LEWISTON – Who stands 9 feet tall, has a yellow pencil body and head, and wears a green cape with a dollar bill on the back?

It’s Captain FAFSA, a new “action hero,” who walked into the Lewiston School Committee meeting on Monday night, introduced by aspirations lab director Joan Macri.

The character (Monday it was Tucker Adams wearing the costume) got applause, laughter and attention.

That’s the whole point.

Captain FAFSA is a character created to get the attention of parents of all high school seniors, not just Lewiston, but in all Androscoggin County.

The message is that parents need to fill out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form so their son or daughter can qualify for financial aid from the government or college.

More Lewiston graduates are going to college. Out of last year’s graduating class, 86 percent said they intended to go, 76 percent are now there, according to a report issued Monday.

But one big stumbling block “is the parents who don’t understand what they need to do and don’t come into the school to get help with the FAFSA application,” Macri said. Using Captain FAFSA is intended to relax anxiety about the daunting form. “And get the idea there is somebody who can help them,” Macri said.

“Captain FAFSA’s already starred in one video. He’s on YouTube. If you go on YouTube and type in FAFSA, you can watch him at the Lewiston Library helping students,” Macri said. The video was paid for by a grant and will be made available to other Androscoggin County high schools.

Until 2007, Lewiston did little to nag students and parents to fill out the form. But in June 2006 when graduating seniors were asked did they fill it out, “I just about had a heart attack” to learn only 10 percent did, Macri said. That meant they wouldn’t get money or low-interest loans for college, even if they qualified.

So last year Macri made FAFSA everyone’s business, explaining how critical it was. The fill-out rate jumped to 71 percent.

But more parents need to help, Macri said.

Captain FAFSA is about to go on “a road show,” visiting area businesses and churches, social clubs, wherever parents are. Captain FAFSA will also be at different events, including football games.

He’ll be used to help illustrate how parents need to register for a pin number at www.pin.ed.gov by early November. Once parents have a pin number, they should fill out the form, which asks questions about family income to calculate what a family can expect to pay for college, as soon as January. The longer parents wait, the quicker available college money runs out, Macri said.

In addition to the action hero’s road show, the school will schedule senior parent nights in computer labs helping them learn how to get a pin number, then fill out the form.

Committee Chairman Jim Handy said he agreed with the initiative and it’s a good service to parents. As the parent of two in college, “the FAFSA Web site is absolutely not user friendly.”

In addition to the road show, by Dec. 1 every Lewiston senior will be asked if they have their FAFSA pin number. If they don’t, they’ll get help, Macri said.

In other business, Lewiston high Assistant Principal Paul Amnott reported that a new concentration to reduce unexcused tardiness is working. Now when a student is late for school twice, he or she gets a one-on-one talk with a principal telling them “you have two, one more will get you a detention.”

Before attention was given to kids showing up late last year, there were 1,501 incidents of unexcused late arrivals in the first 20 days of the second quarter. This year with the new policy, there have been 872 incidences in the first 20 days of school.

The new policy helps build relations and remind students of the importance of showing up on time, Amnott said. There was one student last year who one quarter was late for school 56 times, Amnott said. “This quarter he’s only got four.”