Time delay

My kid sat a March 2014 ACT, he applied to a school on Oct 29th with a nov 15th early decision date (more of a preferred application/rolling vs offical EA/ED, not a top school). On the ACT site it has that he requested the score to be sent on Oct 29th, the school did not receive them until Nov 19th and state that this meant the early application date (assuming scholarships etc) was missed due to the score. I wrote to the ACT help peeps and they state the scores were mailed on Nov 17th. They say a diskette was mailed. Now while it is a bit of a bummer that schools can and do stick to time limits even for scores, I really am baffled by this ACT process? Can anyone explain what I am missing? Diskette? Mailed? Time delay?

Not every school receives scores electronically. Most do, but some schools choose to get scores via a CD, where many students scores are compiled and mailed. Generally, ACT sends these out twice a month.

Wow, how is that even possible? Is that from the ACT website?

OK, so
“This is a complete report that’s processed within one week after your request is received. ACT delivers regular reports to colleges and agencies you’ve selected depending on their preferred schedule—at least every two weeks.”

So then, Oct 29th to Nov 19 would be an anomaly even for this CYA statement? Does anyone have experience of this kind of time delay? No other school that we have dealt with has had an issue but this school does not have a tracker With other schools, he has requested the score and it appeared promptly on their trackers.

This is awful, @aAlfonsia.

According to http://www.actstudent.org/scores/send/costs.html it looks as though first there is the “processing within one week after your request is received” if you selected regular (as opposed to priority) delivery. Then the information is delivered “to colleges and agencies you’ve selected depending on their preferred schedule—at least every two weeks.” So potentially as long as a 3 week lag?

In reality, do people have 3 week lags in appearance of ACT scores though?