JB Pritzker, Governor, State of Illinois

2024-25 MAP Payment Implementation

08/28/2024

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) is sharing the following information to assist colleges in the administration of the Monetary Award Program (MAP).

Submit MAP First-term Claims by December 6th

The 2024-25 MAP payment cycle has begun, allowing first-term claims to be submitted.

  • Colleges can submit first-term claims by accessing the MAP system, as well as by File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
  • First-term payment requests will be processed on a nightly basis as they are received from colleges, and then submitted to the State Comptroller for payment per standard operating procedures.
  • The 2024-25 MAP first-term payment request deadline date is Friday, December 6, 2024.

What's New for 2024-25 Payment Processing?

  • An override function has been added to the MAP payment request process that may be used by a school when it is determined that a dependent student meets the Illinois residency requirement as defined in the recently-amended ISAC Administrative Rules for the 2024-25 academic year (more information is provided starting on slide 22 of the August 13, 2024 A Review of the 2024-25 Monetary Award Program (MAP) webinar presentation).
    • The rules amendment is intended to address situations where a dependent student who is an Illinois resident resides with a parent who is also an Illinois resident, but the student was required to list an out-of-state parent contributor on the FAFSA.
  • For dependent students who have answered questions on the FAFSA or Alternative Application that result in them being considered provisionally independent, a "Z" code will be provided on the student record for dependency status.
    • The "Z" code indicates that either a professional judgment must be done to determine if a dependency override is appropriate or parental data must be provided so that the correct dependency status can be determined.
  • An updated 2024-25 MAP 160-Byte File Layout Specifications document may be accessed via the Electronic Tools area of the e-Library and reflects the indicator that schools will need to include when doing a dependent residency override. The MAP Payment User Guide has been updated to include information about the dependent residency override option and the newly-added "Z" code.

Program Reminders

  • When submitting claims, remember that ISAC has suspended the announcement of 2024-25 MAP grants for all students whose initial FAFSA is received by the federal processor, or whose initial Alternative Application is received by ISAC, on or after August 21, 2024.
  • A Payment Result Summary and Invoice Detail Report can be viewed or printed by selecting the Report tab in the MAP system the day after a payment request has been processed.
    • The report includes Payment Results, Payment Exceptions and Invoice Detail about the payment claim.
    • Be sure to review the report to see which requests, if any, did not process as expected.
  • Any 2024-25 payment requests that were submitted via FTP prior to today (August 28, 2024) will not be processed, and will need to be resubmitted by the college.
    • In order to prevent having to resubmit data in the future, never submit payment requests via FTP until after ISAC announces it is accepting the data for that academic year.
  • Because Payment Offset and Reconciliation procedures apply to MAP, refund checks should not be sent for cancellations/adjustments made throughout the award year.
    • Funds should only be returned to ISAC after a final reconciliation has been completed at the end of the regular school year.

Online Resources

More information regarding the payment process is available via:

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If you have any questions regarding this e-Message, please contact ISAC's School Services Department by calling toll free at 866.247.2172 or sending an e-mail message to [email protected].