In an announcement earlier this week, the Department of Education indicated that by mid-March it will send a batch of official institutional student information records (ISIRs) to a small group of schools to test the delivery process and provide direct technical assistance as needed. This follows a previous announcement that further delayed ISIRs until early-to-mid March and that these records would be sent to schools in batches.

In the days and weeks following this testing phase, the Department will gradually increase both the number of ISIRs and the number of schools receiving the records. From the time the Department’s ISIR delivery system is fully operational, it anticipates it will take an additional two weeks to work through the backlog of FAFSA submissions.

At peak delivery, the Department believes most schools will receive no more than 1,500 ISIRs a day, though the top five percent of institutions may receive up to 25,000 ISIRs per day.

Additionally, to prepare the StudentAid.gov website for this process, the Department will take down the website on March 8, from 3:00 a.m. to noon EST. During this time, users will be unable to create an account or log in.