| PublicationDate: 4/9/96 Summary: 1996-97 FAFSA Processing - Announcement #28 Author: ODAS - Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary - SFA Announcement # 28-- April 9, 1996 This is announcement number 28 in our series of daily FAFSA updates for financial aid administrators. For information on individual applications, parents and students should contact 319-337-5665. 1996-97 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Processing Status Report A. Status of Applications as of April 8, 1996 No./Percent. Expected FAFSA No. of Paper of Paper Apps. Date to Receipt Date Apps. Rec'd. Processed Complete =============================================== Jan 1 - Jan 31 438,509 438,509 (100%) Completed Feb 1 - Feb 15 698,335 696,742 (99%) Feb 16 - Feb 29 880,976 829,087 (94%) SUBTOTAL: 2,017,820 1,932,887 (96%) Mar 1 - Mar 15 977,827 700,229 (72%) Apr 15 Mar 16 - Mar 31 598,888 172,245 (29%) Apr 15 TOTAL 3,594,535 2,836,812 (79%) Note: Expected Date to Complete reflects the date that the Department expects all paper applications with these receipt dates to have been entered and processed by the Central Processing System. B. Change to EFC Formulas The Central Processing System made a change to EFC formulas 2 and 5 (regular formula for independents without dependent(s) other than a spouse and the simplified formula for independents without dependent(s) other than a spouse). The specific change was to the part of the formulas that calculates Total Income. Prior to this change, the Central Processing System was not including Earned Income Credit as part of a student's untaxed income for Independents with no dependents. Applicants who had a record (application or correction) processed on March 20 or later will have a properly calculated EFC. The CPS began reprocessing the small number of records processed before March 20 that were affected by the incorrect calculations. Institutions should begin to see these reprocessed records today. Please note that in many cases this reprocessing will cause little or no change in affected students' final EFCs and may cause little or no change in Pell eligibility. These reprocessed records will contain comment 172, which says: This Student Aid Report (SAR) was produced because of a processing change, and updates your previous SAR. Review all instructions to see if you need to submit a photocopy of this SAR to any of your schools. The Department has also taken steps to make the appropriate modifications to the EFC Formula workbook, the Need Analysis System specifications, and the Windows version of EDExpress. Institutions should note that the DOS version of EDExpress already contains the corrected formulas. C. Correction SARs returned to students The Department's Multiple Data Entry processors have informed the Department that many SAR corrections are being sent in by students and cannot be processed and must be sent back to the student. These fall into two categories: (1) SARs with corrections made, but no signatures (2) Information Review (Part 2 of non-rejected SARs) forms with no changes (with or without signatures). The CPS contractor, which is responsible for printing and mailing all SARs for 1996-97, was enclosing a return envelope with each SAR. The Department believes that this may be the reason that some students are returning the SARs, even if all the data was correct. The Department has instructed the CPS contractor to discontinue providing a return envelope except for rejected SARs. They will continue to enclose a return envelope with all rejects. Thank you for your continued patience and suggestions. |