not know exactly when that will be, we suggest checking with the president or CEO or their administrative team to make sure they don’t have plans to be away from the office around when you think you may be ready to submit and if they do, you may need to be ready to submit sooner than you thought.
Part II: Application
This is where you will request campus-based funds for the 2025-2026 award year. If this is the first time you’re completing FISAP for your institution, we suggest downloading last year’s form from the FISAP Dashboard page. All applications submitted or in draft back to the 2019-2020 application are available there. Of course, if you’re not requesting funds, you can skip this section.
If you will be filling this section, note that you will be asked to report information about your enrollment, Pell expenditures, the number of students receiving aid by EFC (remember this is 2023-2024 information where EFC was still in use). Most financial aid systems have canned reports for these sections; however, if you’re not 100% confident in your data, particularly around enrollment, reach out to your registrar first thing since reconciling data may prove to be the most time-consuming part of this process.
Part III: Perkins Loan Report
You must complete this section if your school or another agency on your school’s behalf is still servicing Perkins Loans or your institution is in the liquidation process. If your institution did not participate in the Perkins loan program or has officially completed the liquidation process, you can skip this section.
Part IV: FSEOG Report
You must complete this section if your institution received FSEOG funding for the 2023-2024 award year. For this section, you must reconcile the amount of the awards made with the amount drawn down from the G6 system. So, if you’re completing it, reach out to the appropriate colleague as soon as possible to confirm that information.
Part V: FWS Report
You must complete this section if your institution received FCWS funding for the 2023-2024 award year and the above advice about reconciling with G6 applies here. In addition, as you know, the amount of the award is not necessarily what the student earned, and you’ll be reporting the amount earned. If you don’t maintain it in your financial aid system, you will need to get it from your payroll office. Again, do this as soon as possible to give your colleagues sufficient time to respond.
Part VI: Program Summary
Complete part A if you needed to complete Parts IV and/or V. This entails a detailed accounting of how much money was awarded from each program broken down by the income level of the recipients. If you are claiming the administrative cost allowance for either program, refer to part B of this section.
Other general recommendations…
- Grab a copy of the .PDF form linked above and make a list of what data you need to complete the application and from whom you will need to collect it.
- We said it before, but can’t emphasize enough, the need to reach out to colleagues as early as possible if you need to collect data not in your financial aid system or reconcile data if your system is not fully integrated.
- Give yourself enough time to collect, enter, and review the data even if that means blocking out time on your calendar, canceling meetings, or arranging to work from home if that is the only way you can be free from interruptions. You won’t be able to squeeze this in between student meetings, etc.
- Try not to panic. The FSA Partner and School Relations team is available to support you, and their contact information is provided throughout the instructions.
Given the time of year and amount of data that must be provided, completing FISAP is one of the more stressful activities for a financial aid administrator. We also know that departments are under-staffed and still behind awarding students for the current year. The Higher Education Assistance Group can help you get through this busy period by providing interim staffing to cover the day-to-day while you address FISAP or by assisting in its completion. See all our services at www.heag.us or email us at info@heag.us if you already know what you need.