FASTER CHANGES FOR 2000-2001

Effective: November 12, 2000
Revised Date: October 2, 2000

Administrative Reminders and Issues

Check out the FASTER web page and sign up for the new FASTER listserv by sending an email to fstr@firn.edu. Then send messages to everyone on the list by addressing your e-mail to faster@wizard.firn.edu. Documentation on how to use the listserv can be found at http://www.firn.edu/mailserv/mailserver_howto.html.

IBM no longer offers support for FTP Version 2.2. They will keep the 2.2.1 version of FTP running past this spring. However, those users still using that version must migrate to the current version of FTP by November 2000. Users are also encouraged to consider using the internet for file transfer. See Chapter 10 of the FASTER User Guide for more information.

Outstanding High School Junior records will continue to be addressed to institution number 700 but the Board of Regents will no longer be responsible for creating the flat file needed by the postsecondary institutions. Records posted by October 1, 2000 will be made available on October 2, by FIRN, in dataset 'FRN.POSTSEC.OUTSTAND.HSJRS' for postsecondary institutions to download. High schools wishing to provide this information should transmit the appropriate records before that time to ensure inclusion in the original dataset. A second extract of records will be performed on October 9, 2000. These new records will be appended to the original dataset. The original dataset will also be copied to dataset 'FRN.POSTSEC.OUTSTAND.HSJRS.Y001002' and a copy of the new records will be made available as dataset 'FRN.POSTSEC.OUTSTAND.HSJRS.Y001009'. This procedure will be continued throughout the month of October. NOTE: These instructions differ from those described in the agenda notes from the August 1 STRES meeting.

A committee has been created to begin discussing specifications for transmitting SPEEDE/ExPRESS formats rather than FASTER formats. For the postsecondary formats, FASTER institutions would like to have this in place by November 2001. Anyone interested in having input to this process should contact the committee chair, Russ Henderson at Florida State University.

Functional System Changes

All "Inform" error messages on the interdistrict and secondary format edits are now "Reject". Please pay close attention to these edit changes in Appendix R. Many of the edits allow for default values or blanks, but if the data fails the edit the transcript WILL BE REJECTED.

Since there are no more "Inform" messages, the program SRTS03A is no longer necessary and will not be available for execution.

Chapter One now includes a discussion of the statutory authority for FASTER.

The error messages in the edit report of SRTS03 for test score and test subject content code have been changed to include the test name and date, rather than the valid code values.

Seventh Semester Rank, Percentile has been added to the SRTS12IS print format in the cumulative summary box.

Talented Twenty Status as of Seventh Semester has been added to the SRTS12P print format.

A parameter has been added to SRTS12IS, SRTS12CC and SRTS12P that will allow for the option of adding an extra line to the beginning of each transcript. This line contains information that identifies each individual transcript for indexing by optical scanner. The contents of this line of data are:
For SRTS12P: - SSN, Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial, Post Date
For SRTS12IS and SRTS12CC: - SSN (if available), Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial, Post Date, Florida Student ID

In order to facilitate tracking of the X01 message, Message Type has been added to the SRTS11 edit error report print line.

When HSCT has a value of 999999, it will print as 'EXEMPT' on the SRTS12IS print format.

NOTE: Changes which were made to FASTER over the course of the previous year (i.e., since the original 1999-2000 manual was published in September 1999) are listed in Updates to the 1999-2000 Version of FASTER.

Format Changes

G99HS

G99IMM

G99HC

I/S01

I/S04

I/S05

I/S07

P07

Edit Changes

I/S/P00
5.7) If addressed institution is 700, Message Type must be A02.
8) Message Type must be R01-R12, B00-B09 B05, S01-S14, Q01-Q04, Q13, Q14, or A02. If Message Type is S14, Record Type cannot be I00. If the sending institution is a district, Message Types R03, R04, and S05 are invalid. Message Type A02 is only valid on transcripts with Header Records of type S00. Message Type X01 is only valid when sent by the FASTER system itself to indicate a failed attempt to send a student record. [NOTE: Rejected request records do not generate an X01 message.]
21.9) If Message Type is B00-B09 B05 then sending institution must be the Bright Futures Office (Institution ID's 0000091-0000094).

G99HC
2) This record must not follow a header record that is a request (Message Type of R01-R12, B00-B09 B05).
6) Format for Date of First Encounter must be CM, CY, D6, D8, YM, YY DB, or blank.

G99HS
2) This record must not follow a header record that is a request (Message Type of R01-R12, B00-B09 B05).
5) Format for Date of Health Screening must be CM, CY, D6, D8, YM, YY DB, or blank.

G99IMM
2) This record must not follow a header record that is a request (Message Type of R01-R12, B00-B09 B05).
5) Format for Date of Immunization must be CM, CY, D6, D8, YM, YY DB, or blank.

G99 Generic
2) This record must not follow a header record that is a request (Message Type of R01-R12, B00-B09 B05).

P07
4) Degree Level must be A-Z or the number 1.

I/S01
18.65) National Hispanic Scholar must be S, Z, or blank.

I/S02
7) If the student is in Grade Level 30 or 31 (adult) and or is 21 years of age or older, then Immunization Status may be blank. Otherwise Immunization Status must be 0 - 8. -Reject-

I/S05
18.8) If Limited English Proficient Exit Date is greater than zero and Limited English Proficient Reclassification Date is zeros or blanks and Limited English Proficient Exit Date is less than or equal to two years prior to Withdrawal Date (from the I/S01 record) or prior to current date if Withdrawal Date is blank or zeros, then Limited English Proficient code must be LF.
18.9) If Limited English Proficient Exit Date is greater than zero and Limited English Proficient Reclassification Date is zeros or blanks and Limited English Proficient Exit Date is more than two years prior to Withdrawal Date (from the I/S01 record) or prior to current date if Withdrawal Date is blank or zeros, then Limited English Proficient code must be LZ.
23) Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Programs must be U, A, P, H, S, D, Z, or blank.
24) If Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Programs is U, then Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Placement Reasons must be A, B, C, D, N, or blank.
28) Former edit deleted. If Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Programs is H, then Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Placement Reasons must be Z or blank. -Inform-
29) Former edit deleted. -If Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Programs is S, then Dropout Prevention/Juvenile Justice Placement Reasons must be K, L, or blank. Inform-