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News from NASFAA

Publication Date: March 16, 2001

Author: General Manager: SFA School Channel

Summary: SFA4Schools Web site

Posted on March 16, 2001

To: Financial Aid Community

From: Kay Jacks, General Manager, SFA Schools Channel

Date: March 16, 2001

Subject: SFA4Schools Web site

Dear Partners:

SFA is pleased to announce the grand opening of our new school portal, http://www.sfa4schools.sfa.ed.gov/, a single web site giving you access to all Title IV Federal student financial aid program information, resources, and activities. It is one of our first steps toward modernizing and integrating SFA’s systems. SFA4Schools will serve you better, keeping you up to date with SFA information and activities. We think you will like SFA4Schools so much that you may want to make the portal as your homepage.

SFA4Schools consists of five main areas: SFA Headlines, SFA Links, SFA Search, "My SFA," and the SFA Calendar. In addition, there are also Portal Help, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Contacts, "Got a Question?", and Portal Feedback links.

SFA Headlines: For the latest breaking SFA news or policy and rule changes, checkout the SFA Headlines box.

The SFA Links section is broken down into five areas: the Reference Library, Student Data, the Book Store, Participation and Funding, and Training/Conferences.

Reference Library - For access to all of your SFA publications, links to IFAP’s SFA Publications section and IFAP’s newest feature, Publications by Topic, have been added in the Reference Library Section.

Student Data – The Student Data section links you to important student-based web sites such as the Direct Loan - Loan Origination, National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), Pell/RFMS, Direct Loan Servicing On-Line, and Direct Loan Consolidation - School Services.*

Book Store – The Book Store section allows you to order SFA publications by linking you to the Bulk Publication Ordering System; view question and answers or ask technical questions through the SFA Technical Support (SFA Tech); and download software such as EDExpress and EdConnect through the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SFA Software Downloads link.

Participation and Funding - Programs such as GAPS-Grants Administration and Payment System , PEPS-Postsecondary Education Participants System , and the Application to Participate and for Recertification , can be accessed through the Participation and Funding section.*

Training/Conferences – The Training and Conferences section provides you with information on upcoming training or conferences offered by SFA, by linking you to the SFA University web site and the SFA conferences registration page.

(* Note: These web sites are linked together in one place for your convenience. To access the databases, you must have previously registered and gained access with that particular system’s administrator. You would have been given a user id and password for each system. If you’re not currently registered for a database that you/your school would like to have access to, just click on the Contacts link for information on how to contact the proper customer service branch to become registered. Or, you may contact the SFA Customer Service Call Center 1-800-433-7327.)

(** Special Note: A single sign-on feature, combining each of the databases, is a work-in-progress that we hope to unveil in future versions of SFA4Schools.)

 The SFA Search function has a strong search engine that will allow you to find information about Student Financial Aid by topic or date.

With "My SFA," you can customize your SFA4Schools page, using a username and password that you create, to link to your school’s programs. For example, if you are a Pell only school, you can customize your portal page to only include the link to the Pell/RFMS page. You can also add any other links that you may use.

The SFA Calendar will keep you abreast of all upcoming events and dates in SFA such as conferences or training, processing deadlines or NPRM due dates.

Additional important tabs/links on SFA4Schools -- To help answer any questions that you may have in using SFA4Schools, a Portal Help and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) link have been added near the top of the page. Also located near the top of the page is the Contacts link, a complete listing of SFA’s customer service centers, the types of service provided by each and how to contact the Customer Service Representative. To send your questions or comments to our SFA Schools Channel Customer Service staff, you can access the "Got a question?" and "Portal Feedback" links.

This is the first version of SFA4Schools, with even better changes yet to come. The customization function is the first step in working towards having a single user ID and password that will allow you to access all of the SFA programs, a feature we plan to implement in the next version of the school portal. In the future, we also plan to integrate the SFA Calendar with the NASFAA calendar to provide you the most complete information available.

As always, we welcome your feedback about this new product. You may provide those comments via the Portal Feedback tab, or you may also contact the SFA Customer Service Call Center at 1-800-433-7327 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Posted March 19, 2001, on the NASFAA Web Site www.nasfaa.org