HURRICANE
KATRINA INFORMATION - ELECTRONIC ANNOUNCEMENT #3
(09-09-2005)
From: Terri Shaw, Chief
Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid
Subject: Procedures for Adding New Federal School Codes to 2005-06 FAFSAs for
Students Transferring Because of Hurricane Katrina
Many schools are helping students transfer from institutions impacted by Hurricane
Katrina to their own institution so that these students can continue -- and
in many cases begin -- their postsecondary educations. Federal Student Aid wants
to support these efforts by facilitating the transfer of FAFSA information.
As we discussed in our
September 2, 2005 IFAP announcement, in some cases the school to
which a student is transferring needs to be added to the student's 2005-06 FAFSA
record with the Central Processing System (CPS). To make this process as simple
as possible, we have temporarily added options for schools to request the addition
of a Federal School Code to a transfer student's CPS record. In addition to
the methods noted in the September 2 announcement, schools that are accepting
students who have been displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina can request
to have their school code added to a student's record, as follows:
- A school can call 1-800-4FEDAID
and ask a Customer Service Representative (CSR) to add, for up to 15 individual
applicants, its Federal School Code. The school must provide the CSR with
each applicant's name and social security number, but it does not need to
provide the student's DRN.
- For larger numbers of
students, a school can submit a batch file of student records to the CPS.
We will then run an automated process to add the transfer school's Federal
School Code to the FAFSA record for each of the students in the file. This
special procedure is only available for students who are transferring to a
school as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Procedures for submitting the file
of student records are provided below.
Schools that want to request
that the CPS add its Federal School Code to students' CPS records using the
special batch process, must -
- Create a password protected
Excel spreadsheet.
- Enter the school name
and Federal School Code in the first row of the spreadsheet (e.g., FSA University,
001111). This will allow the CPS to identify the school submitting the request
and the Federal School Code to be added to all of the student records on the
spreadsheet.
- Populate the Excel spreadsheet
with a separate row for each student whose CPS record should be updated with
the school's Federal School Code.
- Each record must include
the student's Social Security Number (without dashes i.e., 123456789) in Column
A and the student's last name (in all CAPS) in Column B. Do not worry about
column width. Example: 123456789 SMITH
- Save the spreadsheet
using the following naming convention: School Name followed by the Federal
School Code. Do not forget to password protect the spreadsheet.
- Attach the Excel spreadsheet
to an e-mail message with a Subject Line of "Request To Add Federal School
Code"
- Send the e-mail, with
the attached password protected Excel spreadsheet, to -
Bill.Schulte@pearson.com,
Sandy.Weldon@pearson.com,
Vicki.Rebling@pearson.com,
and
Ida.Mondragon@ed.gov.
- After sending the e-mail
with the attached Excel spreadsheet, immediately call one of the following
to provide the password that was assigned to the password-protected spreadsheet:
Sandy Weldon at (319) 665-7774, Bill Schulte at (319) 665-7743, or Vicki Rebling
at (319) 665-7767. If the e-mail is sent on Saturday or Sunday, you must call
Monday morning.
- Once we receive the
spreadsheet and its password, the CPS will add the requested Federal School
Code to the most recent CPS FAFSA transaction for each of the students on
the spreadsheet. The new school code will be placed in the first open school
code position. If all six positions are filled, the new Federal School Code
will be placed in the sixth school code position, replacing the school currently
listed in that position.
- Files and passwords
received Monday through Thursday will result in new ISIRs being generated
and sent to all schools listed on the student's record, including the new
transfer school, the next day. Files and passwords received on Friday, will
result in new ISIRs being generated and sent the following Monday.
The CPS has already processed
requests for one school that is accepting transfer students from schools impacted
by Hurricane Katrina. On September 8, 2005, all schools listed on transactions
for these students received ISIRs. If you receive new ISIRs you did not expect,
you can use the identification keys below to determine if the ISIR records are
the result of students transferring to other institutions due to Hurricane Katrina.
- Transaction Data Source
Code = "5"
- Transaction Data Type
Code = "P"
- Reprocess Reason = "03"
- Comment Code 172
Schools are reminded that
the two special methods described in this announcement for adding Federal School
Codes to FAFSA records (by calling 1-800-4 FEDAID without the student's DRN
or by using the batch process) can only be used for students who are transferring
to a new school because of the impact of Hurricane Katrina.
If you have any questions
about these procedures, please contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947
or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.
