JB Pritzker, Governor, State of Illinois

2022-23 Program Updates: MAP Payment, IVG Benefit Usage, and MTI Awarding

08/31/2022

Unless otherwise noted, links in this message are to corresponding pages at the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) website (isac.org).

2022-23 MAP First-Term Payment Requests Being Accepted

Effective today (Wednesday, August 31, 2022), ISAC has initiated the 2022-23 Monetary Award Program (MAP) payment cycle by allowing first-term payment requests (i.e., claims) to be submitted.

  • Colleges may now submit first-term claims by accessing the MAP system, as well as by File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
  • From this point forward, 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.

What's New

New for the 2022-23 academic year, payment may be requested for MAP-eligible students who are enrolled a minimum of three hours per term in credit bearing certificate programs that are offered at public institutions and are less than one academic year in length.

  • A Short-Term Certificate Program indicator has been added to the payment request process to identify students who are receiving MAP due to their enrollment in a short-term certificate program.
    • If requesting payment in GAP, the indicator can be provided on the:
      • Student Detail screen,
      • Input Enrollment screen, and
      • Payment Generation screen.
    • If requesting payment via the FTP process, an indicator of "Y" may be provided in field #24 of the FTP file.

Program Reminders

  • As explained in a July 20 e-Message, the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) MAP recompute formula utilizes school-reported "main" tuition and fee rates reported to ISAC for FY22, which is the in-district, in-state rate charged to freshman students for the 2021-22 award year, and that is typically charged to the majority of students.
    • Because some institutions have differential tuition and fee rates for certain programs that are substantially higher than a school's main rate, earlier this summer ISAC provided an opportunity for these colleges to include a differential rate in their FY22 budget data, allowing them to determine MAP eligibility and submit MAP claims based on their differential rates.
    • Colleges for which differential budget data has been entered, certified, and approved in the system may:
      • use the "Edit MAP Code" functionality in the MAP system to calculate a student's eligible MAP award based on a differential budget rate, and
      • claim MAP for a student based on a differential budget code.
  • Be sure to review the Payment Results/Exceptions report in the Reports section of the MAP system the day after submitting payment requests to see which requests, if any, did not process as expected.
  • Any 2022-23 payment requests that were submitted via FTP prior to August 31, 2022 will not be processed, and must 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:

IVG Fall-Term Benefit Usage Data Being Accepted

Effective today, ISAC is accepting benefit usage data for the 2022-23 Illinois Veteran Grant (IVG) fall term. As a reminder, colleges have been able to submit benefit usage data for the 2022-23 IVG summer term and the 2022-23 Illinois National Guard (ING) Grant fall term since mid-August.

In order to be considered timely:

  • IVG benefit usage data for the summer term must be submitted on or before Friday, September 30, 2022;
  • IVG benefit usage data for the fall term must be submitted on or before Friday, December 30, 2022; and,
  • ING Grant benefit usage data for the fall term must be submitted on or before Friday, December 30, 2022.

Program Reminders

  • Benefit usage data for the IVG and ING Grant programs is submitted to ISAC by colleges via the benefit usage functionality within each program's system.
    • Colleges report enrollment hours and dollar amounts for initial, in-district and out-of-district benefit usage by students, as well as adjustments to previously-submitted data.
  • Although ISAC is not able to reimburse institutions for 2022-23 IVG or ING Grant awards, reporting of benefits used must still take place so that usage can be accurately reflected on students' accounts.
    • Colleges are encouraged to regularly check their Benefits Results report for each program. Further details are provided in the IVG and ING Grant user guides.
  • Any 2022-23 benefit usage data that was submitted via FTP prior to August 18, 2022 will not be processed, and must be resubmitted by the college.
    • In order to prevent having to resubmit data in the future, never submit benefit usage data via FTP until after ISAC announces it is accepting the data for that academic year.

MTI Awarding

2022-23 Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship Program awarding has taken place for all timely renewal applicants who have been certified as eligible. Award notifications will be mailed to awarded students by ISAC today.

Award Information Available via the MTI System

Colleges may now access 2022-23 eligible award information, including funded or unfunded status, using the MTI system, where all online processing for the MTI Scholarship Program is done. Award results may be viewed using the "Student List Eligibility: View" screen of the MTI system.

Online Resources

Resources regarding the awarding process, including the MTI User Guide, may be accessed via the MTI Electronic Processing area, as well as in the Award Determination for MTI section of the ISAC Gift Assistance Programs area.

Continue Certifying Records

Be sure to continue certifying records so that applicants will receive the appropriate notifications and be included in aby future rounds of awarding.

General and System Reminders

  • Please verify that the ISAC Gift Assistance Programs (GAP) Access Administrator at your college has established the appropriate system access level for all impacted staff.
    • Instructions for establishing access to the appropriate system(s) may be found on the GAP Access page.
  • Submitting payment requests is a two-step process, which involves generating the request (either individually or in a batch) and then submitting the request.
  • Payment requests submitted by 7 p.m. (CT) will be included in that night's processing, with payment results available the next business day. Results for payment requests submitted after 7 p.m. (CT) will be included in the following night's processing.
  • GAP Access is available each day between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. (CT).
  • The two-factor authentication process requires a valid user ID, password and single-use verification code each time a user logs in to the GAP Access portal.
  • A valid GAP Access user ID and password are required in order to submit files via ISAC's Secure File Transfer System (located at https://transfer.isac.org/), making encryption (password protection) of files unnecessary. Additional information and instructions are provided in the FTP Process Using GAP Access Credentials Guide.
  • 2022-23 MAP 160-byte specifications and 160-byte specifications for the 2022-23 IVG and ING Grant programs, describing the file layout to be used to send data to ISAC via FTP, are available within the Electronic Tools section of the e-Library for Partners.
  • The disbursement of funds is processed by the State of Illinois Comptroller's Office.

Watch for Future Updates

Future program updates will be announced via our usual means of communication: the FAA Message Board, the Program News pages, and/or this e-Messaging system.

You are receiving this message because you registered for ISAC's e-Messaging service through one or more subscription groups for FAAs.

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 isac.schoolservices@illinois.gov.