ID.me Identity Verification Integration
- Patricia Donohue
- Jane Linder
ID.me Identity Verification was integrated with the OpenCCC student account system in February 2024.
Introduction
Under the direction of the Chancellor’s Office, a new third-party identity verification service is being introduced into the current admission application workflow to reliably verify and confirm the identity of students and prospective applicants before they enter the CCC system.
To improve student use of ID.me for identity verification, ID.me needs to be more tightly coupled with the identity verification process required to disburse financial aid funds, specifically cash disbursements such as Cal Grant and Pell Grant.
On this page:
Integration of Student ID Verification Service
The initial phase of this project includes integrating an opt-in/opt-out “ID verification” step for all applicants age 18 years or older. The ID verification step is positioned between the OpenCCC student account system and the CCCApply admission applications, allowing colleges to capture provable personal information to confirm the student’s legal identity.
By adding digital, direct, and self-service identity-proofing software into our existing workflows allows our local A&R and financial aid staff to focus their time on the students who need extra support and the individuals who cannot easily prove their identities, such as:
Undocumented
Minors
Special Needs
Fraudulent/bad actors trying to enter the system.
About ID.me
ID.me provides a trusted pathway for students to securely verify and protect their identity information in accordance with federal standards. Additionally, ID.me specifically provides the same technology used for identity verification and fraud reduction currently used across 37 California state agencies and 15 federal agencies, notably:
California Employment Development Department
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Internal Revenue Service
U.S. Social Security Administration
Read more: Go directly to http://ID.me for more information.
Used widely across California state agencies, over 8 million Californians already have an ID.me account making it easier to complete the new verification process.
Benefits to Students
Protects student identities
Streamlines student enrollment and financial aid disbursements
Helps prevent bad actors from stealing spots in online
Large government agencies use ID verification
Benefits to System
Reduces fraud across the system
Supports Admissions & Financial Aid Processing time
Focus more A&R staff time on student support vs fraud evaluations
Large government agencies using ID.me
How It Works
All new and existing adult students (age 18 and older) will be encouraged to verify their identity during the CCCApply admissions process and when submitting a California College Promise Grant (CCPG) online application. To facilitate this, several new workflows have been incorporated into the OpenCCC account creation and sign-in processes that will guide the student to the application for admission according to their ID verification status (verified or unverified).
Below are summaries of the primary use cases and workflows, as well as how these new ID Verification processes will impact our colleges.
Use Cases & Verification Workflows
Never Verified Students
New and prospective students over age 18 who decline to complete the ID.me process during the application for admission process will submit their application with a status of Never Verified (ID.me Workflow Status <idme_workflow_status> = null (blank or no value).
Verified Students
Verified students who have completed the verification process as part of a CCCApply application submission process will maintain their verified status for 12 months unless they make a change or update specific account profile information which requires a re-verification. If a verified student submits another application within 12 months of uninterrupted verified status, they will bypass the ID.me process entirely and be taken directly to their intended application or service upon sign in.
Never-Verified to Verified Status Workflow
Returning students who declined to complete the ID.me verification process during the application submission process will continue to see the ID.me verification screens each time they sign in to their OpenCCC account or other integrated service. These students are encouraged to Verify their identity by signing in to their OpenCCC account and clicking on the Verify Now link at the bottom of the Profile page.
Unverified Students
An Unverified status means that the student was actually verified within the last year (or within 365 days from last Verified status) but has had a status change which has caused the student to become “unverified”. A change in status from verified to unverified happens when the student makes a change or updates specific account profile information, including:
First name
Last name
Address
Date of Birth
Verified to Unverified Status Workflow
Staff-Verified Students
To support certain student populations including incarcerated students, the OpenCCC Account Creation Tool was developed to give colleges an option to create an account and submit an admission application on behalf of a student who isn’t able to do so themselves, and verify that account based on the identity information that the college has pre-validated. These accounts are stored with the ID.me verification status of “staff verified” at the time the account is created, and will maintain this status for 12 consecutive months or until the student is able to claim ownership of the account themselves. At that time, the student will be given the opportunity to complete the ID.me verification process and establish an updated status.
Staff Verified Workflows
Expired Status
A student’s “verified” status will expire if it has been over 12 months since confirmation of their initial verification. If one year has lapsed since their initial verification, the next time the student attempts to sign in to their OpenCCC account or submit a new CCCApply application (or submit a CC Promise Grant application) the student will be presented with a notice to re-verify their existing IDme account and will be re-directed to the IDme sign in screen. To re-verify, the student must sign-in with their IDme account credentials and security code which will be sent to their mobile phone or other MFA method. The student is then routed back to CCCApply to continue.
Verified to Unverified or Expired Status
Primary Workflow Process
To facilitate the ID verification process a series of screens guide the student appropriately after creating their OpenCCC account, signing in to OpenCCC, or updating specific account Profile information depending on the different use cases.
The CCC ID.me Verification Page
New and existing students over age 18 may verify their identity as part of the CCCApply application process. This verification step will come right after the new student creates their OpenCCC student account or an existing student signs in to their OpenCCC account before they begin filling out an application.
New, First-Time Students
Following account creation new applicants are presented with the CCC ID.me Verification screen where they are encouraged to proceed to ID.me to verify their identity or decline the verification process at that time and continue to the application. Following this decision point, the appropriate verification status value and timestamps are stored. If the student chooses to decline at this point and continue to the application without initiating the ID.me process their verification workflow status will be null (blank) and no values are stored with the application data.
Returning Students
Returning students who have an existing OpenCCC account and have submitted an application in the past without completing the ID.me verification process, will encounter the CCC ID.me Verification screen the next time they sign in to their OpenCCC account and attempt to submit a new application.
Proceed with Verification (Opt-In)
If the student chooses to proceed with verification, they are presented with the Sign In to ID.me screen to start the ID.me verification process.
Decline Verification (Opt-Out)
If the student chooses not to verify their identity, they will be prompted to confirm this decision on the Decline Verification screen or return back to complete the verification process. This modal informs students that if they decline to verify their identity at this point, their access to financial aid may be limited or delayed moving forward.
If the student confirms that they want to decline to verify, they are routed to the application or service they originally intended to access.
Verification Status Changes
The ID.me verification process includes several workflow statuses that can change over time. The majority of new, first-time applicants are U.S. domestic and international students age 18 years or older who have not yet completed the identity verification process through ID.me. These students will encounter the ID.me process after creating their OpenCCC account and before they submit their first CCCApply application. If the student opt-out of the verification process, they will have an ID.me workflow status = Never Verified (appears as no value (blank) in submitted and post-submitted application data).
Never Verified
Verified
Staff Verified
Unverified
Expired
Account Profile Changes
The student’s ID verification status is displayed on their account profile page. A student may lose their verified status within 12 months following their successful verification if they change or update the following information in their OpenCCC account profile:
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Date of Birth
Address
If a change does occur, their current verification status will revert back to “null” (unverified), and they will be encouraged to log in to ID.me and upload the latest version of their primary and secondary documents, which would reflect these changes to their identity.
Data Fields & Data Delivery
Three new data fields have been added to track the student’s identity verification status, including timestamps for the ID.me confirmation and status changes. Each of these fields support “null” values and, along with the workflows themselves, have been designed with ‘shut-off’ capabilities to prevent any issues with data delivery during our traditional application season cycles. The three ID.me fields are:
ID.me Data Field Name | Data Field | Brief Description |
|---|---|---|
ID.me Opt-In Timestamp | <idme_optin_timestamp> | Sets a value tracking the date and time of the student’s decision to proceed with ID verification. |
ID.me Confirmation Timestamp | <idme_confirmation_timestamp> | Sets a value provided by ID.me representing the date and time the student’s verification process was completed successfully. |
ID.me Workflow Status | <idme_workflow_status> | Sets a value identifying the student’s ID.me verification status at various points in the process |
The ID.me Verification Workflow Status
Following this release, all students will have an ID verification status value associated with their CCCID. Students who have created an account but have not yet encountered the new verification process will have a “null” value stored as their verification status. Students who have encountered the verification system but choose not to verify (opt-out) will maintain a “null” status in the system and will be prompted with the Verify your Identity page each time they sign in until they complete the verification process. Students that successfully complete the verification process will have a “verified” status.
ID.me Verification Status Change Data
These fields will be delivered to colleges with application data via the SuperGlue College Adaptor and will be available for reporting in the CCCApply Report Center and the Data Warehouse Report Server.
ID.me Implementation
Following the initial integration of ID.me student identity verification (February 2024), colleges must have SuperGlue College Adaptor version 4.9.0 or higher implemented in order to receive your students' initial ID.me verification status data. Contact your CCCTC College Experience Manager at cems@ccctechcenter.org to ensure you have the most current version of the College Adaptor today.
Student Support
The OpenCCC Helpdesk will continue to provide student support, and as usual, the College Support Services team will respond to staff support requests.
ID.me Help Center & Support Process
Support for the new ID verification process will be provided by the ID.me Help Center.
Documentation
Please find all OpenCCC and CCCApply Data Dictionaries and User Guides in the CCCApply Public Documentation space.
ID.me Resources & Toolkits
Below are links to digital toolkits and brochures college staff can use to assist students with the identity verification process
ID.me Digital Toolkit & Guides
Click here to view and download the ID.me digital toolkit for students.
CCC and ID.me FAQs
Recorded Demo of the CCC and ID.me Student ID Verification Process
Student & Staff Support Sites
ID.me Help Center: https://help.id.me
CCC Student Support website with ID.me topic: https://openccc-support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/22511674592269-ID-me
CCC Staff Support website with ID.me topic: https://openccc-staffsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/23454507132685-ID-me