COTOP Overview & Training

HISTORY OF COTOP: The Chancellor’s Office is authorized to contract with community college districts to implement Section 12419.7 of the Government Code AB 2347 (Chapter 937, 1982) authorized the Chancellor’s Office to act on behalf of community college districts to collect outstanding student financial aid obligations through participation in the Franchise Tax Board’s Interagency Tax Offset Program. In 1991 the program was enhanced through AB 3929, to permit offset for specific non- financial aid obligations. Districts could now recover outstanding student debts owed to colleges such as enrollment fee, library fines, personal checks written with in- sufficient funds, students, and other approved debts. .

COTOP SUCCESS: Each year the COTOP program collects and returns millions of dollars directly to participating California Community College Districts

PARTICIPATION: Participation in COTOP is voluntary. The program is self supporting with a 75/25 split of collections. The contract and informational documents are located on the CCCCO website: http://extranet.cccco.edu/Divisions/StudentServices/COTOP.aspx 2019 COTOP Contract Packet (Tax Year 2018) http://extranet.cccco.edu/Divisions/StudentServices/COTOP/CotopResources.aspx District Invitation to Participate (word) COTOP Contract (word) Appendix A Data Submittal Specifications - 2 pages (word) Appendix B Transmittal Document (word) Appendix C Sample of Required Notification (word) Appendix D District Codes (word) Appendix E Debt Types (word) Appendix F Data Edit Checks (word) Sample A - Data Formatting Sample (word) COTOP Questions and Answers Document (word) *Contract and Transmittal Document are due by October 15, 2018

Recouping 100% of Amount Owed Districts should be aware, the 25% admin fee is calculated on total amount offset. In order to recoup 100% of the debt owed, districts who intend to collect the 25% fee from student accounts should use the following formula: Total debt divided by .75 = amount submitted to COTOP   Eg. $100 ÷ .75 = $133.33

Notification Requirements (Appendix C) Districts must attempt to notify students a minimum of 30 days prior to submitting the student’s account for collection. Districts must to this each time an attempt to collect on an account is made; meaning each year, attempts must be made to notify student, even if known bad address. Districts do not need to keep copies of each notification attempt; a form letter along with a list of students will suffice. There are no official guidelines on how long districts must keep proof of an attempted student notification. Districts are referred to their legal counsel for decisions on how long to keep such proof.

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Important Dates: September September 28 October 15 November 17 District COTOP coordinator (Appendix B – Transmittal Document) contacts Chancellor’s Office (tgardner@cccco.edu) to request new COTOP login password. New password will not be provided until coordinator e-mail is received. New password goes live October 1. Previous password will no longer work. September 28 Districts receive new login password October 15 The date by which signed contracts must be received in the Chancellor’s Office for District participation in COTOP. This is a soft date. Districts may submit signed contracts at any point. The date Districts can begin uploading accounts for the new COTOP year November 17 The last day of the year to add or change/delete new accounts These are accounts which are being loaded for the upcoming year The last day to modify accounts in the current COTOP year These are accounts already loaded in the COTOP

Important Dates (cont): November 19 COTOP system is closed to prepare submission of new accounts to Franchise Tax Board December 1 New accounts sent to Franchise Tax Board January 2 FTB Loads all new accounts onto their system for new COTOP year Districts may resume add/change/delete new accounts March 15 Ideal last date to add new accounts (1 month prior to tax day April 15)

PASSWORDS! New passwords are sent out on 10/12/18. The passwords are sent via e-mail to when the District Contact listed on the most recent Transmittal Document under the heading - “Contact person to receive COTOP reports and take student/debtor referral phone calls:” – sends an e-mail to the CO tgardner@cccco.edu This District Contact is responsible for forwarding the password to ALL employees deemed appropriate by the district.

New Accounts: Loading new accounts for COTOP Year 2019 begins 10/15/2018 Modifications (adds, changes, deletes) to accounts can begin immediately. New accounts for COTOP Year 2019 will be sent via electronic delivery to FTB on 12/1/2018 COTOP Database will be locked out 11/16/2018 through 1/2/2019. FTB will load new accounts to their database on Jan 2, 2019; COTOP Database will also re-open Jan 2, 2019. New account adds for COTOP Year 2019 are strongly encouraged to be completed by March 15, 2019. However, adds, changes and deletes may continue until November, 2019 when the system goes offline

REMEMBER!!!!! After OCTOBER 1, take note of which COTOP year you log into If you are unable to load new accounts before the November shutdown, accounts can be loaded when the system is back online in January with NO negative impact!!! Modifications can be made the day after an account is loaded New accounts can be loaded anytime the system is online Take care which browser you use – Chrome and Firefox have been known to have issues.

District Responsibilities Contact Must have designated staff to receive student inquiries (Transmittal Document). Responses should occur within a timely fashion Please update the CO when turnover occurs Refunds As agreed on page 3 of the contract: refund to debtor any overpayments or amounts collected in error resulting from collection through COTOP within 30 days from notification of offset by the Chancellor. This notification includes the posting of offset payment on the system. Districts are not to wait until funds are transferred from the State controller before refunding overpayments or funds collected in error as this could take months.

COTOP Support: Check Disbursement: Districts - Direct phone, fax & e-mail Terence Gardner Office:  (916) 322-7412 Fax:     (916) 324-8486 Email:    tgardner@cccco.edu COTOP FAQs Student - IVR Phone system – 1.866.810-7221 Chancellor’s website Check Disbursement: Monthly checks are disbursed by the State Controller’s Office approximately two – three months after each month-end. Example: January 2019 check will be received in April 2019

COTOP System

https://misweb.cccco.edu/cotop/COTOPLogin.aspx The welcome page for COTOP. **Note, when loading accounts for 2019, make sure the “COTOP Year” says “2019”. If you are checking current accounts, log in to “2018”.

Select your district, then enter the password to login to COTOP

The landing page after login The landing page after login. Navigate by clicking on the tabs at the top.

Account Batch Processes

Account File Processes Tab

Loading New Accounts – Batch Process To load multiple files, click the “Load New Accounts File” button. Find the correct file. **Refer to Appendix A of Contract Packet for layout guidelines**

When window opens, navigate to the location of the new accounts file and click to open/load.

Load New Accounts Confirmation Number of accounts loaded successfully will be shown in “Records Loaded to the Master File” box. Accounts not loaded will show in the “Records with Errors” box. In order to view the errors in detail, click on the “Load Error Report”

Load New Accounts Error Report The accounts not loaded will show in detail on the Load Error Report. The “Error Description” column will show the specific reason for the load failure.

Repeat the same steps for: Load Account Changes File Load Delete Accounts File **You will need to wait 24hours after adding to perform these functions on an account

Individual Account Processes

Add New Account When you are manually adding a single account

Add New Account Page Enter name, SSN, Amount & Debt type, then press “Enter” to add account.

Add New Account Error Any error will be displayed in red at the bottom. If this appears, the account has not been added. Make the necessary corrections and repeat the add steps.

Add New Account Confirmation Page Once the account is entered, you will be taken to a confirmation page. You have the option to “Confirm and save” or “Edit”. If necessary, press “Edit” to make any changes. If no changes, press “Confirm and Save”

New Account Added Once the account is added, the page will dispay Account Added in green. Without this notice, the account has not been added! **You will need to wait 24 hours before making any changes to this newly added account.

Individual Account Change Press the Change Account button

Use either the dropdown menu to find the name, or enter the Social Security Number and press “Next”

Press the “Change” button, to make changes to either Debt Type, Debt Amount or Account Balance.

Once changes have been made, press the “Save” button **Steps are the same for Delete Account

View Individual Account To view information on any individual account, including current status, offset payments, etc.

Either use the dropdown and find the name, or enter the SSN and hit enter.

FTB Status displays whether or not the account has been submitted to FTB All Transactions displays any offsets posted or account changes

District Offset Report Report used to reconcile the monthly payment received by the District. Months from any year may be entered, however the years cannot overlap, i.e. 1/1/2011-12/01/2011 ok; 01/01/2011-02/01/2012 not ok

Other District Reports

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