| PublicationDate: 10/22/99 Summary: RFMS and Authorization Increases Author: PSS - Program Systems Service Posted on October 22, 1999 TO: All Destination Points FROM: U.S. Department of Education RE: RFMS and Authorization Increases RFMS has been processing Originations, Disbursements and Special Disbursements for several months now and one of the most frequently asked questions is "How do I increase my school's authorization amount?" Disbursement data is used to increase the authorization amount. Advance funded schools receive an initial authorization and when the Disbursement batches total more that the authorization amount, it is increased. Authorizations are not affected by origination batches. The Origination record can be sent as soon as a school has an ISIR for a student and applicants can designate up to six schools to receive the ISIR. Therefore if all schools sent origination records for which they had ISIRs, and the Department funded from the origination record, then six different schools could be funded for one student. Instead RFMS uses the disbursement record to fund the schools. When a school sends a disbursement record they indicate the date of disbursement. This date can be within 30 days (for an advance funded school), or five days (for a Just in Time school). If a school exceeds the authorization amount with the disbursement batch the authorization will increase in approximately 2-3 days. Schools are still required to send a Disbursement record within 30 days of disbursing to a student. Correction: On September 10, 1999 the RFMS update from July announcing the new Pell Web site was reposted on the IFAP web-page. In addition to the announcement of the web site there was also a "Tip of the Week" that indicated that data requests were not yet being accepted. This tip was time sensitive and no longer applicable. RFMS can and does accept data requests. |