Portico Financial Aid Release Notes - September 2025

This month, we are highlighting SAP Appeal Document Integration, Award Year Document Linking in CORE, and NSLDS Compliance for International Student State Codes, which help you and our staff streamline financial aid processing, ensure compliance with federal reporting, and reduce manual corrections and delays. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• SAP Appeal Document Integration  
• Award Year Document Linking in CORE
• NSLDS Compliance for International Student State Codes

SAP Appeal Document Integration  

A smarter way to ensure eligible students receive financial aid disbursements, even when their SAP status is “Unmet”. 

What Is It

Institutions can now upload an approved SAP Appeal (waiver/probation) document directly into CORE. Once approved, the system will automatically allow the student to be processed for that payment period. 

Who It's For

Financial Aid Administrators and Student Services teams. 

Problem Solved

Prevents eligible students from being excluded from aid disbursements when their SAP status is unmet, but a waiver exists. 

Why It Matters

Ensures students who have been granted probation or waivers receive timely aid without requiring manual communication or workarounds. 

Details

• When a student’s SAP status is “Unmet,” the RTP logic will now check for an approved SAP Appeal document.  
• If present, the student will be added to the current disbursement batch.  
• Approved SAP Appeal documentation is linked to the student record for auditing and compliance purposes. 
• Students remain excluded from future periods unless they re-establish SAP eligibility.

✨ Benefit: Institutions gain greater accuracy, compliance, and efficiency in handling financial aid exceptions. 

Award Year Document Linking in CORE

Smarter document management that ensures students’ documents are tied to the correct award year—reducing errors and saving time. 

What Is It

Institutions can now enable a feature flag in CORE that automatically links uploaded documents to the specific award year associated with the student’s enrollment and payment records. 

Who It's For

Financial Aid Administrators and System Administrators. 

Problem Solved

Eliminates the need for manual document reassignment and reduces support tickets caused by misaligned award years. 

Why It Matters

Provides more accurate processing, improves compliance, and ensures smoother funding for students across award years. 

Details

• Institutions can choose to enable this functionality through a feature flag in Feature Flag Management. 
• Future start triggers now correctly log award years when creating documents. 
• All related documents are linked to the correct award year automatically. 
• Available to all clients, including legacy users, without disrupting existing workflows.

✨ Benefit: Students’ financial aid processes run more smoothly, institutions experience fewer delays, and staff save time on manual corrections.  

NSLDS Compliance for International Student State Codes

International student records will now use the federally recognized “FC” (Foreign Country) designation instead of the noncompliant “IT.” 

What Is It

CORE now replaces “IT” with “FC” in the State field during student data imports. This ensures that international student data is transmitted correctly to NSLDS and COD. 

Who It's For

Institutions importing student data via File Uploads (Template, API, FTP) or manual entry. 

Problem Solved

Prevents rejected records in NSLDS transmissions caused by invalid state codes. 

Why It Matters

Ensures smooth, federally compliant reporting of international student records—minimizing delays in aid processing and compliance risks. 

Details

• “IT” has been fully replaced with “FC” across import methods, packaging, and manual updates. 
• Dropdowns and mappings no longer include “IT” to avoid future errors. 
• Past 60 days of failed import records have been identified and corrected for reprocessing where needed. 

✨ Benefit: Institutions can trust that international student records are transmitted successfully the first time—improving compliance and reducing administrative burden. 

We’d love to hear from you and your colleagues about product feedback or what you'd like to see next. 

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