FASTER CHANGES FOR 2011-2012
Effective: December 11, 2011
ADMINISTRATIVE REMINDERS AND ISSUES
Districts, Postsecondaries, and Technical Centers
The cutover to the new version of FASTER and SPEEDE/ExPRESS will begin on Friday, December 9th, 2011.
The new version will be in place on Sunday, December 11, 2011. FASTER users will be notified via e-mail
from the listserv of any changes or updates that occur.
If you have not yet done so, visit the FASTER Web Page and sign up for the
FASTER listserv by clicking on the Sign up for the Listserv link. Documentation
on how to use the listserv can be found at http://lserv.fldoe.org. Changes that were made to FASTER over
the course of the previous year are listed in Updates to the 2010-2011 Version of FASTER.
We would like to encourage all schools to use the FASTER system to send and receive transcripts. The FASTER system is quick, economical, and the
formats permit the transmission of data that is not included on printed transcripts. When receiving requests through FASTER, for student transcripts
please make all attempts to respond as quickly as possible.
The FASTER Steering Committee is comprised of a representative from each program area that has an interest in the FASTER application. This group of stakeholders
is your representatives. They represent your interests when it comes time to make policy changes and implement state or federally mandated requirements.
This Committee meets throughout the year to consider changes to the FASTER system. The FASTER Steering Committee will report to the Articulation Coordinating Committee (ACC).
Requests for technical changes to the FASTER system should be submitted to the FASTER e-mail address at FSTR@fldoe.org.
Your requests will be researched and presented to the Committee for their consideration. Questions about policies or specific program areas should be submitted to your Steering Committee representative.
See Chapter 1 for a list of Committee members.
AS A REMINDER: Whenever possible run FASTER jobs at night or on weekends. Use CLASS C when submitting jobs after 9 p.m.
on Monday through Thursday, and CLASS G for jobs submitted after 9 p.m. on Friday or anytime over the
weekend. By adding or changing the job class on the JCL, you could save the state up to 75% of the
cost of processing that job. Even if you run your job at night, you do not get a cost savings unless you
specify the appropriate class. Chapter 3 gives a break down of the job classes and examples of each.
FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM CHANGES
Districts, Postsecondary and Technical Centers
A new function is being introduced this year. When printing transcripts via FASTERs SRTS12 transcript print programs,
institutions can set a parameter to mask the students identification number. Masking will apply to all printed instances
of the students identification number, either the Social Security Number (SSN) or the High School Student Number.
The default will be to print the identification number. When the parameter is set, the identification number will follow
the format XXX-XX-1234 or XXX-XX-12345, whichever is appropriate.
Districts Only
Although many districts have been accurate in the use of the district codes FL and 99 in conjunction with the school
number N999 for this field, a number of instances were identified where out of state courses were sent utilizing one of
these two district codes and the school number N999. MSIX technical staff notified Florida of this issue and has requested
Florida correct the situation as a stipulation of continued MSIX certification of the Florida interface for data flow to
their system. MSIX business rules require each state to send academic course work associated with courses taken only in
their state.
Beginning with the 2011-2012 academic school year, district schools should:
- Begin entering out-of-state academic course history utilizing the new school number 9900 for courses that students
transfer in from another state or country.
- Enter a valid school number from the public PK-12 MSID file for courses taken at a Florida public school.
- Enter a valid school number from the private school file for courses taken at a Florida private PK-12 institution.
The private school file can be found at DPS.DISTRICT.GH.F70119.Yyear and downloaded for use at the district level for lookup of private school numbers.
- Enter your district number and a valid school number where courses associated with the Florida Pass Program have
taken place. The Florida Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS) Program is a nationally recognized program that
provides middle and secondary migrant students with an alternative to develop academic skills, and earn credits needed
for promotion and/or graduation.
Doing so will ensure that only Florida course work will be transmitted by districts for migrant transcripts to the FASTER
system and that course work taken at Florida private PK-12 schools will be included.
We understand that all districts have utilized the school number N999 in the past and we are in no way are requiring any
data conversion of historical course work. Therefore, we ask that all course work which historically is identified with a
school number of N999 and any newly recorded course work for a student with a 9900 be eliminated from any transcript
submissions to the MSIX system. Should either of these codes be found in a transmission to MSIX, they will be rejected as
part of the FASTER edit process.
FORMAT CHANGES
Header Formats - Appendix H
I/S/P/T00
Postsecondary Formats - Appendix J
P01 Postsecondary Demographic Information Format
P02 Postsecondary Term Format
P03 Postsecondary Course Format
P04 Postsecondary Remarks Format
P05 Postsecondary Transfer Segment Format
P06 Postsecondary Test Format
P07 Postsecondary Degree Format
P08 Postsecondary Immunization Format
P20 Postsecondary Enrollment Format
Interdistrict/Secondary/Technical Center Formats - Appendix I
I/S/T01 PK-12 Student Information Format
- A new code has been added to Health Exam, School Entry. The code V was
created to include home-schooled students, and those enrolled in a virtual instruction program.
- The valid codes for District Number, Current Enrollment have been changed.
District 70 is no longer valid.
- The descriptions of the valid school numbers in School Number, Current Enrollment,
have been updated to include all those listed in the Education Information & Accountability Services (EIAS) Student
Data Base.
- A code of 2 is no longer valid for Differentiated Diploma.
- Several codes used for Adult Fee Status have changed. Codes C and V have been added.
Codes L and S are no longer valid.
- A new edit has been added for the MSIX Identification Number. Once assigned,
the MSIX Identification Number is provided to the sending district via a FASTER response from MSIX. This number should
be included in any subsequent transmissions of the migrant student transcript.
- Three new fields have been added to accommodate the new Subject Area Requirements.
Credits Needed, Local Subject Area Requirements has been created for Algebra I, Geometry, and Biology. The same edits
that apply to the existing similar fields, will apply to these new fields.
- Codes "2" and "3" are no longer valid for Graduation Option, for students who graduated after 2004.
I/S/T02 PK-12 Student Immunization Format
I/S/T03 PK-12 Student School Year Format
I/S/T04 PK-12 Student Course Format
- The valid codes for District Number, Current Enrollment have been changed.
District 70 is no longer valid.
- The descriptions of the valid school numbers in School Number, Current Enrollment,
have been updated to include all those listed in the Education Information & Accountability Services (EIAS) Student
Data Base.
- A new value of "9900" has been added for School Number, Where Credit Earned. This value is to be
used for courses where credit was earned out-of-state or out-of-country. This value is valid for non-migrant students only.
- The Course Flag "+" is being removed as a valid value per guidance from EIAS. This flag was intended
for a specific year and only applied to selected courses. It was determined that this situation never materialized, and therefore, this flag was never used.
- Several of the valid substitution course numbers listed in the Course Flag
field have changed.
- Three new valid values have been added to Course, State Subject Area Requirements
and Course Substituted, State Subject Area Requirements. During the 2011-2012 school year only
A1, BI and GE have been added. Over the next three years, more Subject Area codes are expected to be included. The titles of American
History and American Government have changed.
- The new field, On-line Course Indicator, has been added to the format. This
field must be 'Y' or 'N' for all course records on Interdistrict and Secondary
transcripts where the academic year is 2011-2012 or later.
- The new field, Course Assessment Status, has been added to the format. It is used to indicate the
status of the student in relation to the end-of-course assessment for the indicated course. This is a required field on Interdistrict and Secondary transcripts for courses
taken after the 2010-2011 academic year. If the course does not have an end-of-course assessment, or if the student is not required to take the end-of-course assessment,
then this field should be Z, and should not be left blank.
I/S/T05 PK-12 Student Vocational/ELL/Dropout Format
- The valid codes for District Number, Current Enrollment have been changed.
District 70 is no longer valid.
- The descriptions of the valid school numbers in School Number, Current Enrollment,
have been updated to include all those listed in the Education Information & Accountability Services (EIAS) Student
Data Base.
- A new field has been created. Career Pathways Student Participant is a code
which reflects the students status in the Career Pathways program during the current reporting year. This field occurs
four times. Students not enrolled in a Career and technical Education Program should have a value of N.
I/S06 PK-12 Exceptional Student Format
I/S/T07 PK-12 Student Comment Format
I/S/T08 PK-12 Student Test Format
I/S09 PK-12 Student Discipline Format
- The valid codes for District Number, Current Enrollment have been changed.
District 70 is no longer valid.
- The descriptions of the valid school numbers in School Number, Current Enrollment,
have been updated to include all those listed in the Education Information & Accountability Services (EIAS) Student
Data Base.
- The description of some of the existing Incident Types has changed. FASTER
Incident Reporting Types have been updated to reflect those codes utilized by the EIAS Student Data Base.
- There are three new valid codes for Discipline/Resultant Action Code. Codes L, M, and R have been added.
I/S10 PK-12 PAS Number Format
I11 PK-12 Migrant Student Format
EDIT CHANGES - Appendix R
Postsecondary Edits
P00 Postsecondary Header Record Edits
P01 Postsecondary Fixed Segment Edits
P02 Postsecondary Term Edits
P03 Postsecondary Course Edits
P04 Postsecondary Remarks Edits
P05 Postsecondary Transfer Segment Edits
P06 Postsecondary Test edits
P07 Postsecondary Degree Edits
P08 Postsecondary Immunization Edits
Interdistrict/Secondary/Technical Center Edits
I/S/T00 PK-12 Header Record Edits
I/S/T01 PK-12 Demographic Edits
- Health Examination must be Y, T, R, V or N. This field is not edited if record type is S01 or if addressee is Migrants/MSIX.
- Differentiated Diploma must be 1 or Z.
- Adult Fee Status must be R, U, W, X, D, E, F, G, I, J, K, M, N, O, P, Q, C, V, T, or blank.
- The MSIX Identification Number cannot be blank and must be valid for students
having been previously assigned an MSIX Identification Number.
- If Credits Needed, Local Subject Area Requirements is not blank,
it must be numeric and greater than or equal to zero.
- Graduation Option code must be 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, N, Z, or spaces, for students who graduated after 2004. Additionally, codes 2 and 3 are
allowed for students who graduated in 2004 or before.
I/S/T02 PK-12 Immunization Edits
I/S/T03 PK-12 School Year Edits
I/S/T04 PK-12 Course edits
- School Number, Where Credit Earned can be equal to 9900 for courses taken
out-of-state or out-of-country when the District Number, Where Credit Earned is other than 01-69, 71-76, or FL. 9900
is invalid when the transcript is addressed to MSIX.
- The Course, State Subject Area Requirements
field must be A1, BI, GE, EN, MA, SC, AH, WH, EC, AG, VO, SV, PF, LM, PE, EX, EL, FL, LA, SS, NC, CE or PA. This field may also be blank if Grade Level
is not 09 - 12 and there is no Course Flag of 9 and the addressee is not Bright Futures, Talented Twenty, or Out-of-State.
- The Course Flag value + is no longer a valid flag.
- The Course Substituted, State Subject Area Requirements field must be A1,
BI, GE, EN, MA, SC, AH, WH, EC, AG, VO, SV, PF, LM, PE, EX, EL, FL, LA, SS, NC, CE, PA or blank. Edit #36 was removed.
- The field Course Assessment Status is required for all Interdistrict and Secondary transcripts with courses for academic years
2011-2012 or later and must be A, B, C, D, E, F or Z. It can be blank for courses prior to the 2011-2012 academic year.
If the subject area is A1, BI, or GE, then the Course Assessment Status cannot be Z.
- If Course Assessment Status is A, E, or F, Credit Earned must be numeric and less than or equal to 1.0.
If Course Assessment Status is B or C, Credit Earned must be zeros. Credits Earned is not edited when Course Assessment Status is D and F.
- The On-line Course Indicator must be either Y or N for all course records on Interdistrict and Secondary
transcripts where the academic year is 2011-2012 or later.
I/S/T05 PK-12 Vocational/LEP/Dropout edits
I06 PK-12 Exceptional Student Edits
- Exceptionality, Primary must be C, F M, O, P, S W, Z, or blank.
- Exceptionality must be C, F M, O, P, S W, Z, or blank.
I/S/T07 PK-12 Student Comment Edits
I/S/T08 PK-12 Student Test Edits
I/S09 PK-12 Discipline Edits
- Incident Type must be ALC, ARS, BAT, BRK, BUL, DOC, DRD, DRU,
FIT, HAR, HOM, KID, OMC, ROB, STL, SXB, SXH, SXO, TBC, TRE, TRS, UBL, UHR, VAN, WPO, or ZZZ.
- Discipline/Resultant Action Code must be C, D, E, F, H, I, O,
P, S, L, M, R or U. Codes A and D may still be used for records prior to 20052006.
- If Discipline/Resultant Action Code is C, then the Discipline/Duration
must be equal to zero.
- If Discipline/Resultant Action Code is E, F or P, then the Discipline/Duration
must be > 0 and <= 210.
- If Discipline/Resultant Action Code is I or O, then the Discipline/Duration
must be > 0 and <= 10.
- If Discipline/Resultant Action Code is U, then the Discipline/Duration
be > 0 and <= 45.
- If Discipline/Resultant Action Code is H, then the Discipline/Duration
be > 0 and <= 90.
I/S10 PK-12 PAS Code Edits
I11 PK-12 Migrant Student Edits