State Board of Education
Pam Stewart
Commissioner of Education
Marva Johnson, Chair
John R. Padget, Vice Chair
Members
Gary Chartrand
Tom Grady
Rebecca Fishman Lipsey
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Michael Olenick
Andy Tuck
MEMORANDUM
OSFA-STATE: #15-16:22
TO:
Financial Aid Directors at Private Florida Postsecondary Institutions, Public State
Universities and Public Vocational/Career Centers Participating in State
Scholarship and Grant Programs
FROM:
Brian Underhill, Director
State Scholarship and Grant Programs
DATE:
February 4, 2016
SUBJECT:
2015 Florida Legislative Financial Aid – Expanded Reporting Requirements
The 2015A General Appropriations Act (GAA) proviso language expanded the existing loan
volume reporting requirement to include additional student-level data which will assist the
Florida Legislature to forecast postsecondary financial aid needs for Florida’s students. The
Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) appreciates your institution’s cooperation in
already completing the first part of the proviso requirement related to the federal loan reporting.
Below is the entire GAA proviso language, including the new expanded requirement:
Institutions that received state funds in Fiscal Year 2014-2015 for student scholarships or grants
administered by the Office of Student Financial Assistance shall report federal loan information
to the Department of Education (DOE) prior to September 1, 2015, in a format prescribed by
DOE. This information shall include, by institution, the total federal loan amounts disbursed and
total number of students who received federal loans. Additionally, in a format prescribed by
DOE, each institution shall report all grants, scholarships, and awards to students who apply
for and/or receive state-funded tuition assistance and aid.
In order to fulfill the new second requirement of the proviso, the Florida Department of
Education is requiring that all institutions participating in state scholarship and grant
programs report all grant, scholarship, and award information on a student-level basis for any
student who received state aid during the 2014-15 academic year. Any student records with a net
disbursement greater than $0 for the 2014-15 academic year must be included on this report, due
April 29, 2016.
Levis Hughes
Chief, Office of Student Financial Assistance
www.fldoe.org
325 W. Gaines Street | Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400 | 850-245-0505
February 4, 2016
Page 2
To assist your institution in meeting the legislative reporting requirement, OSFA has created a
new Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) file layout that incorporates both the required state aid
and federal loan fields. OSFA has maximized efficiency similar to the Grade and Hours File, by
prepopulating your file with students who received state aid during the 2014-15 academic year at
your institution, reflective in OSFA’s data system as of September 1, 2015. As a result, your
institution is only required to provide the federal, institutional, private and any other awards
students may have received during the 2014-15 academic year.
The new SFTP batch file layout – Student Financial Aid Report (SFAR) – is attached. You may
submit the required student-level data using the same SFTP batch process used to submit the
Grade and Hours Report (G&H) data. Below is the naming convention for the SFAR File
Layout:
{CCYYMMDD}SAISFAR{PSI}.txt
Example: 20150801SAISFAR999.txt
OSFA highly encourages all institutions to use the SFTP process when processing multiple
student records for any of the State Program administrative activities. If you are not currently set
up on SFTP, please refer to the following setup instructions:
https://www.FloridaStudentFinancialAidsg.org/admin/SAWPDFREDIR.ASP?UserType=PSIftp.
If your institution is unable to set up a SFTP account, contact OSFA so that we may provide you
with an alternative method to transmit the required data to OSFA securely. Using this method
will still require your institution to provide the data using the same SFAR File Layout.
For additional information about this reporting requirement, please refer to the State of Florida
Legislative Reporting Requirement page located under Disbursement Reporting found on the
Postsecondary Institutions tab.
Should you have questions or need assistance regarding this reporting requirement, you may
contact Shawn Haskin at [email protected] or via telephone at 850-245-1915.
Attachment: Student Financial Aid Report (SFAR) file layout