By MorraLee Keller, Senior Director, Strategic Programming
Reading time: Five minutes
Yesterday, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) Knowledge Center released three electronic announcements that provoked mixed reactions among stakeholders. The information shared is segmented below, but we strongly encourage you to thoroughly read each announcement to be better positioned to advise the students you serve.
FSA began processing paper Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms this week. The agency indicated it has received approximately 34,000 unduplicated forms. Of those, 25,000 appear to be complete and will be processed.
The incomplete applications are being returned to students with instructions for completing the form. Students who included an email address on the form will receive notice once their FAFSA has been processed. Students will be able to log-in to their
dashboard and access their FAFSA Submission Summary. Students who did not include an email will receive a paper FAFSA Submission Summary in the mail.
Students who need to make corrections once their form is processed are strongly encouraged to make those online. If they need to make corrections on the paper FAFSA Submission Summary, those corrections will not be processed until late September. Students
will need to communicate with their institutions if they mail corrections to fully understand the status of their aid package for fall term.
The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) encourages its members to reach out to any students they know who filed a paper form and alert them to look for an email or paper summary in the mail. This delayed processing may jeopardize students’ aid
being available in their accounts for fee payment.
This announcement confirms information that we shared recently regarding the continued waiver of completing the identity verification process for those
contributors without a Social Security number (SSN). These contributors are advised to establish their FSA ID so that they can enter and complete a FAFSA. They are strongly encouraged to complete and submit all the required identity documentation
so verification can take place and they will be ready when the process changes. This process will remain waived for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle until the US Department of Education (ED) both develops:
A longer-term solution to the manual identity validation process that avoids the delays and confusion associated with the current process.
The ability for those without an SSN to utilize the FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX) to transfer their tax information into the FAFSA.
Please remind students that they will have full eligibility for federal aid programs during this period. If you are serving students without an SSN who are eligible for federal aid, colleges will need to continue to verify their identity for aid purposes.
This announcement also included a list of processes that representatives in the FSA Information Center will not be able to assist students with until the 2026-27 FAFSA cycle. Those include:
The ability for applicants to order a paper copy of their FAFSA Submission Summary from the FSAIC.
The ability of FSAIC representatives to make limited corrections (e.g., adding a school code).
The ability to update personally identifiable information (PII) attached to a StudentAid.gov account is unavailable due to restrictions on how FSA systems exchange information.
This announcement lists several functionalities that colleges will not have access to related to requesting ISIRs for individual or groups of students.
It will be critical to keep students and contributors abreast of this information for the remainder of this cycle and next.
This announcement will have a negative impact on students in the situation of needing corrections done by their institution and the aid administrators who will have to process those corrections.
ED previously shared that
batch institutional corrections via the Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) would be available by mid-August. Today, we are providing the update that unfortunately batch corrections functionality will be deferred until the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle.
We know that this is not the news that you, our partners and members, were expecting and adds to the challenges your organizations have already been facing.
Translating this news means that colleges have been waiting batch upload all their corrections for students and FSA will not provide this functionality for the 2024-25 FAFSA cycle. This will require colleges to individually enter all the corrected data
into the FAFSA Partner Portal and it will be very time intensive. FSA is extending some third-party support options to colleges to assist with the process but in many cases those options will take time to set in place.
This decision was based on two issues-the development of this process is way behind and would not have been ready in time for fall term and FSA is turning their focus to the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle and have all functionalities in place for that.
Having corrections completed and the colleges receiving new ISIRs with a correct and valid Student Aid Index (SAI) is needed before institutions can disburse federal aid. FSA is extending various flexibilities to colleges about making disbursements prior
to having the correct ISIR but colleges absorb the entire liability for those payments and are likely not inclined to use this flexibility.
We encourage you to contact any students waiting for corrections of all types to make them aware of this development. We know there are students out there who have not received their initial award letter due to situations like dependency appeals, unusual
circumstances, and major financial changes. The students will need to be in communication with their college understand that status of their aid and their fall term bill.
FSA’s failures to deliver necessary processing with this year’s form will no doubt have a direct impact on students’ ability to enroll this fall. For students who cannot be in a position to begin this term, our hope is that we can advise them to stay
on the path to a credential or degree with emergency aid, starting at a different institution than originally planned or deferring enrollment to spring term. NCAN applauds our members’ efforts in supporting students during this tumultuous year and
we are hopeful for a smoother 2025-26 cycle.
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