Publication Date: January 2002

DCL ID: GEN-02-01

Award Year: 2002-2003

This action letter provides information about changes and enhancements to the 2002-2003 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), Central Processing System edits, and database matches.

Student Financial Assistance

2002-2003 Action Letter

Action Letter #3

GEN-02-01

January 2002

SUMMARY: This action letter provides information about changes and enhancements to the 2002-2003 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), Central Processing System edits, and database matches.

Dear Partner:

We are pleased to announce the changes and enhancements we made to the 2002-2003 application processing system. Many of these enhancements were made based on suggestions from you and your colleagues, as well as from students and parents. As we continue our efforts to refine the application process, and respond to the needs of the financial aid community, we encourage you to share with us your ideas and suggestions for further enhancements.

What Information Is Described In This Action Letter?

This letter describes the changes we made for the 2002-2003 award year to the:

· Paper FAFSA and paper Renewal FAFSA

· Student Aid Report (SAR)

· Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR)

· Central Processing System (CPS), including edits and database matches

Watch for Other Action Letters

This is the third in a series of four Action Letters explaining changes we have made to the application processing system for the 2002-2003 award year.

The first Action Letter (Action Letter #1) in the series describes changes to the Renewal Application Process and was posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) web site in August 2001.

The second Action Letter (Action Letter #2) in the series was posted to IFAP in November 2001 and describes changes we are making to the EDESuite/EDExpress software.

Action Letter #4 will be posted to IFAP in January 2002 and will describe the changes we have made to our Web application products: FAFSA on the Web, Renewal FAFSA on the Web, Corrections on the Web, Student Access on the Web, the PIN Web site, and FAA Access on the Web.

What This Action Letter Contains

To help you plan for the upcoming year, we have included several enclosures with this letter. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these documents.

If You Need More Information

For more information, you can visit other areas of our Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) web site (http://ifap.ed.gov). IFAP contains the latest information on federal student aid, including Dear Partner/Colleague Letters, announcements, training information, Department of Education (ED) publications, technical publications, and other useful documents.

In March 2001, we consolidated the customer service call numbers for the Central Processing System (CPS) and Title IV WAN (WAN). The new telephone number is 1-(800)-330-5947. All calls you make to request support or technical assistance are now free. You can get answers to your questions about software installation, software problem resolution, software functionality, and other technical assistance Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. (Central Time). You can also e-mail inquiries, comments, or suggestions 24 hours a day to cpswan@ncs.com..

Finally, you can subscribe to SFATECH, our e-mail listserv for ED software and systems. If you have a question about one of our SFA systems, mainframe, or PC products, write an email and post it to the listserv. We will research your question and post our response to the list so that everyone benefits from the information. Instructions for subscribing to and using SFATECH can be found on-line at:

http://www.ed.gov/sfatech/listserv.html

We thank you for all of your helpful suggestions and encourage you to continue to send your comments and ideas for future enhancements to:

U.S. Department of Education
Application Processing
Union Center Plaza
830 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20202

If you have any questions about this Action Letter, please contact CPS/WAN Customer Support at (800) 330-5947 or send an email to cpswan@ncs.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Douglas
General Manager, Students Channel
Student Financial Assistance
U.S. Department of Education

Enclosure C – 2002-2003 FAFSA and FAFSA Instructions

Enclosure D – 2002-2003 Renewal FAFSA and Renewal FAFSA Instructions

Enclosure E – 2002-2003 Question 35 Worksheet (Drug Worksheet)

Enclosure F – 2002-2003 Student Aid Report (SAR), SAR Acknowledgement, and ISIR Record Layout