Publication Date: October 6, 2004

Author: General Manager, School Delivery Channel, FSA ASEDS

Summary: 04-05 Handbook Announcement

Posted on 10-06-2004

Dear Partner,

As you may know, we have recently posted the remaining volumes of the 2004-2005 Federal Student Aid Handbook to the IFAP site. All of the remaining Volumes are being printed and mailed to you. We sincerely apologize for the delay in getting these materials to you. We have heard from many of you about the importance of getting the FSA Handbook in your hands at the earliest possible date, and we agree wholeheartedly with what we have heard.

Although the most recent volumes to be approved contained no major policy changes, they did substantially reorganize the way information is presented to align it more closely with awarding and disbursement activities at your school. In the course of reorganizing the material, we were able to bring together guidance that had formerly appeared in different chapters of the Handbook.

Synthesizing this guidance raised many issues that required resolution by policy experts within FSA and the Office of Postsecondary Education. It has also occasioned an extensive review of all of the text in the new Volumes. While this has taken considerable time and effort, we believe that the result is a much more succinct and easy-to-follow presentation.

In some ways, the new organization of the Handbook parallels what we have done with the COD system - it consolidates the requirements of different FSA programs into a single discussion for each stage of the aid process.

For instance, Volume 3 of the FSA Handbook now brings together all of the information that you need to award and package FSA funds for a student:

- Chapters 1 and 2 describe how academic calendars, payment periods, and the cost of attendance are used when making FSA awards.
- Chapters 3 and 4 describe the specific award rules for Pell Grants and Stafford/PLUS loans.
- Chapter 5 describes the award limits and selection rules for Campus-based awards.
- Chapter 6 describes the rules for combining FSA aid awards with any other sources of aid to complete the student's total aid package.
- Volume 4 discusses requirements associated with the aid process itself.
- Chapter 1 discusses requirements associated with making Stafford/PLUS loans, including the use of the MPN.
- Chapter 2 describes the rules governing the timing and methods of disbursing FSA funds to students and parents,
- Chapter 3 describes the methods of requesting Federal funds and the requirements for properly identifying the funds in school accounts.

The chapter on disbursements (Volume 4, Chapter 2) is a particularly good example of the advantages of reorganizing the Handbook to align with aid processes.

Last year, you would have had to consult at least 6 different chapters of the Handbook to ensure that you were correctly disbursing FSA funds to your students.

- First, you would have had to go to Volume 2, Chapter 5, to find the rules for payment by credit to account and direct payment, as well as the rules that allow you to pay the student before classes begin and the rules that require you to delay Stafford/PLUS disbursements by 30 days.
- Then you would have had to refer to Volume 3, Chapter 4 to find the Pell-specific rules for disbursements.
- If the student was awarded Campus-based aid, you would have had to refer to Volume 5, Chapter 3, Volume 6, Chapter 4, and Volume 7, Chapter 3 to find out that FWS wages must be paid at least once a month, when you may make uneven disbursements of Perkins and FSEOG, and circumstances that allow the use of power of attorney for FWS and Perkins disbursements,
- Finally, you might also have had to refer to Volume 8, Chapter 6 for rules concerning late disbursements and payments to students who have temporarily dropped below 1/2-time enrollment.

All of these disbursement requirements are now found in one chapter. Because we were able to eliminate a number of redundant discussions, this very important chapter is only 22 pages long.

To help make the transition to the new Handbook, we will be posting several explanatory documents to the 04-05 Handbook Web page, including a "crosswalk" between the old Handbook chapters and the new ones.

While the process of Handbook development is one of constant review and improvement, we expect to make only relatively minor adjustments to the 05-06 edition so that we can release it to the aid community in time for you to use as a part of the 05-06 application cycle (beginning in January 2005) and in awarding aid for the coming award year.

We will also be soliciting feedback on the new Handbook through a variety of means, including focus groups at our two Electronic Access Conferences this Fall. If you would like to share your thoughts or ask a question about the new Handbook, you may contact the publications team in the School Services and Training Channel at:

fsaschoolspubs@ed.gov

Copies of the latest volumes will automatically be mailed to your school address, as listed on the E-App system. If you would like to check you school's mailing address, or customize it, you can use the E-App site [http://www.eligcert.ed.gov/] to do so. Instructions for customizing your mailing address are provided through a link in the left-hand sidebar of this Web page.

We hope that you will find the new Handbook to be useful, and thank you for your patience while it was being prepared.

Sincerely,

Bill Ryan
Director Training &
Information Services Division
School Services & Training Channel

Attachments/Enclosures:

04-05 Handbook "Crosswalk" in PDF Format, Size 62, pages 2