| AwardYear: 1994-1995 Edition: PostSecondary Part: 2 - - The Application Process for Financial Aid SectionNumber: SectionTitle: The Federal Role in Application Processing PageNumbers: 18-20 Historically, standards for application processing and need analysis were developed in the 1950's by the financial aid community and independent servicers. As the federal share of need-based aid increased over the years, the law was amended to ensure that prospective students could apply for federal aid without paying a fee. The law also requires the Department to contract to the extent practicable with organizations for the processing of financial aid applications and issuing eligibility reports. Currently, the Department contracts for two different kinds of processing services: application processing and calculation of federal student aid eligibility. There are four application processors but only one central processor for the eligibility calculation. Through contracts with other organizations, the Department has arranged for four different APPLICATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS to process the FAFSA and send the student's information to the CENTRAL PROCESSING SYSTEM (CPS). The application processors are also responsible for printing the STUDENT AID REPORT (SAR) based on the EFC calculated by the CPS. We will refer to these application processors as FAFSA PROCESSORS for purposes of our discussion of the federal student aid delivery system, although several of the organizations may provide other services to students and schools. One of the FAFSA processors is the Department's own application processor. We will refer to this processor as the ED APPLICATION PROCESSOR. [[The illustration entitled "Application Processors" on page 19 is currently unavailable for viewing. Please reference your paper document for additional information.]] The application questions needed to apply for aid from the federal student aid programs appear on a stand alone form, known as the "Free Application for Federal Student Aid" (FAFSA). For the federal student aid programs, the end result of the application process is the eligibility report: the printed STUDENT AID REPORT (SAR) that includes the student's official EFC number or an electronic equivalent that is sent to the school. After the student's application has been processed, a SAR is sent to the student's home address, and the information on the SAR is sent electronically to the school. (Note that students who file an application through the ELECTRONIC DATA EXCHANGE (EDE) will NOT receive a printed SAR at their home address; the SAR information will only be sent to the school.) The student may submit a valid SAR (one on which all information used to calculate the EFC is complete and accurate as of the date the application is signed) to the school to receive a Federal Pell Grant; the school may also use the EFC on the SAR to award other federal aid. However, for the 1994-95 award year, there are alternatives to using the SAR as a payment document for Federal Pell Grants. The school may also pay a Federal Pell Grant if it has received the student's EFC and application information from the CPS through INSTITUTIONAL STUDENT INFORMATION REPORTS (ISIRs)*2*, or EDE. This information must be presented to the student in printed form on an ESAR, and the student must sign to certify that he or she has had an opportunity to review this information and that the information is correct. *2* ISIR refers to documents such as printouts from tapes or rosters. An ISIR is a report to a school from the CPS containing all of a students application information. The ISIR may be a paper document or an institutional paper printout from a computer generated electronic record. Only schools reporting Federal Pell Grant disbursements electronically may rely on a signed ISIR in lieu of a SAR as final documentation of a students eligibility for a Federal Pell Grant. |