Constituent Inquiries Regarding TOPS

To assure that your Scholarship and Grant Policy and Procedure Manual remains current, please record this document on your TOPS Bulletin index and retain it with your manual.

If your legislative office receives an inquiry from a constituent parent or student regarding the student’s eligibility for the Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS), an immediate response to the constituent can normally be obtained by simply accessing this agency’s Internet web site. We encourage your staff to use this simple and expeditious means of answering most TOPS inquiries and to recommend that your constituents use it as well.

To use our web site for this purpose, you must obtain the constituent’s release of the student’s social security number (SSN) and date of birth. Then, access our Internet web site at http://www.osfa.state.la.us and select the "TOPS Eligibility Sign On" option displayed on the menu screen. Enter the student’s SSN and date of birth in the format shown in the on-screen example. Upon successfully doing so, click on "Look Up." This will take you into an encrypted area of the web site and the screen titled "TOPS Eligibility Results" will be displayed. Below the title, the student’s eligibility for TOPS will be boldly displayed as either "Eligible" or "Ineligible".

If the student is shown to be eligible, the TOPS award that the student is qualified to receive will be printed at the bottom of the screen. If the student is shown to be currently ineligible, the message at the bottom of the screen will identify the reason(s) the student was found ineligible.

Also displayed on this screen will be the data specific to that student which is used to determine eligibility for a TOPS award, to include the following: ACT score and test date; high school code; graduation date; grade point average; number of core units and core unit exceptions certified by the high school; the date the student’s application was received; the student’s dependency, citizenship and residency status; and, the date that residency was established. For prior recipients of the TOPS award, the data listed also includes the student’s college grade point average and credit hours.

If some of the items on this screen do not have data entered or if the student believes them to be in error or the message displayed states that the SSN and date of birth cannot be identified, then you or the student should call one of the agency’s Customer Services Representatives at 1-800-259-5626, Extension 1012. Our representatives will explain what steps the student must take to ensure his application is received, completed and considered.