CollegesEFT

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Implementation 

The California Student Aid Commission (Commission) is pleased to announce the implementation of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for the Chafee Grant, as announced in GSA 2023-03.

 Benefits of EFT 

• Faster receipt of funds for reconciled Chafee accounts
• One-time Chafee verification
• Secure transfer of Chafee funds
• Quicker access of funds by students
• Elimination of stop payment and check reissue requests
• Reduction of manual processing of paper warrants

EFT Email Notification 

Institutions will certify students’ eligibility and request payments in WebGrants. The payment process will occur Monday night and institutions will receive funds in their designated bank account by Friday.

The Chafee Program Coordinator, Fiscal Officer, and EFT Coordinator will receive an email notification of their EFT two days in advance of deposits that will include a unique Claim Schedule Number.

 Institutions that would like to add additional contacts to receive the EFT email notification, email chafee@csac.ca.gov. Please keep in mind that these contacts would also receive email notifications for all EFT communications.

Identifying Students’ Payments

Once an institution receives notification of Chafee EFT funds, the Chafee Coordinator may utilize the “Recipients per Claim Schedule on the “Institution Reconciliation” screen in WebGrants to determine which students’ payments were included. 

Please refer to the Chafee Payment Roster Quick User Guide on our Chafee Grant homepage for additional step by step instructions

How to Return Funds via EFT 

Institutions must promptly return unused Chafee funds to the Commission throughout the academic year. The two options for returning EFT funds are:
 

• Return funds via check. Institutions should mail a university check to the Commission with the following information for each student:
• Name and CSAC ID
• Term and amount being returned
• Reason the funds are being returned 

• Returned checks should be mailed to the following address: 

• Return funds via wire transfer. Email chafee@csac.ca.gov and AEAAccounting@csac.ca.gov with the following information for each student:
• Name and CSAC ID 
• Term and amount being returned 
• Reason the funds are being returned 

The Commission’s accounting office will provide further information on how to return the funds electronically.

Institutions Without EFT

Institutions that opt-out or are unable to receive funds via EFT will continue to receive paper warrants (checks) mailed to their campus.

Chafee Check Not Received

Institutions that have not received the Chafee check may email chafee@csac.ca.gov with the following information for each student: 

• Name and CSAC ID 
• Term paid and amount 
• Warrant number 

Enroll in Chafee EFT 

Institutions that currently do not participate in EFT for Chafee can enroll by submitting the Chafee Grant EFT Application.

For more information contact: 

California Student Aid Commission

Chafee Grant Program 

chafee@csac.ca.gov