FAFSA Data Retrieval

The FAFSA IRS Data Retrieval tool provides a structured model of the IRS Data Retrieval Process used by FAFSA applications. It targets students, families, financial aid administrators, and auditors who need to reason about data flow, validation, and remediation without exposing real PII. It documents when retrieval can occur during the FAFSA lifecycle, how tax data maps to FAFSA fields, and how to handle failures or partial data. The model supports scenario testing, compliance validation, and impact analysis for changes in tax data availability or IRS policies.\nCore Logic & Features include identity verification, secure request construction, encrypted transmission, response parsing, and field mapping to the FAFSA schema. Required features ensure privacy, regulatory alignment, and data integrity: input validation, deterministic mapping, audit logging, and clear status reporting. Optional/advanced features provide retrieval-outage simulation, partial-data scenarios, configurable retry logic, normalization of tax data formats, and exportable data maps for testing, audits, and training.\nInputs & Outputs include student identifier (SSN or FAFSA ID), date of birth, FAFSA year, consent flag, and retrieval method (DRT or manual fallback). Outputs include mapped FAFSA fields, DRT status (success, unavailable, partial), data completeness percentage, and a timestamp. Validation enforces formats, cross-field consistency, and privacy safeguards. Edge cases cover invalid identifiers, mismatch between declared name and IRS records, DRT outages, and situations where only partial fields are retrievable.\nIndustry & Localization: US FAFSA workflow; aligns with IRS data privacy standards and FERPA considerations. The specification supports testing with de-identified data and includes clear auditing guidance. Assumptions include a simulated environment for safety, no live IRS access in the tool, and an emphasis on secure data handling. Exclusions specify that UI components, integration logic, and real-time production data pipelines are out of scope.