The 1998 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) established a performance-based organization to administer the Federal Student Aid (FSA) programs at the U.S. Department of Education. The FSA programs include Pell grants, Stafford loans, PLUS loans, and the "campus-based" programs: Federal Work Study, Perkins loans, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity grants. This webpage will keep you abreast of the changes to our organization and our progress in reinventing these important programs, which provide more than $60 billion of financial aid a year to college students.
Chief Operating Officer: Theresa S. Shaw
FSA's Performance
- We are pleased to provide our Fiscal Year 2004 Performance Plan
(PDF) and our Fiscal Year 2004-2008 Five-Year Strategic Plan (PDF).
- FSA's Fiscal Year 2003 Performance and Accountability Report presents sections on management discussion and analysis, performance, and financial information. (PDF)
How we serve the public
- Applying for FSA grants, loans and work-study costs nothing! Over 10 million students use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year, and many of them apply on the Web at FAFSA on the Web.
- The Federal Student Aid Information Center helps students complete the application and provides the public with free information about our programs. The center responds to approximately 5 million telephone inquiries a year. You can call 1-800-4-FED-AID to speak to a specialist about our student aid programs, or visit Financial Aid for Students, which has our popular print publications online, as well as helpful database resources.
- The Direct Loan Program includes Stafford and PLUS loans and is run by the Department of Education. The Direct Loan website offers a variety of interactive tools for students, including a repayment calculator and direct access to loan account information. Stafford and PLUS loan funding for the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program comes from private lenders.
- We maintain a robust collection of technical documents for financial aid administrators, lending institutions, auditors, and other organizations at Information for Financial Aid Professionals.
- Also for financial aid professionals is PEPS, the information system for Federal Student Aid. At the PEPS website you'll find hotline information and what's new in PEPS and Case Management. There's also downloadable weekly extracts of selected PEPS fields, connectivity instructions, and security forms to request new user IDs. The site offers the Case Management and Oversight (CMO) weekly institutional updates and the PEPS training guides.
- The students.gov website is the U.S. Government-wide initiative to deliver electronic, web-based services from government agencies and organizations to postsecondary students. We are taking a lead on this initiative and are developing and testing services related to web-based student financial aid.
- We have established the FSA Ombudsman, an office to assist borrowers in resolving student loan issues.
- The HEA authorizes an "experimental sites" initiative that allows schools that apply and qualify for participation to use alternative methods to meet some of the requirements for administering the FSA programs. See the website for more information.
- We understand customer concerns about privacy on the Web. Our privacy policy explains how we're working to ensure the privacy of your visit to any of our websites.
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