By MorraLee Keller, Senior Director, Strategic Programming
Reading time: Three minutes
NOTE: This issue has since been corrected and this workaround should no longer be used.
Yesterday, the US Department of Education (ED) committed to resolving 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submission issues “in the first half of March” for students who have a contributor without a Social Security number (SSN). Until
then, students from mixed-status families who must meet critical non-federal filing deadlines will now have a workaround in place to record
a submission date to satisfy earlier priority aid deadlines from institutions, private scholarships, or state aid programs.
ED and the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) both caution that the online workaround should only be used by those who have not already submitted a paper FAFSA. NCAN especially cautions students in the so-called “first-come, first-served" states,
where aid appropriations could run out early in the application cycle, to carefully consider their options. NCAN advises students in those states who have not submitted a paper FAFSA to use this workaround in hopes of being eligible for state grant
funds before they are exhausted. For those who previously submitted a paper FAFSA, we hope these states will reserve funds for applicants whose paper FAFSAs will not be processed until later in March. NCAN encourages students in states with March
priority aid deadlines to watch for guidance from their state agencies.
The nine-step workaround process will result in an incomplete FAFSA that must be corrected later and will not generate an estimated Student Aid Index (SAI). It will require the contributor(s) without a SSN to return in the first half of March to correct
and sign the online application. Once that is completed, ED will generate a new and accurate FAFSA Submission Summary with a SAI for the student and an Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) to be sent to colleges to process an aid offer.
Once ISIRs begin to flow to institutions in the first half of March, FAFSA processing times will return to the approximately three-day turnaround experienced in previous cycles.
“Nearly half a million students from mixed-status families will now be able to realize the full promise of the streamlined FAFSA and expanded Pell Grant eligibility,” said NCAN CEO Kim Cook. “However, we still face an uphill climb to support FAFSA completion
by all students in the compressed timeline of this cycle. Community-based organizations and school districts will need additional resources for these efforts, including funding for advisors and counselors to continue critical support through the summer
as students continue to make enrollment decisions.”
ED also announced upcoming improvements to the process for contributors without a SSN to create their studentaid.gov login/FSA ID needed to contribute to the online application. Chief among those
improvements is that applicants without a SSN who cannot complete the TransUnion identity verification process will now receive an automated email including an assigned case number and information on next steps. This new process should relieve those
applying from the extended wait time for calls to the information center and provide a quicker option for submitting required identification documents. The department will also add more staff and Spanish-speaking representatives to the call center
supporting studentaid.gov login/FSA ID creation.
Click here for a detailed list of FAQs. Follow NCAN’s FAFSA Tracker for
the latest data on FAFSA submission.
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