Summary: 2003-2004 EDE Technical Reference Updates dated January 2003

TO: All Destination Points
FROM: U.S. Department of Education
RE: 2003-2004 EDE Technical Reference Updates dated January 2003

We are pleased to announce that an updated 2003-2004 Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) Technical Reference has been posted on the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site (located at http://FSAdownload.ed.gov). The January 2003 documentation includes both the change pages and the entire updated document

The 2003-2004 EDE Technical Reference provides programmer specifications and record layouts for schools or other organizations that need to design software systems to interface with ED's software in order to process FAFSA applications. Record layouts are included for the electronic application, correction, duplicate request, ISIR, signature record, School Web Student Signature Hold Information, Federal Data Requests (State Agencies), and Renewal Application and PIN requests. A print sample for the ISIR is also included.

The 2003-2004 EDE Technical Reference is available in PDF format only.

Refer to the Appendix at the end of the document for a summary of the changes made throughout the document.

To download the 2003-2004 EDE Technical Reference:

1) Go to http:\\FSAdownload.ed.gov.

2) Click on the “References and Documentation” link on the left side of the page.

3) Scroll down to the “Electronic Data Exchange Technical Reference” heading on the next page. Under the heading, you will find links to various years. Click on the link for 2003-2004.

4) On the “Electronic Data Exchange Technical Reference 2003-2004” page, you may select “Full Download” to download the complete document or choose to download separate component of the technical reference.

5) Right-click on the file you wish to download. A pop-up menu will appear.

6) If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, select “Save Target As,” then choose a folder to which to save the file. If you are using Netscape, select “Save Link As,” then choose a folder to which to save the file.

7) Once the file has been saved, open the saved file in Adobe Acrobat to view or print the document.

The updated version of the 2003-2004 EDE Technical Reference is also available on the IFAP Web site (http:\\ifap.ed.gov):

1) Go to http:\\ifap.ed.gov.

2) Click on the “Current Publications” link on the left.

3) On the next page, scroll down to the “EDE Technical References” link and click on it.

4) On the next page, click on the “By 2003-2004 Award Year” link.

5) On the following page, select the “03-04 EDE Technical Reference January 2003 Release” link.

6) Follow the instructions for FSAdownload, above, to download the files.

If you have any questions regarding the information contained in this document, please contact CPS/WAN Technical Support at 800/330-5947 or via e-mail at CPSWAN@NCS.COM.