Maintained for Historical Purposes

This resource is being maintained for historical purposes only and is not currently applicable.

2001-2002 Reprocessing for Blank Response to Drug Eligibility Question 35

Publication Date: March 2001

Author: General Manager: SFA School Channel

Summary: 2001-2002 Reprocessing for Blank Response to Drug Eligibility Question 35

Posted on March 29, 2001

To: Financial Aid Administrators

From: U.S. Department of Education

Re: 2001-2002 Reprocessing for Blank Response to Drug Eligibility Question 35

As you know, we are amending the processing procedure for applicants who leave the 2001-2002 drug eligibility question 35 blank. Starting with 2001-2002 records processed on March 26, 2001, the Central Processing System (CPS) will set the "C" code if question 35 is left blank. Comment 53 will continue to be provided when question 35 is left blank. However, the wording of the comment is changed as follows:

"You left Item 35 blank. Your failure to provide an answer to this question makes you ineligible to receive Title IV aid. Either indicate that you have never been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs or use the enclosed worksheet to determine your answer to this question. In any case, you can correct this item by calling 1-800-4FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) or by going to www.fafsa.ed.gov. You can also use your SAR. Please understand that a drug conviction does not necessarily disqualify you from receiving student aid."

EDExpress will contain comparable, revised ISIR comment text for comment 53 in version 7.2, which is due to be released in late April 2001. Please note that schools can also make a correction to question 35 on behalf of students via EDExpress.

The CPS will reprocess approximately 9,600 transactions that have a blank response to drug conviction question 35 on the applicant's last 2001-2002 transaction prior to the March 26 change. SARs will be printed and mailed to the students. ISIRs will be sent to schools on March 29, 2001.

The following can identify reprocessed ISIRs:

  • Reprocessed Reason Code (ISIR field #264, positions 1540-1541) will equal "05"
  • System Generated Indicator (ISIR field #135, positions 600) will equal "Z"
  • Comment Code 172 will be present in ISIR field 261 (positions 1459 to 1518)
  • Batch number can be found in ISIR field #115 (positions 490 to 512): #Y200000020010327000001
  • System Generated message class: SYSG02OP

If you have any questions about the reprocessing or change, please contact CPS Customer Service at 800/330-5947, option 2, or via email at CPS@NCS.COM. If you have technical questions about our SFA systems and software, you may want to subscribe to our email list serve, SFATECH. For more information about SFATECH, including how to subscribe, look on-line at http://www.ed.gov/sfatech/listserv.html