By Catherine Brown, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy
Reading time: Three minutes
Note: Since this article was originally published, FSA has announced that the Better FAFSA will open by December 31, 2023.
Federal Student Aid (FSA) announced in March that it will release the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid
(FAFSA), also known as the Better FAFSA, by December 31 instead of the typical October 1. As a result, students and families will have three fewer months to complete the form than they have in previous years. One key step states can take to
help ensure that there is sufficient time for all students to file a FAFSA is to push financial aid deadlines back until April 1, 2024. According to research by the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), 10 states still have state financial aid deadlines prior to April 1. The good news is there’s still time to make this change.
Last week, NCAN hosted a convening for state policy leaders representing 37 different states. The participants shared strategies, resources, and tools that they are using to help ensure a smooth implementation of Better FAFSA. While the room was replete
with innovative strategies and plans – many states have already pushed back their financial aid deadlines, scheduled trainings, launched outreach campaigns, and more – many participants expressed concern about the complexity of the transition and
the sheer amount of work that must be done before the form releases. Not only do states have to adjust their backend systems and FAFSA completion support timelines and materials, they also have to ensure that college administrators, high school counselors,
and non-profits working to support students understand the new form and process. There’s no way around the fact that this level of effort and coordination will take time, and that states will want to leave room to ensure that all systems are high-functioning
and secure before they launch. Delaying the financial aid deadline can help.
Institutional deadlines may be a bigger problem for students’ ability to access financial aid than state deadlines. Most if not all BA-granting colleges and universities list financial aid deadlines in November, December, or January on their websites.
We strongly recommend that colleges and universities move swiftly to delay their financial aid deadlines until at least March 1 and make students aware of the new timeline through an outreach effort.
States and institutions with “priority deadlines,” meaning students can still apply after the deadline passes, should still consider moving them back because an early deadline can dissuade students and families from applying. In addition, many states
and colleges explicitly say that funds are distributed to accepted applicants on a first come, first served basis. This approach puts the students most in need of support for completing the FAFSA at a distinct disadvantage. Students who are poised
to complete the form as soon as it opens will benefit the most while those who cannot complete it early through no fault of their own may see the financial aid budget of their state or institution run out before they’ve even had a chance to apply.
We recommend that states and institutions set hard financial aid deadlines of April 1 and March 1, respectively, and allocate financial aid based on need.
Students whose parents do not have Social Security Numbers (SSNs) because they are undocumented, for example, may be most impacted by the truncated timeline. FSA has announced that it will launch a new process for obtaining an FSA ID (required for all
contributors to a FAFSA) for those who do not have SSNs, but the process itself has not been released and may not work for all applicants. In addition, some parents may be reluctant to complete a federal form verifying their identity even though federal
law prohibits the use of that data for anything other than calculating federal financial aid. Students whose parents do not have an FSA ID will be required to submit a paper FAFSA, which may delay the process of getting their information to the schools
of their choice.
We are providing this social media toolkit so that NCAN members (and non-members!) can encourage their state leaders and the institutions in their states to push back their
financial aid deadlines back to April 1, 2024. Feel free to share the posts in it or the toolkit as a whole with your followers!
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