FAFSA, FAFSA, FAFSA. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, updates and communications. Federal Student Aid (FSA) officials joined the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) at our 2024 National Conference, before the Department of Education (ED) released a white paper on plans for FAFSA improvements
this week, ahead of a hearing on Tuesday, largely focused on findings from two newly published US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports on the FAFSA rollout. If that
seems like a lot, it is.
Here’s the recap:
Last week, Jeremy Singer, FAFSA Executive Advisor at FSA, addressed a crowd of 1,400 at NCAN’s National Conference in Anaheim (CA). After walking on stage to the tune of The Beatles’ “Getting Better,” Singer chronicled his work with FSA, and their priorities
for improving the 2025-26 FAFSA launch.
Singer was upfront about the issue-ridden FAFSA rollout, the resulting “sense of distrust between the community and the government” and FSA’s intentional efforts to repair their relationship with CBOs. FSA, Singer said, had been
in “constant reactive firefighting” mode and “given deadlines they knew they couldn’t meet,” while the college access community felt that they had been “misled” about the FAFSA rollout and was “appropriately critical” of FSA.
Withthe clear caveat that “the issues that students and families and groups like yourself faced were really significant and serious,” he focused on improvements seen this summer: FAFSA submission gaps shrunk considerably, with critical
support from NCAN members; user experience ratings improved; the FAFSA call center capacity increased by 81% as of August 2024 – doubling what it had been a year ago; and, most notably, 500,000 more students are on track to receive Pell Grants than
in award year 2023-24.
Of FSA’s listening tour, Singer said,the message was clear: there was a need for predictable deadlines, reliable software, and transparent communications.
On Monday, a week after Singer’s presentation, USSecretary of Education, Miguel Cardona,released a white paper entitled “A Focus on Improving the FAFSA Experience: Updates, actions, and a path forward for the 2025–26 cycle.” The paper, sent alongside a letter to university leaders, publicized the plans previewed by Singer at the NCAN Conference and outlined
10 “core improvement efforts” underway for this year.
Included in the 10 priorities were plans for bolstered beta testing and built out support for families and partners – such as a counselor toolkit, prototype scenarios, a Contributor Tool outside of the FAFSA form, and plans for FSA ID creation
events in partnership with states. The white paper detailed ED’s strategies to improve outreach to students and families who need the most help completing the form, address ongoing issues experienced by mixed-status families, and alleviate burdens
on institutions, who are balancing FAFSA-related tasks with other reporting requirements.
Cardona’s initiatives echoed Singer’s stated goal of “working in public,” to rebuild confidence in the Department, through frequent updates and transparency with stakeholders.
On Tuesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development convened a hearing entitled “GAO Uncovers Biden-Harris FAFSA Failures.” The hearing centered around two highly anticipated GAO reports, released that morning, which dissected the errors in the first five months of the 2024-25 FAFSA cycle (read the full reports here and here).
In their opening testimonies, report authors Melissa Emrey-Arras (GAO Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues) and Marisol Cruz Cain (GAO Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity) recounted the issue-ridden rollout, providing
data to back the frustration experienced by NCAN members and students this year:
Roughly three-quarters of the 5.4 million calls received by ED’s call center went unanswered, largely due to understaffing. The call center was operating at about half the capacity of the previous year. The decision to downsize the call center’s
capacity was unexplained by ED in the GAO report. Callers were often instructed to “try again later,” when issues were unresolved.
ED failed to notify applicants when changes occurred to their aid eligibility after they submitted the form. This affected 3 million students after ED belatedly updated the FAFSA formula to account for inflation, and 500,000 students, whose
eligibility changed following other technical fixes. As a result, students had inaccurate information about their aid eligibility when making college decisions.
ED substantially underestimated the number of students and contributors who would need to go through the manual verification process. ED allocated staff for 3,500 individuals to be manually verified, while in reality, 219,000 parents and spouses
went through the process. The understaffing resulted in delays of 22 days, on average, for contributors waiting to be verified.
Low-income students were hit hardest. Applications decreased most significantly for independent applicants with incomes under $30,000, and for dependent applicants with incomes between $30,000-$48,000.
During the hearing, Committee members and witnesses raised concerns about both oversight and technical defects. These major findings, and the others included in the GAO reports, are unsurprising to NCAN members, who supported students
in navigating these technical challenges all year.
“I think if FSA oversees the contract and follows the best practices for systems development and testing, they could deliver the functionality,” shared Cruz Cain, when asked by Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) whether she was confident in the
capabilities of the contractors to fix system errors.
A lot has happened since the first five months of last year’s FAFSA launch. While significant issues remain in need of attention, the form has improved dramatically compared to its disastrous opening last winter. As beta testing kicks off next week, NCAN members and partners are ready to move forward – hopeful that FSA’s plans for thorough testing and outreach, and evidence of technical improvements, bode well for a smoother FAFSA roll out
in December.
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