New release of the Pell Grant Online website

Posted on December 29, 2000

TO: All Destination Points

FROM: Pell Grant Processing

RE: New release of the Pell Grant Online website

Effective Thursday, 12/28/2000, a new release of the Pell Grant Online website will be implemented. We are very pleased to announce the following new features of the website:

1. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). We are providing an initialrollout of 14 Topics containing 126 Questions & Answers about the Pell Grant program. We will be updating these Q&A's as well as adding new Q&A's in the weeks and months ahead. Keep checking back, and if you have a question that is not answered by an FAQ, please use the Contact Us feature on the website, and send us your question.

2. Introduction and Logon page. We are improving the display rate of these pages, and retaining the active award years. Because of the security features on the website, you will still need to log back on after 15 minutes of non-use.

3. Title IV WAN (TIVWAN) RFMS Online services. We are now providing online access to users at institutions who have recently signed up with TIVWAN for their new feature as RFMS Online users. We will continue to provide online access for all users who have signed up with TIVWAN for RFMS support and have a Privacy Act document on file with TIVWAN. This new feature will allow more than one person at each school access to the web page. Please note that the additional users must each have completed the required Privacy Act documents with TIVWAN in order to receive their own TIVWAN number and be signed up with TIVWAN for RFMS Online access.

4. View Batch Status and Batch Detail. We are now providing a display of up to 3 Edit Codes for batch and detail records processed by RFMS.

5. Data Request. We have combined the MRR Code1 and Code2 data entry fields to allow easier selection. You may select to receive MRR information from the following options:

"OA" - Search the RFMS database for your students who have been originated by any other institutions.

"OI" - Search the RFMS database for your students who have been originated by the institution identified elsewhere on the Data Request record in the MR Institution Pell-ID field.

"OS" - Search the RFMS database for your student, identified in the MR Student ID field on the Data Request record, who has been originated by any other institution.

"DA" - Search the RFMS database for your students who have been originated and disbursed by any other institution.

"DI" - Search the RFMS database for your students who have been originated and disbursed by the institution identified elsewhere on the Data Request record in the MR Institution Pell-ID field.

"DS" - Search the RFMS database for your student, identified in the MR Student ID field on the Data Request record, who has been originated and disbursed by any other institution.

6. View and Update FAA Information. We now are displaying the FAA office and address that is being updated by the submission of an Institution Update (#I) batch. Please note that changes to this information submitted via the Update FAA page require processing by RFMS before the updated information can be viewed via the website. This RFMS processing generally takes 3-5 hours to complete. Note also that once you have updated your FAA information for RFMS, you must also go to the EAPP web site to update the FAA information for your school.

If you have any questions, please contact Pell Grant Customer Service at 800-474-7268 or by e-mail at pell_systems@ed.gov or by using the Contact Us button on the RFMS Webpage.