| PublicationDate: 4/30/96 Summary: 1996-97 FAFSA Processing - Annuoncement #45 Author: ODAS - Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary - SFA Announcement # 45, April 30, 1996 This is announcement number 45 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 29, 1996 No./Percent. Expected FAFSA No. of Paper of Paper Apps. Date to Receipt Date Apps. Rec'd. Processed Complete =============================================== Jan 1 - Mar 31 3,544,386 3,544,386 (100%) Completed Apr 1- Apr 15 576,989 576,989 (100%) Completed Apr 16 - Apr 30 529,224 396,095 (75%) 14 days from receipt TOTAL: 4,650,599 4,517,470 (97%) 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. Missing ISIR records The Department has received several inquiries about "missing" ISIR records, particularly where students can produce a paper SAR that clearly indicates the school's name, but the school does not have an ISIR record for the student. One of the possible explanations for this is if the ISIR batch was not downloaded to the school's computer. Even if a school believes that they have drawn down all of their batches, the Department has become aware that there still exists the possibility that a batch inadvertently failed to be received by the school. The problem with "missing batches" apparently happens when an error occurs during transmission of the ISIR batch. Because of the way that ISIR batches are numbered, schools may not even be aware that they are missing a day's batch. Schools can determine if they have experienced this by checking the activity log in the IAM software. This activity log can be accessed by selecting Utility/Activity Log from the menu picks at the top of the screen. Institutions should scroll to the right and look at the Description column, which would reveal if any such errors occurred. Once a school identifies that they have missed receiving a batch due to a transmission problem, the institution should contact CPS Customer Service at 1-800-330-5947 and ask that the batch be retransmitted. C. Reject 15 and 16 ISIRs The Department would like to confirm that the CPS will not transmit automatic ISIRs for records that contain reject 15 or 16. These rejects occur when the records are missing the appropriate signatures. The Department implemented this practice as a Privacy Act safeguard since it was determined that the Department has not received proper authorization to release student and parent Privacy Act data without the proper signatures. Institutions can use the PIN number to obtain a copy of the student's ISIR record. For those institutions that submit electronic applications for their students, schools will receive only the demographic data and the reject flag for those applications they submit that result in a reject 15 or 16. The Department has received feedback from several institutions regarding this practice and will consider this feedback for development of the 1997-98 processing cycle. |