7.1.3 Data Elements to be Verified

The Secretary of the DOE publishes a notice in the Federal Register announcing the information that institutions and students may have to verify along with the documentation acceptable for verifying this information. For the 2018-2019 award year, this notice is published in Federal Register Volume 82, Number 86, pages 21204-21208. Verification items for 2018-2019 are listed below and must be verified as indicated for applicants selected by CPS and vary based on which tracking group they are assigned to.

• Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
• U.S. Income Tax Paid
• Education credits
• Untaxed Pensions
• Untaxed portions of IRA distributions
• Tax Exempt Interest
• Income Earned from Work
• Household Size
• Number in College
• High School Completion Status
• Identity/Statement of Educational Purpose

Colleges may choose to verify additional items, including, but not limited to the following:

• Number of exemptions from tax return documents
• Income from work (for tax filers)
• Tax form used

Items to verify for an applicant will be selected from this list and indicated in the students output documents. A verification flag of “Y” and an asterisk beside the EFC will refer to a comment in the student section of the SAR telling selected applicants that their school will ask for documentation.

For 2019-2020, students selected for verification will be placed in one of three verification tracking groups. This determines what FAFSA information is to be verified for the student. KCTCS colleges will use the corresponding Verification Worksheet from Appendix A to verify the indicated information. The verification tracking groups are listed below.

7.1.3.1 Verification Statuses Reported to CPS

Colleges must report results for any student for whom an ISIR is received with tracking flag V4 or V5 (as selected by CPS, not the school) and request verification documentation. The information is reported on the FAA Access to CPS online website. One of the following numeric codes that best applies to the student is then entered.

1 – verification completed in person; no issues found
2 – verification completed using notary; no issues found
3 – verification attempted; issues found with identity
4 – verification attempted, issues found with HS completion
5 – no response from applicant or unable to locate
6—verification attempted, issues found with both identity and HS completion

Regardless of whether a student was chosen for verification, a verification status from the following list must be reported through COD when a Pell Grant is disbursed.

• V—Verification has been completed for students selected by both the Federal CPS and by KCTCS colleges.
• Blank—Report a blank if verification was not performed because neither the Federal CPS nor the KCTCS College selected the student or if the student was chosen for verification by CPS after the student ceased enrollment and all disbursements were made.
• W—Used when a student was selected for verification by CPS or the college and the college chose to pay an initial disbursement without verification documentation. This must be update upon completion of verification or COD will reduce the Pell Grant to zero. This code is not used by KCTCS. All applicants selected for verification by the Federal CPS or a college must be complete prior to disbursing of aid.
• S—Student selected for verification by CPS, but not verified by the college because the student satisfied one of the exclusions (except the post-enrollment exclusion for which the blank code is used) or because the college participates in the Quality Assurance Program and thestudent’s application did not meet college verification criteria.