| PublicationDate: 3/4/96 Summary: 1996-97 FASFA Processing - Announcement #2 Author: CPS - Central Processing System (CPS) Announcement #2 - March 4, 1996 1996-97 FEDERAL STUDENT AID APPLICATION PROCESSING In keeping with our commitment to keep you informed about the status of application processing for the 1996-97 award year, we are providing this daily announcement. This announcement is number two in the series. (1) As announced yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education will be posting these announcements to the SFA Bulletin Board System (BBS). In addition, to assure that as many members as possible in the financial aid community receive this information we will also be forwarding the announcements for posting to the Title IV WAN and finaid-L. If you know of colleagues that do not have access to these electronic information centers, please share these announcements with them. If you have a colleague that would like to join the BBS, please recommend that they request a copy of the BBS software from Customer Support (1-800-433-7327). (2) The Department's goal is this: All FAFSAs received by March 1 will be processed by March 31. By April 15, processing times will be within specified contractual turnaround times. (3) The Federal Student Aid Information Center has already extended its hours of operation to the following times: Toll - Application Toll-free Status Checks and Duplicate SARs (1-319-337-5665) (1-800-4FED AID) Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. EST 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. EST Saturdays 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. EST 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. EST Students and parents may call either number for information about the status of an application. As stated yesterday, the number of staff members available at 1-319-337-5665 to respond to these inquiries has been tripled. The Federal Student Aid Information Center will be able to provide callers information about FAFSAs currently being processed and information about processed SARs and ISIRs. (4) So that you may better assist your students, remember that applications that have an ACT return address (P.O. Box 4001, Mt. Vernon, IL 62864-8601) were distributed primarily to institutions located in the eastern United States and in foreign countries (i.e., Alabama, American Samoa, Canada, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Federated States of Micronesia, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Marshall Island, Michigan, Northern Mariana Islands, Mississippi, Mexico, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Republic of Palaua, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Virgin Islands, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia). Applications with an I-NET return address (P.O. Box 60001, Cahokia, IL 62206-6001) were distributed primarily to institutions in the western states (i.e., Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). However, please remember that each processor will accept and process any FAFSA, Renewal FAFSA, or SAR, so occasionally an application may not have been processed where it would normally have been expected to be processed. In general: FAFSAs received by ACT through February 5 have been processed. We are still compiling information for I-NET processing. (5) The Department believes that institutions and states that use an application's processing date to prioritize students' eligibility for aid may want to reconsider how to make these decisions this year. The Department encourages institutions and agencies to adopt a "first come - first served" method for determining students eligibility for aid either by using the date the institution/agency receives the SAR or ISIR or by using the date the application was received (i.e., application receipt date) by the Multiple Data Entry agency. ACT applications that were received between January 2 and January 5 will contain an application receipt date of January 5. Applications received by ACT after that date are dated with the actual date received. I-NET applications received from January 2 through 29 will contain an application receipt date of January 29. All other applications will be dated with the actual receipt date. Thank you for your continued patience as we work together to provide equal access to education. |