| AwardYear: 1996-1997 Edition: PostSecondary Part: 2 - - The application process for financial aid SectionNumber: SectionTitle: The federal role in application processing PageNumbers: 22-23 Historically, standards for application processing and need analysis were developed in the 1950s by the financial aid community and independent servicers. As the federal share of need-based aid increased over the years, need analysis became a part of the law, which was later amended to ensure that prospective students could apply for federal aid without paying a fee. Currently, the U.S. Department of Education contracts for two different kinds of processing services. The APPLICATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS process the FAFSA and send student information to the CENTRAL PROCESSING SYSTEM (CPS). The CPS uses this information to calculate the EFC and print the STUDENT AID REPORT (SAR). We will refer to the application processors as FAFSA PROCESSORS for purposes of our discussion of the federal student aid delivery system. For the 1996-97 award year, there are two FAFSA processors, but there is only one central processor for eligibility calculation. The end result of the federal application process is a federal output record containing an EFC that is determined on the basis of the student's complete and correct FAFSA information. The record will be a SAR or a SAR Information Acknowledgement, which the CPS will mail to the student within four weeks, and an INSTITUTIONAL STUDENT INFORMATION RECORD (ISIR), which a school can obtain electronically. The ISIR is a computer-generated electronic or magnetic record. Note that the ISIR is no longer available in paper roster form. Only schools listed in Part H of a student's FAFSA can automatically obtain an ISIR. The EFC and the data supplied by the student are printed on the SAR or transmitted in the ISIR. For a student to receive federal student aid, the school must receive either the SAR from the student or the ISIR from the CPS with an official EFC. Even if the school receives the information directly from the processing system, each student must carefully review the processed information on his or her SAR to make sure it is correct. CHANGES TO THE APPLICATION PROCESSING PROCEDURES Please note, as stated in Action Letter GEN-95-10 (A Guide to 1995-96 SARs and ISIRs): the Department no longer offers the paper ISIR (paper roster) beginning with the 1996-97 award year. Magnetic ISIRs (tapes and cartridges) will still be available from the CPS to institutions that participate in the Applicant Data Service. Electronic ISIRs can be received through the Electronic Data Exchange (EDE). There has been yet another significant change in electronic processing procedures: the elimination of Part 3 (the Federal Pell Grant Payment Voucher) of the SAR . Beginning in 1996-97, all institutions are required to use at least one of the automated data exchanges: the electronic payment system (EDE), the Recipient Data Exchange (RDE), or the Floppy Disk Data Exchange to report Pell payment information. In RDE, schools submit payment data via magnetic tape; in Floppy Disk Data Exchange, schools submit data via PC diskette. Also, beginning in the 1995-96 award year, the Department introduced a new electronic application system called FAFSA Express. FAFSA Express allows students to apply electronically without going to a school to use EDE; this process requires only an IBM-compatible computer that meets minimum standards and a modem (a printer is also strongly recommended). Copies of the 1996-97 FAFSA Express program will be made available to libraries, postsecondary schools, Educational Opportunity Centers, and high schools. The Department has provided schools and libraries with information on ordering the program. |