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PublicationDate: 4/4/96 Summary: 1996-97 FAFSA Processing - Announcement #26 Author: ODAS - Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary - SFA Announcement # 26-- April 4, 1996 This is announcement number 26 in our series of daily FAFSA updates for financial aid administrators. For information on individual applications, parents and students should contact 319-337-5665. 1996-97 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Processing Status Report A. Status of Applications as of April 3, 1996 No./Percent. Expected FAFSA No. of Paper of Paper Apps. Date to Receipt Date Apps. Rec'd. Processed Complete =============================================== Jan 1 - Jan 31 438,509 438,509 (100%) Completed Feb 1 - Feb 15 698,136 686,332 (99%) Apr 5 Feb 16 - Feb 29 881,020 732,791 (83%) Apr 5 SUBTOTAL: 2,017,665 1,857,632 (92%) Mar 1 - Mar 15 974,943 487,507 (50%) Apr 15 Mar 16 - Mar 31 589,877 87,021 (15%) Apr 15 TOTAL 3,582,485 2,432,160 (68%) Note: Expected Date to Complete reflects the date that the Department expects all paper applications with these receipt dates to have been entered and processed by the Central Processing System. B. FAFSA Express The Department would like to respond to the Internet posting regarding FAFSA Express and whether the CPS waits 99 days to process a student's record. As we reported in previous announcements, the electronic record containing the student application data sent from FAFSA Express is held by the CPS for 21 days. If the signature page comes in to the CPS within 21 days of receiving the electronic FAFSA Express record, the student's record is processed. If no signature page is received by the CPS after the 21-day "hold" period the CPS processes the student's record with a reject 16. In addition, if the student indicates that no signature page will be printed, the CPS does not hold the record for 21 days, but rather processes it immediately with a reject 16. Because FAFSA Express signature page processing falls under the history correction part of the process, the Department had the Central Processing System set the CPS parameter to hold FAFSA Express records for a period of 99 days. We increased the number of days that we would hold these records until we were current (with the signature pages) so that applicants would not get Reject 16 SARs unnecessarily. Now that we are current with FAFSA Express signature pages, we have authorized NCS to return to the original parameter of 21 days. We will continue to process FAFSA Express signature pages as a priority. Applicants should be aware that MDEs are receiving many invalid signature pages. Students must print out a signature page according to the instructions given in the software (i.e., must use a small enough font so that everything fits on one page). Signature pages must include the applicant's pre-printed SSN and name. Applicants may also not use a 1995-96 signature page for 1996-97 FAFSA Express applications or attempt to change a 1995-96 signature page into a 1996-97 signature page. C. NSLDS Data Some important information concerning the National Student Loan Database data has come to the Department's attention. The Department wishes to share with you some information that was posted to the Finaid-L bulletin board that may impact your school. The following is a direct quote of that information. Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 09:21:32 -0800 From: Martin Daniels Subject: SAR / ISIR Loan History via NSLDS The Northwest Education Loan Association (NELA) has sent the following memo to all schools within the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Due to the nature of the information it will be beneficial for all schools to be familiar with the situation as it may affect students with NELA guaranteed loans attending schools in other states. This is also being provided to all finaid-l subscribers as a response to two messages related to NSLDS Loan History which were posted by affected schools on 4/1/96. The SAR/ISIR loan history information for affected students will show cumulative loan balances significantly greater than what the student has actually borrowed. ******************************** To: Participating Schools From: Phoebe Hollenbeck Vice President and Director Program Services Subject: NSLDS Information on ISIRs/SARs NELA has identified a problem that can, in some cases, cause the outstanding FFELP loan balance information on the ISIR Financial Aid History to be incorrect. The ISIRs impacted would have been drawn down AFTER March 19, 1996. Fortunately, the errors are easily detectable as the loan amounts appear to be much larger than they should be. We are in the process of correcting this data with the NSLDS system, however, in the meantime we have received the following guidance from the NSLDS staff and the Department of Education. A) For students who are continuing at the same institution, the school can use the information in its files (FAT's from prior years and current school records for the current loan period) to make awards. It is recommended that the school use on-line access to the NSLDS system to confirm the amounts before the first disbursement is made. B) For transfer students, the school can contact NELA at 1-800-732- 1077 and we will send you documentation of the borrower's outstanding balance of loans guaranteed by NELA. We are currently working with NSLDS to identify a way for schools to initiate a duplicate draw down of the correct information. As soon as a resolution has been identified, we will promptly inform you. NELA is making every effort to quickly resolve this issue and ensure that future ISIRs reflect the correct information. If you have questions or need further clarification, please call Salve Manio, Technical User Analyst, at (206) 461-5368, or (800) 562-3001, ext 368. D. Scheduled down time for the SFA BBS on Friday, April 5 The SFA BBS will be down tomorrow, Friday, April 5, from 8a.m. to 5p.m., for server relocation. As a result, there will be no announcement posted on Friday, April 5th. Announcements will resume on Monday, April 8. Please excuse any inconvenience that this might cause. Thank you for your continued patience and suggestions. |