By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Five minutes
The recent passage of New York’s state budget included the adoption of a statewide universal Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) policy. It's unclear whether the bill goes into effect for the class of 2025 or 2026 (update to follow), but it requires that all students complete either the FAFSA, a Tuition Assistance Program
(TAP) application for in-state financial aid, or a waiver. The passage makes New York the 13th state to pass a universal FAFSA policy (joining Louisiana, Illinois, Alabama, Texas, California, Indiana, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Oklahoma,
Nebraska, New Jersey, and Kansas).
“Higher education can change people's lives, and we are expanding pathways to college for all New York students,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) said in a press release. “This week, we’re encouraging every student pursing a college degree to fill out the FAFSA as soon as they can to access the financial support available to them.”
The bill substantially resembles its counterparts in other states. Notable features include:
Codifying student-level FAFSA and TAP data sharing between the state and local education agencies
The state Commissioner of Education will create and post a uniform waiver form for the purposes of opting out of FAFSA/TAP completion
In terms of which personnel from a district or school can waive a student out, the legislation is broader than other states’ and specifies “If the local educational agency[emphasis NCAN’s] determines that a student is unable to complete
a requirement of this section, such agency shall complete and submit a waiver form on the student's behalf.”
Local education agencies will be required to “give notice of the requirement to complete a FAFSA, TAP application, and/or waiver” no less than four times for high school seniors and no less than two times for high school juniors. Notably, “Included
in such notice shall be an explanation of state-sponsored scholarships and financial aid opportunities.”
In terms of precluding a student from actually graduating, the legislation is clear: “No penalty. A student who does not fulfill the requirements of this section shall not be penalized or punished on such basis and this section shall not affect a
student's ability to graduate.”
“A college education can unlock so many pathways for young people, particularly for low-income students, students from immigrant families, and first-generation students,” said New York State Senator Andrew Gournardes (D), one of the bill’s legislative
sponsors, in a press release. “But far too often, the cost of college is a barrier. And even worse:
for many students, that cost is a barrier only because they don’t know about aid that can make it affordable… In short, when more students fill out the FAFSA, more students attend college—because they’ve learned they can actually afford it. By ensuring
every student has the opportunity to complete the FAFSA, we show them a door to a prosperous future and put them in position to fling it open.”
The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) advocates for universal FAFSA policies to raise both awareness of and access to available financial aid.
NCAN estimates that Pell Grant-eligible seniors from the class of 2023 who did not complete the FAFSA left about $225 million on the table last year. This figure is sizable even in a state with historically strong FAFSA completion performances. The class of 2023 ranked 8th with 65% of seniors completing a FAFSA by September 30, 2023. This year, the class of 2024 ranks 13th with 32.2% of seniors
completing the FAFSA.
Despite a strong statewide FAFSA completion performance, universal FAFSA can help to address the state’s inequitable FAFSA completion rates across high schools of difference income levels. The charts below show the gap between the state’s low-income and
higher-income high schools, which are on either side of 50% of enrolled students being eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch programs. There is also a FAFSA completion gap between high schools enrolling 40+% Black and Latino/a students and those
enrolling less than 40% of students from these groups.
A recent Chalkbeat article highlights the value of universal FAFSA policies to raise awareness among students who
might be less likely to know about available financial aid options:
“To Harvey, the proposed law is critical because she saw peers at other schools who were never informed about the FAFSA and missed out on significant financial aid as a result.
‘I know I could have been one of the kids that didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, had I not been told,’ said Harvey, a student advocate with uAspire, an organization that advocates for college access for students from underrepresented communities. ‘There’s a lot of federal aid that gets left behind because students aren’t filling it out.’”
In other universal FAFSA news, Indiana and New Hampshire are both implementing their version of the policy this year for their classes of 2024. Both states’ seniors are putting in strong performances through mid-April.
As NCAN has widely reported, FAFSA completion is down nationally and for every single state, but Indiana and New Hampshire have the smallest year-over-year declines in the number of FAFSAs completed. These states have also seen their statewide FAFSA completion
rates benefit from the same increases other states have observed in their policies’ implementation years. For example, through last September 30, New Hampshire and Indiana ranked 29th and 39th, respectively, by percent of seniors
completing. Through April 12 of this year, the states rank 10th and 19th, respectively. These are significant jumps.
In an article in The 74 last week,Brookings Institution’s
Brown Center of Education Policy fellow Katharine Meyer makes a valuable case for universal FAFSA policies and their mechanism of action. She noted, “In states where there are mandates or universal FAFSA rules, schools are more likely to integrate
support for completion into the school day and create more of a culture around it, leading to a significant increase in filing.”
Have questions about universal FAFSA policies? Are you a researcher interested in engaging with your peers in this research area? Please reach out to me at debaunb@ncan.org - I’d love to hear from you.
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