SFA Information for Financial Aid Professionals
U.S. Department of Education
| DCLPublicationDate: 12/1/99 DCLID: GEN-99-40 AwardYear: 2000-2001 Summary: SUMMARY: This action letter provides information about changes and enhancements to the 2000-2001 Application Processing System, including changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the Student Aid Report (SAR), the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), our electronic application products, and our new SFA download web site. Action Letter # 6 December 1999 GEN 99-40 SUMMARY: This action letter provides information about changes and enhancements to the 2000-2001 Application Processing System, including changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the Student Aid Report (SAR), the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), our electronic application products, and our new SFA download web site. Dear Partner: We are pleased to announce the changes and enhancements we have made to the 2000-2001 Application Processing System. Enclosure A of this letter summarizes these changes. Why You Should Read This Action Letter In our continuing efforts to improve the student aid delivery system, we have made changes to the Central Processing System (CPS), the paper FAFSA and Renewal FAFSA, FAFSA on the Web and Renewal FAFSA on the Web, FAFSA Express, the Student Aid Report (SAR), the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), and EDExpress. We have also developed a new PIN (formerly EAC) Web site and a new Corrections on the Web product, all of which are described in detail in Enclosure A. This letter also provides information about our new SFA Download Web site. These changes may require you to make some modifications to your systems operations and office procedures. Therefore, it is important for you to become familiar with all of the information provided in this letter. In addition, we have developed a few new web application products that we hope you will announce to your students and encourage them to use. What This Action Letter Contains To help you plan for the upcoming year, we have included several enclosures with this letter. With the exception of Enclosure A, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these documents.
If You Need Further Information Visit other areas of our Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site (http://www.ifap.ed.gov). IFAP contains the latest information on federal financial aid, including Dear Partner/Colleague Letters, Announcements, training information, Department of Education (ED) publications, technical publications, and other useful documents. Call our Customer Support staff to get answers to your questions about software installation, software problem resolution, software functionality, and other technical assistance. You can reach us Monday Friday, 7:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m. (Central Time), at 1-800-330-5947. You can also email inquiries, comments, or suggestions 24 hours a day to cps@ncs.com. A representative will respond to you within 24 hours. We recently introduced two new ways for you to get your technical questions answered. First, you can visit our SFA Technical Support web site (http://www.ed.gov/sfatech). This site contains technical tips and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and provides a list of customer service contacts for all of our systems. Second, you can subscribe to SFATECH, our new e-mail list serve for ED software and systems. If you have a question about one of our SFA systems, mainframe, or PC products, write it up in an email and post it to the listserve. We will research your question and post our response to the list so that everyone can benefit from the information. Instructions for subscribing to and using SFATECH can be found on-line (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/services/fsatechsubscribe.html). Many of the enhancements we made this year were based on suggestions from you and your colleagues. As we continue our efforts to improve the application process, and respond to the needs and concerns of the financial aid community, we encourage you to share with us your ideas and suggestions for further enhancements. Sincerely, Greg Woods Chief Operating Officer Student Financial Assistance U.S. Department of Education |