COTOP Overview & Training

. HISTORY OF COTOP: The Chancellor’s Office is authorized to contract with community college districts to implement Section 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: COTOP Contract Packet (Tax Year 2014) 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 10, 2014word

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 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.

Important Dates: September 30 Districts receive new login password October 1 The date by which signed contracts must be received in the Chancellor’s Office for District participation in COTOP. The date Districts can begin uploading accounts for the new COTOP year November 18 The last day of the year to add or change/delete new accounts The last day to modify accounts in the current COTOP year 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 Last day to add new accounts

PASSWORDS! New passwords are sent out on 9/30/14. The passwords are sent via to 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:” 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 2015 begins 10/1/2014 Modifications (adds, changes, deletes) to accounts can begin immediately. New accounts for COTOP Year 2015 will be sent via electronic delivery to FTB on 12/1/2014 COTOP Database will be locked out 11/17/2014 through 1/2/2015. FTB will load new accounts to their database on Jan 2, 2015; COTOP Database will also re-open Jan 2, New account adds for COTOP Year 2015 are strongly encouraged to be completed by March 15, However, adds, changes and deletes may continue until November, 2015 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 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

COTOP Support: Districts - Direct phone, fax & Terence Gardner Office: (916) Fax: (916) COTOP FAQs Student - IVR Phone system – Chancellor’s website Check Disbursement : Monthly checks are disbursed by the State Controller’s Office approximately three to four weeks after each month-end. Example: January 2015 check will be received in March 2015

COTOP Database Demonstration