Editor’s note: This weekly update from the government relations office at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) provides the latest on what’s happening in Washington and how AACC is advancing policies to support community colleges and students. Send questions, feedback and more to: kgimborys@aacc.nche.edu.
- Department of Education releases updated timeline for FAFSA processing, student corrections
- Bipartisan group of senators urge Biden Administration to delay Gainful Employment reporting
Department of Education releases updated timeline for FAFSA processing, student corrections
On Monday, the Department of Education (ED) issued an electronic announcement (EA) updating the timeline for the processing of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data and transmission of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) – the financial aid information colleges need to package financial aid offers – to colleges. The new EA clarified that students will not be able to make corrections to submitted FAFSA forms until the first half of April. ED had previously announced that corrections would be available in late March.
This announcement pushes back the processing timeline for many students by several weeks, including students who want to add new schools to their FAFSA, students who made errors or mistakes while filling out the form, and students who submitted the form with a missing signature. It is not yet clear how many students will need to make corrections to their submitted FAFSAs. Still, the number could be high depending on each institution’s student population, and there could be an equity impact. Many colleges are reporting a higher than usual error rate – receiving ISIRs where a Student Aid Index (SAI; the new needs analysis measure) could not be generated – likely due to students and families being unfamiliar with the new form and technical glitches that ED has worked to address in real-time. These effects are likely most acute for first-generation students and students less familiar with the student aid system. Students from mixed-status families – where a parent or contributor does not have a social security number – may face yet another delay. These students could not begin or complete an electronic FAFSA for months as ED worked on a technical fix, and many were told to use a workaround where they could submit the form with a missing signature and add it later. These students will now have to wait until at least April to finish the process.
The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will be providing information to students, families, and partner organizations on how to correct the most common FAFSA errors, including a long-identified issue where students misread a question on the form and selected to apply only to unsubsidized loans.
In the same EA, ED announced they will begin reprocessing applications impacted by a vendor error that miscalculated SAIs for dependent students with assets. The agency estimates that 200,000 submitted FAFSAs will be affected. They expect these reprocessed ISIRs to be sent to schools shortly after student corrections are made available.
On Tuesday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a letter to state governors urging them to push back any state financial aid deadlines and to adjust any “first-come, first-serve” awarding systems to account for the delay in FAFSA processing.
Bipartisan group of senators urge Biden Administration to delay Gainful Employment reporting
Last week, Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado) sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging him to push back the upcoming institutional reporting deadline for the new Gainful Employment (GE) and Financial Value Transparency (FVT) regulations. Colleges are currently required to report this data by July 1, 2024. Many of the newly required data elements are centered on college costs at the student- and program-levels and will involve financial aid staff.
Citing continued delays with the rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA, the bipartisan group of senators asked the Department to delay the reporting deadline to allow financial aid administrators to focus on packaging financial aid offers and ensuring that the complications with the FAFSA do not negatively impact college access. AACC and other higher education groups have also asked the Department to delay required reporting under GE and FVT, citing similar concerns about burden and institutional capacity.