Purpose and Scope of the Guide
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has prepared the New School Guide (Guide) to assist schools beginning participation in the Federal Student Aid (FSA) programs. The Guide is designed to give schools a quick introduction to program and system requirements to consider as a part of start-up activities. This Guide is an introduction and not all-inclusive. For a more complete explanation of program requirements, refer to the Federal Student Aid Handbook (FSA Handbook), which is the primary reference for financial aid administrators on the requirements of the FSA programs. The FSA Handbook is published each year by the Department (ED) and is posted to the Knowledge Center.
Importance of the Knowledge Center
Participating schools are specifically required to have access to the Knowledge Center and its contents since the Knowledge Center is the means by which the Department notifies schools of FSA program requirements. The Department strongly recommends that school financial aid administrators bookmark the Knowledge Center and sign up for regular notification of the publications that are posted on this site.
To register, users can scroll down to Knowledge Center Subscription and then select Subscribe. Registration for Knowledge Center Subscription results in automatic registration to receive daily or weekly email notifications summarizing the new additions to the Knowledge Center.
Further Assistance and Feedback
Appendices at the end of this Guide include:
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A list of resources and contact information for FSA Contact Centers that can assist schools with questions about systems issues.
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A checklist of important requirements that should be addressed at startup, and
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A reference list of User IDs and passcodes required for access to ED and FSA systems.
For further assistance with participation requirements, schools should contact the School Participation Division for their state. Comments or suggestions about this Guide may be sent to the publications group at fsaschoolspubs@ed.gov.
The FSA Programs
The Federal Student Aid (FSA) programs include grants, loans, and work-study for students. Schools must configure their systems to report data for these programs.
Awards for most FSA programs are tracked through the Common Origination and Disbursement System (COD), and funds are provided to participating schools through ED’s G5 payment system. This includes the aid programs below:
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Federal Pell Grants
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Iraq & Afghanistan Service Grants
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TEACH Grants (Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants)
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Federal Direct Loans (Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, and PLUS loans)
Schools may also elect to participate in the Campus-Based programs. For these programs, unlike the others, the school is given an annual funding allocation from which to make student awards according to program guidelines. These programs include:
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FSEOG grants (Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants)
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Federal Work-Study
Schools receive an annual allocation for these programs, which is drawn through the G5 payment system. Schools do not report student specific data to ED for FSEOG or Federal Work-Study.