Tampa, Florida (November 28, 2023) - ELM Resources, a leading provider of student loan management tools, reported they will allow flexible implementation for negative Student Aid Index values. This update comes in response to the FAFSA Simplification Act, which introduces the Student Aid Index as a replacement for Expected Family Contribution (EFC) starting with the 2024-2025 award year.
ELM Resources partnered with the National Council of Higher Education Resources (NCHER) and other school-based software and financial aid management systems to address this industry-wide concern.
"We heard concerns from schools and lenders about implementation timelines," said Phillip Wade, President & CEO of ELM Resources. "This flexible approach preserves lender choice during rollout while storing the true values for later use once they update their systems."
Effective the week of December 18, 2023, schools will be able to send negative SAI values via CommonLine℠ files v4 and v5 as well as through ELMOne.com, ELM's certification and disbursement platform. Additionally, lenders will have the option to choose whether they would like to receive negative values down to -$1500 or convert them to $0 if they do not wish to receive negative values.
"We want to allow flexibility during this transition," said Phillip Wade, President & CEO of ELM Resources. "Schools can send a negative value while lenders make their choice based on their own timeline and capabilities."
As part of this collaboration, additional technical corrections, and documentation for CommonLine℠ v4 and v5 were made and are posted on the NCHER website.
Organizations using CommonLine℠ are encouraged to review the materials and send their readiness information to NCHER at info@ncher.org.
Lenders seeking additional details on sending and receiving negative SAI values should contact ELM Resources National Service Center.
About ELM Resources:
ELM Resources is a leading provider of student loan management tools, including the CommonLine℠ network, which allows efficient, standardized electronic loan certification and functions. ELMOne (a product of ELM) is the industry's go-to solution that enables schools to certify and disburse loans, with fast processing and reporting capabilities, in one central location.