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The 1998 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) established a performance-based organization to administer the Federal Student Aid programs at the U.S. Department of Education. These programs include grants, loans, and work-study to help students pay for education beyond high school. This webpage will keep you abreast of the changes to our organization and our progress in reinventing these important programs, which provided approximately $113 billion of financial aid during fiscal year (FY) 2009 to almost 13 million college students.

Chief Operating Officer: James Runcie

     Federal Student Aid's Performance

• We are pleased to provide our FY 2011–2015 Strategic Plan (PDF).
• Federal Student Aid's FY2009 Annual Report (PDF 8.7MB) presents sections on our mission, organization, programs, and performance.

     How we serve the public

• Applying for federal grants, loans, and work-study costs nothing! More than 16 million students use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year, and many of them apply online at FAFSA on the Web.
• The Federal Student Aid Information Center helps students complete the application and provides the public with free information about our programs. You can call 1-800-4-FED-AID to speak to a specialist about our student aid programs, or visit Student Aid on the Web for more information.
• The Direct Loan Program includes Stafford, PLUS, and Consolidation Loans and is run by the Department of Education. The Direct Loan website offers a variety of interactive tools for students, including repayment and budget calculators, and links to other sites pertinent to Direct Loans.
• We maintain a robust collection of technical documents for financial aid administrators, auditors, and other organizations at Information for Financial Aid Professionals.
• Also for financial aid professionals is PEPS, the information system for Federal Student Aid. At the PEPS website you'll find hotline information and what's new in PEPS and Case Management. There's also downloadable weekly extracts of selected PEPS fields, connectivity instructions, and security forms to request new user IDs. The site offers the Case Management and Oversight (CMO) weekly institutional updates and the PEPS training guides.
• We have established an Ombudsman's office to assist borrowers in resolving student loan issues.
• The HEA authorizes an "experimental sites" initiative that allows schools that apply and qualify for participation to use alternative methods to meet some of the requirements for administering the Federal Student Aid programs. See the website for more information.

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