Notice2025-14849
Privacy Act of 1974; Matching Program
Primary source
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Published
August 6, 2025
Issuing agencies
Education Department
Abstract
Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended by the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 and the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Amendments of 1990 (Privacy Act), and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance on the conduct of matching programs, notice is hereby given of the re-establishment of the matching program between the U.S. Department of Education (Department), as the recipient agency, and the Social Security Administration (SSA), as the source agency, to ensure that applicants for title IV, HEA program assistance satisfy eligibility requirements under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 149 (Wednesday, August 6, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 149 (Wednesday, August 6, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37846-37848]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-14849]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Docket ID ED-2025-FSA-0184]
Privacy Act of 1974; Matching Program
AGENCY: Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of a new matching program.
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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended by the
Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 and the Computer
Matching and Privacy Protection Amendments of 1990 (Privacy Act), and
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance on the conduct of
matching programs, notice is hereby given of the re-establishment of
the matching program between the U.S. Department of Education
(Department), as the recipient agency, and the Social Security
Administration (SSA), as the source agency, to ensure that applicants
for title IV, HEA program assistance satisfy eligibility requirements
under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).
DATES: Submit your comments on the proposed re-establishment of the
matching program on or before September 5, 2025.
The period of this matching program is estimated to cover the 12-
month period from October 11, 2025, through October 10, 2026. However,
the computer matching agreement (CMA) will become applicable at the
later of the following two dates: October 11, 2025, or 30 days after
the publication of this notice, on August 6, 2025, unless comments have
been received from interested members of the public requiring revision
to and republication of the notice. The matching program will continue
for 12 months after the applicable date and may be extended for up to
an additional 12 months, if the respective agency Data Integrity Boards
(DIBs) determine that the conditions specified in 5 U.S.C.
552a(o)(2)(D) have been met.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at <a href="http://regulations.gov">regulations.gov</a>. However, if you require an accommodation or
cannot otherwise submit your comments via <a href="http://regulations.gov">regulations.gov</a>, please
contact the program contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. The Department will not accept comments submitted by fax or by
email, or comments submitted after the comment period. To ensure that
the Department does not receive duplicate copies, please submit your
comments only once. In addition, please include the Docket ID at the
top of your comments.
[[Page 37847]]
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> to
submit your comments electronically. Information on using
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents,
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site
under ``FAQ''.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments
received from members of the public available for public viewing in
their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly
available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dennis Kramer, Director, Data Policy
and Evaluation Policy Implementation Division, U.S. Department of
Education, Federal Student Aid, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, Washington, DC
20024. Telephone: (202) 676-7918.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
In accordance with the Privacy Act; OMB ``Final Guidance
Interpreting the Provisions of Public Law 100-503, the Computer
Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988,'' published in the Federal
Register on June 19, 1989 (54 FR 25818); and OMB Circular No. A-108,
notice is hereby provided of the re-establishment of the matching
program between SSA and ED to assist ED in the verification of Social
Security numbers (SSNs), confirmation of citizenship status as recorded
in SSA records, and death indicators (when applicable) of individuals
who initiate the steps associated with accessing programs authorized by
title IV of the Higher Education Act, or participating in the
application process for such assistance, to assist ED in meeting its
obligations under title IV of the HEA, including to ensure that
applicants for Title IV, HEA program assistance satisfy eligibility
requirements.
PARTICIPATING AGENCIES:
U.S. Department of Education and the Social Security
Administration.
AUTHORITY FOR CONDUCTING THE MATCHING PROGRAM:
The Department's legal authority to enter into this matching
program includes Section 484(o) of the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1091(o)); Section
484(g) of the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1091(g)); Section 483(a)(2)(B) of the HEA
(20 U.S.C. 1090(a)(2)(B)); Section 428B(f) of the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1078-
2(f)); and Sections 427, 432, 451, 483, and 484 of the HEA (20 U.S.C.
1077, 1082, 1087a, 1090, and 1091).
SSA is authorized to disclose information under this matching
program under section 1106 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1306)
and the regulations promulgated pursuant to that section (20 CFR part
401), and subsection (b)(3) of the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3)).
Section 7213 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of
2004 provides SSA authority to add a death indicator to verification
routines that SSA determines to be appropriate.
PURPOSE(S):
The CMA establishes the terms, safeguards, and procedures under
which the SSA will provide to ED SSN verification, citizenship status
as recorded in SSA records, and death indicators (when applicable) of
individuals who initiate the steps associated with accessing programs
authorized by title IV of the HEA, or participating in the application
process for such assistance, to assist ED in meeting its obligations
under title IV of the HEA, including to ensure that applicants for
title IV, HEA program assistance satisfy eligibility requirements.
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS:
ED will send to SSA records on individuals who initiate the steps
associated with accessing programs administered under the authority of
title IV of the HEA (applying for an FSA ID/creating a <a href="http://StudentAid.gov">StudentAid.gov</a>
account), who qualify as an eligible applicant, and who apply for
Federal student financial assistance through the Free Application for
Federal Student Aid (FAFSA[supreg]). SSA will match ED's records to its
files on each individual who has applied for a FAFSA and obtained an
SSN.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS:
The specific data elements that ED will transmit to SSA are: SSN,
first name, last name, and date of birth (DOB).
SSA's system of records involved in the matching program maintains
information required to apply for and obtain an SSN. The specific data
elements that SSA will send back to ED include: SSN, first name, last
name, DOB, and an SSA verification code on each record to indicate the
match results. The verification codes are: 1 = No match on SSN, 3 = SSN
match, name match, no match on DOB, 5 = SSN match, no match on name,
DOB not checked, 6 = SSN not verified, Blank = SSN match, name match,
DOB match. SSA will also send a death indicator if one is present on
SSA's database for the record. Records returned from SSA also will
include a citizenship status code as follows: A = U.S. citizen, B =
legal alien, eligible to work, C = legal alien, not eligible to work, D
= other, E = alien, student restricted, F = conditionally legalized
alien, * = foreign born, Blank = domestic born (U.S. citizen), N =
unable to verify citizenship due to no match on name, DOB, or SSN.
SYSTEM(S) OF RECORDS:
The Department will disclose records to SSA from its systems of
records entitled ``Aid Awareness and Application Processing''
(AAAP)(18-11-21), which was last fully published in the Federal
Register on November 7, 2024 (89 FR 88240) and ``Person Authentication
Service (PAS)'' (18-11-12), which was last fully published in the
Federal Register on July 28, 2023 (88 FR 48817). In addition, ED will
maintain the information that it receives back from SSA in the ``Common
Origination and Disbursement (COD) System'' (18-11-02), which was last
fully published in the Federal Register on June 28, 2023 (88 FR 41942).
SSA will disclose records back to the Department from its systems
of records identified as the ``Master Files of Social Security Number
(SSN) Holders and SSN Applications'' (Enumeration Verification System)
60-0058, which last fully published in the Federal Register on January
4, 2022 (87 FR 263).
Accessible Format: On request to the program contact person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file,
braille, large print, audiotape, compact disc, or other accessible
format.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of
Federal Regulations at <a href="http://www.govinfo.gov">www.govinfo.gov</a>. At this site, you can view this
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To
use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at
the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at
<a href="http://www.federalregister.gov">www.federalregister.gov</a>.
[[Page 37848]]
Specifically, through the advanced search feature at this site, you can
limit your search to documents published by the Department.
James Bergeron,
Acting Chief Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid.
[FR Doc. 2025-14849 Filed 8-5-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on August 6, 2025.
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