FASTER CHANGES FOR 2003-2004

Effective: November 17, 2003
Revised Date: September 5, 2003

Administrative Reminders and Issues
Districts and Postsecondaries

If you haven't yet done so, visit the FASTER web page and sign up for the FASTER listserv by sending an e-mail to fstr@firn.edu. Documentation on how to use the listserv can be found at http://lserv.fldoe.org.

We still have participation problems. Institutions are dropping FASTER before completing migration to their new platform/software. IT IS NOT AN OPTION to drop FASTER. Also, there are many elementary/middle schools still not participating. This is not acceptable. If your institution is having problems getting responses from any Florida public PK-12 or postsecondary, contact Lavan Dukes, Howard Campbell, or Nell Kelly (K-12, community colleges and SUS respectively). The committee will ask the Commissioner/Secretary to help get these schools in compliance.

The cutover to the new version of FASTER and SPEEDE/ExPRESS will begin on November 14, 2003. The new version will be in place on November 16th. FASTER users will be notified via e-mail from the listserve when more details are available on the FASTER web page.

There is still uncertainty about the meaning of Test/Production Indicator (item 6a, format I/S/P00). This field indicates whether the data in this transmission is test or production. The valid values are T = Test, or P or blank = Production. If an institution receives a request for a test transcript then the response should also indicate a test status. Confusion on this point may result in a student's transcript not being processed by the receiving institution, as it was considered to be a test document.

See the FIRN Network Encryption Status Report for the latest update on encryption.

Districts Only

FASTER PK-12 schools can be listed individually on the registrant list at the University of Texas, Austin, the server that handles SPEEDE/ExPRESS. FIRN has sent an e-mail to the districts and to the Superintendents' listserve asking them if they want their schools to be listed. Over 400 PK-12 schools have already applied to be included on the Texas server. FIRN will continue to update the Texas server monthly per requests from the school districts.

There is a new Interdistrict Format, Discipline Information. Send discipline information for a student's two most recent years of instruction. Receiving districts will need to store the data from the sending district and send it if the student moves within 2 years.

Functional System Changes

Districts and Postsecondaries

A new edit has been added to SPEEDE/ExPRESS. If a transcript is addressed or sent to an out of state institution(00000990000 or 00100020000), then the Part A SPEEDE/ExPRESS Institution ID, item 16b, must be a valid PK-12 institution participating in the SPEEDE/ExPRESS national electronic transcript system; otherwise it must be blank.

NOTE: Changes that were made to FASTER over the course of the previous year (i.e., since the original 2002-2003 manual was published in September 2002) are listed in Updates to the 2002-2003 Version of FASTER.

Districts Only

Postsecondaries Only

The 3 character ISO codes as well as the 3 character NISO codes were added as valid language codes.

Format Changes

Header Formats - Appendix H

I/S/P00

Postsecondary Formats - Appendix J

P01

P02 through P05

P06 P07 P08

Interdistrict/Secondary Formats - Appendix I

I/S01

I/S02

I/S03 through I/S05 I06 I/S07 and I/S08 I/S09
Edit Changes - Appendix R

I/S/P00   Header Record Edits

9) If Student Number Identifier, Florida, is not blank, its first 9 characters must be numeric. If its tenth character does not contain the letter "X" or "G", its tenth character must be numeric and, in this case, its first 2 characters must be 01-71 70, or 72-76. If the tenth character does contain an "X", then the first three characters cannot be all zeroes. On a response, if the sending institution is (0000099) the value can also be '999999999G'. On a response, this field must not be blank if Record Type is I00 or S00 and Message Type is NOT one of S02, S03, S04, S08, S10, S15, S16, or S17.
23) If Addressed or Sending Institution is 00000990000, then the Part A SPEEDE/ExPRESS Institution ID, item 16b, must be a valid PK-12 institution participating in the SPEEDE/ExPRESS national electronic transcript system; otherwise it must be blank. If Addressed or Sending Institution is 00100020000, then the Part A SPEEDE/ExPRESS Institution ID, item 16b, must be a valid postsecondary institution participating in the SPEEDE/ExPRESS national electronic transcript system; otherwise it must be blank.

P01   Postsecondary Fixed Segment Edits

5) Transcript Status must be Y, D, P, Q, N or X.
29) Native Language of Student must be blank or a valid 2 or 3 character ISO Language Code or a valid NISO Language Code (Attachment 3 to format P01).
45.5) If Highest Possible Grade Point Average is not blank, then Lowest Possible Grade Point Average may NOT be blank. If Lowest Possible Grade Point Average is not blank, then Highest Possible Grade Point Average may NOT be blank.
P06   Postsecondary Test edits

5.5) Type of Test Score must be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, A, B, or Z.

P08   Postsecondary Immunization Edits

11) If the first characters of Vaccine Status-1 through Vaccine Status-40 are not blank, they must be the letters A through L M or the numbers 8 or 9.
12) If the first characters of Vaccine Status-1 through Vaccine Status-40 are one of the letters A through L M, or the number 8, their corresponding Vaccine Dates must be valid dates (YYYYMMDD) not later than the current date or the word "EXEMPT" followed by two spaces. If, instead, the first character is the number 9, Vaccine Date must be the word "EXEMPT" followed by two spaces. Also, Vaccine Date may be all 9's if the first character of Vaccine Status is the number 8. Also, Vaccine Date may be a valid century and year followed by four zeroes for month and day if Vaccine Status is L.

I/S01   PK-12 Demographic Edits

18.3) Graduation Option must be 1, 2, 3, N or blank.
36) Withdrawal Code must be DNE, W01-W51, W6A, W6B, W8A, WFA, WFB, WFT, WFW, WGD, WPO, W2A, or blanks (this field is not edited if Record Type is S01).
49) If Diploma Date is blank, Diploma Type must be blank. Otherwise, it must be W06, W07, W6A, W6B, W10, W27, W43, W45, WFA, WFB, WFT, WFW, WGD, or ZZZ (not edited if Record Type is I01).
51) If Certificate of Completion Date is blank, Certificate of Completion Type must be blank. Otherwise, it must be W08, W8A, W09, W44, or ZZZ (not edited if Record Type is I01).
63) Program Participation Prior to Kindergarten Entry must be C, F, D, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, or Z.

I/S02   PK-12 Immunization Edits

9) If the first characters of Vaccine Status-1 through Vaccine Status-40 are not blank, they must be the letters A through L M or the numbers 8 or 9.
10) If the first characters of Vaccine Status-1 through Vaccine Status-40 are one of the letters A through L M, or the number 8, their corresponding Vaccine Dates must be valid dates (YYYYMMDD) not later than the current date or the word "EXEMPT" followed by two spaces. If, instead, the first character is the number 9, Vaccine Date must be the word "EXEMPT" followed by two spaces. Also, Vaccine Date may be all 9's if the first character of Vaccine Status is the number 8. Also, Vaccine Date may be a valid century and year followed by four zeroes for month and day if Vaccine Status is L.

I/S03   PK-12 School Year Edits

No changes

I/S04   PK-12 Course edits

7) District Number, Credit, must be 01 - 7071, 72 - 76, 99, a valid U.S. state code (AL - WY), a valid foreign country code (AA - ZZ), or blank.
8.1) If District Number, Credit, is 01 - 7071 or 72 - 76, School Number, Credit, must be a valid ID from the Florida Public Schools Master School ID File (see Appendix B). It may also be zero, N997, N998, N999, C901-C928, U970-U980 or blanks.

I/S05   PK-12 Vocational/LEP/Dropout edits

No changes

I06   PK-12 Exceptional Student Edits

13) Former edit deleted. Exceptional Student, Postschool Outcome Area fields 1 through 17 must be A1-A5, B1-B7, C1-C3, D1-D6, E1-E6, ZZ or blank.

I/S07   PK-12 Comments and I/S08   PK-12 Tests Edits

No changes

I/S09   PK-12 Discipline Edits

1) If the previous header record's Record Type wasn't I00, then there is an error in this record's Record Type.
2) This record is out of sequence if it immediately follows:
a) a record with a type greater than I08;
Note that any intervening generic pass-through records (G99) are ignored in making sequence tests.
3) This record is invalid if it follows an I00 Header Record with a Message Type of S12.
4) Non-displayable characters cannot be sent in data with the exception of Filler Reserved for Local Use, item 12.
5) If addressee is a SPEEDE/ExPRESS institution, the special characters tilde (~), caret (^), and grave accent (`) cannot be sent in the data.
6) District Number, Current, must be the same as that found in the Sending Institution (District) field on the last header record. If, however, the Sending Institution was a SPEEDE/ExPRESS institution, this field must be zero.
7) School Number, Current, must be the same as that found in the Sending Institution (School) field on the last header record. If, however, the Sending Institution was a SPEEDE/ExPRESS institution, this field must be zero.
8) Student Number Identifier, Florida, must be the same as the Student Number Identifier, Florida, from the last header record.
9) Incident Type must be HOM, SXB, ROB, BAT, BRK, STL, MVT, KID, ARS, TRE, DRG, SXH, SXO, VAN, WPO, OMC, ALC, TBC, TRS, DOC, FIT, or ZZZ.
10) Incident Date must be a valid date (MMDDCCYY) not later than the current date.
11) The first character of Disciplinary/Referral Action Code must be A, C, I, O, E, D, U, or S.
12) The Second through Fifth characters of Disciplinary/Referral Action Code must represent a valid school on the MSID file.
13) Disciplinary/Referral Action Date must be a valid date (MMDDCCYY) not later than the current date.
14) Disciplinary/Referral Duration must be numeric.
15) If the first character of Disciplinary/Referral Action code is = S, then Disciplinary/Referral Duration must be greater than 0 and less than or equal to 90.