What's New

• Florida Legislative Session 2008 Updates
• Florida Legislative Session 2007C Updates
• Florida Medallion Scholars May Receive 100% Funding at Community Colleges
• Bright Futures Updates

Student Quick Links

• First-Time Applicants
• Initially Awarded Student Information Page
• Renewal Students
• Eligible Colleges and Schools
• Award Amounts
• Summer Funding
• Frequently Asked Questions

Administrator Quick Links

• High School Guidance Counselors
• Resources for Postsecondary Institutions
• Comprehensive Course Table

Initial Eligibility Processing for Florida Financial Aid Applicants (SSFAD Interface)

Index of Topics
Florida Financial Aid Applicants List
Bright Futures Practice Evaluation System
FASTER Request Record from SSFAD
SSFAD High School Certification Report

Students in their last year of high school complete the Florida Financial Aid Application (FFAA) to apply for Florida Bright Futures Scholarships and provide the Department of Education authorization to evaluate their transcripts. Please note that:

• District and high school personnel will continue to utilize the Bright Futures practice evaluation system as a counseling tool.
• District and high school personnel will continue to be responsible for moving transcripts from the practice to the production evaluation system for early (7th semester) and end-of-year (8th semester) evaluations according to their district's or school's academic calendar.
• Bright Futures applicants must complete an FFAA by high school graduation.
• The Bright Futures production evaluation system will not accept transcripts for any student who has not completed the FFAA.

Schools and districts may determine which of their students have completed the FFAA and request an official Bright Futures eligibility evaluation using a combination of any of the following methods:

• the State Student Financial Aid Database (SSFAD) High School Certification Report
• the Bright Futures Practice Evaluation System - Florida Financial Aid Applicants List
• FASTER (Florida Automated System for Transferring Educational Records)

We have added to your district's Main Menu page, a "Florida Financial Aid Applicants List by SSN or by Last Name." This list displays students that have indicated your school as their high school of graduation on their Florida Financial Aid Application (FFAA). The information displayed on this list is the information provided by the student on the FFAA to the State Student Financial Aid Database. This list may be used to compare and reconcile FFAA information with Bright Futures transcript information on your Bright Futures List of Students, similar to how you have been using the SSFAD High School Certification Report's "ALL SSFAD Applicants" page.

The Bright Futures Practice Evaluation System has been modified since last year due to Legislative Session 2007C changes, eliminating evaluation of early admit students who are no longer eligible for Bright Futures awards. (Strikethroughs indicate procedures will no longer be followed.)

The Bright Futures practice evaluation system's "List of Students by Student ID or by Name" includes a column titled "FFAA Status."  The Bright Futures Web site at www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/ssfad/bf/ provides guidance counselors easy access to this list of students in the "Online Transcript Entry and Evaluation System." Each student's record will indicate one of the following codes:

The Bright Futures practice evaluation system includes only FFAA indicators for students you have submitted to the practice evaluation system. It is not intended to be a complete list of all FFAA applicants.

Private high schools using the "Online Transcript Entry and Evaluation System" data entry screen to enter a new student will provide the student's SSN (or unique local student ID if SSN is not available), first name, last name, date of birth, gender, and ethnicity. The Bright Futures system will search the SSFAD system for the student's FFAA. If an FFAA is found, the student's demographic information will pre-fill on the screen. If an FFAA is not found for the student, you may enter the student's demographic and transcript information. When the student completes an FFAA, the FFAA demographic information will automatically update the Bright Futures system demographic information.

When a public school student completes an FFAA and requests an official Bright Futures eligibility evaluation, the SSFAD system will notify the student's high school (as identified by the student) by sending the school a request record via FASTER. The school will respond to the request by submitting the student's transcript to the Bright Futures production evaluation system according to the school's academic calendar. Please note that student transcripts can be submitted to the Bright Futures practice evaluation system whether or not the student has completed the FFAA.

All Bright Futures student transcripts (both practice and production) are sent to the Bright Futures address ('district' 95).

You can identify SSFAD notices by referring to the Sending Institution and Message Type Code fields on the FASTER Header Record (in Appendix H of the FASTER User Manual, available on the web at URL http://www.fldoe.org/faster). The SSFAD system notification request records will have the following codes:

Transcripts submitted to production for students who responded "yes" to the felony question or requested that their transcripts not be evaluated for Bright Futures (coded 52 in the Bright Futures practice evaluation system) will be rejected, with a Message Type code of B11.

Transcripts submitted to production for students who have not completed the FFAA (coded N in the Bright Futures practice evaluation system) will be rejected, with a Message Type code of B10. This will let you know that the Bright Futures System could not find a completed FFAA record for that student.

The primary criteria used to match a student's transcript with the FFAA is the social security number. If the social security number is not on your transcript, and if the student's other demographic information does not permit the system to match the demographic information on the FFAA (using a complex algorithm involving name, date of birth, gender, high school, and ethnicity), the student's transcript will be rejected, with a Message Type code of B10.

Should you have questions regarding the FFAA or identification of your Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program applicants, please call our Bright Futures Guidance Counselor line toll free at 1-888-827-2004. Information management personnel requesting technical assistance may reach Laverne McKenzie at 1-850-245-9763, SUNCOM/ 205-9763.

The SSFAD High School Certification Report is a listing of students attending your school who have submitted an FFAA and for whom additional information is required to complete their application for all state programs (including Bright Futures) so they may receive an official eligibility evaluation. You may view or print this report from the SSFAD Web site at www.FloridaStudentFinancialAid.org or download a data file containing the same information (for use in your local automated systems).

Thank you for continuing to assist your students through the Bright Futures evaluation process. Your role is an essential part of the award determination and is greatly appreciated.