[Oasfaa] 2006-2007 OTAG Program Information - Including Fall Awarding Cutoff

[Joyner, Shiela]

We can now create pre-populated OTAG Award Claim Forms for your use in identifying your potential OTAG awardees for 2006-2007.  Unless you are processing early disbursements; however, we ask that you use any reports issued at this time as work copies for your internal office processes only.  The OTAG database changes daily as new ISIR records are loaded.  Holding a "stale" report for any length of time to complete and submit when you are ready to disburse funds to your students can create data mismatches when we process your completed Award Claim Form, and we are very much interested in avoiding as many mismatches as possible.  

If we have been holding a request for a work copy Award Claim Form for your institution, you can expect to receive the report shortly.  We appreciate your patience while our IT staff has worked to move the current year reports programming into production, and we do apologize for the delay.  Institutions scheduled to receive reports  include those listed below.  If your institution is not on this list, and you would like to receive a work copy Award Claim Form, please send a message to reports at otag.org.  Please be reminded that OTAG does not automatically provide Award Claim Forms, and that institutions should request them according to their needs.

Francis Tuttle Technology Center
Gordon Cooper Technology Center
Mid-America Christian University
Northeastern State University
Northern Oklahoma College
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma Panhandle State University
Oral Roberts University
Rogers State University
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Tri-County Technology Center
Wes Watkins Technology Center

Excel spreadsheet reports will be created in Excel 2003.  If your institution uses Excel 2002 or later, you should be able to benefit from features such as being able to delete entire rows when processing pre-populated Award Claim Forms.

We have determined April 25, 2006 to be the FAFSA receipt date cutoff for fall awards.  Pre-populated reports will include records for students who met this cutoff and have a 1500 or lower EFC.  If funds remain available after fall disbursement activity is concluded, we will accept spring 2006 award claim forms for students with FAFSA receipt dates later than April 25.

The OTAG statutes continue to require awarding priority for eligible renewal applicants (limited to those who received OTAG awards in 1999-2000 and have received OTAG funds in all subsequent award years).  This year we have identified a total of ten renewal applicants, and two of these students have EFCs greater than 1500 that are eligible under the Effective Family Income (EFI) formula and will require special handling.  Cameron University and Northeastern State University are the lucky folks who have a renewal student who will require special handling if they are enrolled and otherwise eligible.  We will contact these institutions to provide detailed information.

As a reminder, OTAG policy amendments effective in 2006-2007 are listed below.  

*	Undergraduate students are no longer limited to 10 FTUG disbursements.
*	Eligibility for undergraduates is limited to students who have not already received their first bachelor's degree.  Note:  Students who meet the 1500 EFC cutoff and the April 26 FAFSA receipt date cutoff will appear in pre-populated Award Claim Forms, even if they have reported on their FAFSA that they will have their first bachelor's degree by July 1.  They will be highlighted in yellow on the Award Claim Form to call your attention to them; if they have indeed received their first bachelor's degree, you should delete them from your report before submitting it to OTAG for awarding and disbursement of funds.  We have no experience regarding the accuracy of the students' self-reporting on the FAFSA and felt it would be best to include them at least initially -- if we find that the students generally do respond accurately to this question, we can always adjust our report programming to begin excluding them.
*	Pro-rated awards have been discontinued.

The only remaining difference in OTAG eligibility and Pell eligibility is OTAG's Oklahoma residency requirement.  All other Pell and general Title IV eligibility requirements are applicable to OTAG.  Of course, OTAG continues to have a lower EFC and receipt date cutoff for awarding purposes due to limited funds availability.

We received 105 applications from undocumented students with receipt dates of April 25 or earlier.  The application, awarding, and disbursement for undocumented students continues to be a process that is maintained separate from "regular" OTAG students.  If you have undocumented students who are awarded OTAG, we will notify the students of their award approval, and you will receive a pre-populated Award Claim Form containing  their award information.

In the next few days we will provide details regarding a new reports upload/download website process for the scholarship and grant programs administered by the State Regents' office.  Phase I of this new process will be limited to OTAG reports only.  We think you will find this new process a much more efficient means of delivering report data than sending e-mail attachments.  Stay tuned for more information regarding this new process.

We shared with you earlier a proposal regarding the timeliness of OTAG award claims and disbursement of funds to students to become effective in fall 2006.   The comments we received regarding our proposal were all positive, and we will be implementing the procedures and deadlines that all institutions will be required to adhere to.  A copy of the 2006-2007 procedures and schedule is attached for your reference.  We will send reminders of approaching deadlines to the OASFAA list serv, and we ask that you please make sure all staff on your campus involved in OTAG awarding and reporting are subscribers.  If you need assistance in adding subscribers, please let us know and we will direct your request to the list serv administrators.

Please contact our office if you have questions or if we can provide more information regarding the OTAG program in 2006-2007.

 <<06-15-06-OTAG process-06-07.doc>> 
***********************
Shiela Joyner, Director
Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant Program
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
P. O.  Box 108850
Oklahoma City, OK 73101-8850
Internet:  sjoyner at otag.org
Voice: (405) 225-9378    Toll Free (877) 662-6231
Fax: (405) 225-9392

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