General Dynamics to Support the Department of Education Federal Student Aid Program

From General Dynamics:


September 10, 2015

General Dynamics to Support the Department of Education Federal Student Aid Program

FAIRFAX, Va. – The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, awarded General Dynamics One Source a contract to maintain and operate the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) under the Application and Eligibility Determination Systems program. General Dynamics will also provide operations and maintenance support for the Central Processing System (CPS) mainframe software and system, manage image and data capture systems and support, and provide development for school-based financial aid processing software. The company will also provide ongoing technical support to schools through the CPS help desk. The contract is valued at approximately $122 million over four years, if services are ordered for all ordering periods.

"At General Dynamics, we understand the complexity of the FAFSA program and we look forward to utilizing our extensive experience in assisting and enhancing major government programs to support the Department of Education," Marcus Collier, senior vice president of General Dynamics Information Technology's Health and Civilian Solutions division. "We are excited to continue our long-term partnership with the Department of Education and support the millions of students seeking aid for education in our country today."

The online FAFSA form is completed annually by 22 million college and university applicants. It provides critical eligibility data to over 6,000 schools and supports the distribution of over $150 billion in Title IV loans and grants annually. The same FAFSA process also supports eligibility determination for state and institution-based aid. In recent years, the company has helped the Department of Education streamline the online FAFSA by introducing "smart logic" and IRS integration, dramatically reducing the complexity of the form for millions of applicants. 

Work on the contract will take place in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Iowa, Kansas, Alabama and Illinois.

This contract was awarded to General Dynamics One Source, a joint venture of three General Dynamics' (NYSE: GD) companies: General Dynamics Information Technology, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, and General Dynamics C4 Systems. On January 1, 2015, General Dynamics combined the resources of Advanced Information Systems and C4 Systems as "General Dynamics Mission Systems." 

More information about General Dynamics is available at www.generaldynamics.com.