INTERESTING "STUFF" FOR YOU

2003-04 FAFSA in Spanish (PDF)

Using the GOOGLE Advanced Search WEB form, click here.

OR Go to http://www.studentaid.ed.gov where you can find a pdf copy of the 03-04 Spanish version.

For those who are interested, go to the site listed above, click on Publications and scroll down to FSA Forms, and then click on FAFSA paper version (Spanish).

eZ-Audit Registration for Schools – web connections for your reference

http://ifap.ed.gov/
www.ezaudit.ed.gov  for use after April 1^st but register now.

Download a copy of the eZ-Audit Rules of Behavior From at www.ifap.ed.gov

If you have any questions about the eZ-Audit registration process, please contact eZ-Audit via email at fsaezaudit@ed.gov

Attachments/Enclosures:
ez-Audit Rules of Behavior 2003 in PDF
ez-Audit Rules of Behavior 2003 in MS Word Format

Your institution's tentative funding level worksheets for the Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Work-Study (FWS), and/or Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) programs for the award period July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004 will be posted to the eCampus-Based (eCB) web site at http://cbfisap.sfa.ed.gov on January 21, 2003. 

http://www.edfund.org/dcl/schools.cfm?edfPage=dclEnd.cfm&sort=CB-03-02&type=CB&sectionName=schools

Home Schooling

To review revisions to the Fin Aid Handbook and Dear Colleague letter regarding Home Schooling, see the Federal Student Aid website at http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/G02342.html and http://ifap.ed.gov/sfahandbooks/attachments/0203V2C1.pdf

Congressional Investigators' Sting Fools Education Department Into 
Certifying Fictitious College 
By Will  Potter

The U.S. General Accounting Office has gone to elaborate lengths to expose flaws in the Education Department's procedures for monitoring foreign institutions that seek to award student loans. In its 16-month undercover investigation, the office created a fictitious arts college in London, for whose "students" department officials approved $55,000 in loans. U.S. Sen. Susan M. Collins, a Maine Republican who now heads the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, asked for the investigation. In the past, Congress has criticized how the Education Department manages its budget, but there has never been such an investigation into student loans for postsecondary education. Senator Collins's office did not respond to calls seeking comment on Tuesday. In the investigation, the General Accounting Office, which is Congress's investigative arm, established the Y'Hica Institute for the Visual Arts, in London. It created a Web site, sent the department faked financial statements and course catalogs, and made up identities for three students who were seeking loans. One of them was named Susan M. Collins. "With relative ease, we created ... a fictitious graduate-level foreign school purportedly located in London, England," the office said in a report issued November 21 to Sen. Collins' office. "After creating Y'Hica, we obtained certification from Education for the school to participate in the program. Finally, we sought and obtained approval for student loans totaling $55,000 on behalf of three fictitious students purportedly attending Y'Hica." Terri S. Shaw, chief operating officer for the Education Department's Federal Student Aid Office, said that the department's policy is to verify the existence of a foreign school with authorities in the host country. "In this instance, we did not completely follow every step of the procedure, which resulted in Y'Hica obtaining preliminary approval for one year," she said. The GAO said the sting "exposed vulnerabilities" in the Education Department's procedures. Ms. Shaw, however, said the sting was "unraveled" by one of the banks that were asked to make the loans. Officials at Bank of America noticed irregularities in the students' applications and notified the department. Two other banks approved the loans. The department would have caught the scheme before money was disbursed, Ms. Shaw said. "At this point, if the GAO investigators were actually criminals trying to defraud the student-aid program, they would have been caught, prosecuted, and sent to jail," she said. Department officials said that they have since verified the legitimacy of all of the institutions in the loan program, and that the agency now conducts on-site visits of all new foreign institutions applying for eligibility in the program. The department will also formalize a permanent arrangement with the State Department to verify the existence of foreign colleges.