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Navigating the Challenges of the 2024-25 FAFSA

Navigating the Challenges of the 2024-25 FAFSA

 

Last updated: May 3, 2024

This web page will be used by us at the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) to share current updates to challenges, issues, and workarounds users are experiencing with the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Information from the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), NCAN, our members, and the college access and attainment field will be housed here. Check back often as the page will be updated regularly.

REPROCSSED FAFSAs: FSA has announced that as of April 29, 2024, they have reprocessed all submitted FAFSAs that had errors from the FAFSA Processing System or errors in data that came over from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In addition, they indicated that students and parents have gone in and make over one million corrections (signatures, adding colleges, etc.). Please encourage your students to check their StudentAid.gov dashboard for an updated FAFSA Submission Summary as a result of their own correction or the forms that FSA reprocessed.

CONTRIBUTORS WITHOUT SSNs: On April 30, 2024, FSA announced that those contributors without a Social Security number (SSN) can immediately begin to access the online version of the 2024-25 FAFSA after they set up their StudentAid.gov account. They do not need to wait for identity verification before accessing the online FAFSA. This access is available for anyone who previously set up an account and has not yet been verified or for anyone setting up their account for the first time. All contributors will need to continue to enter their financial data manually into the FAFSA because the functionality of transferring income from the IRS is not available. FSA has indicated that for the 2025-26 FAFSA, contributors will have to have their identity verified before access that FAFSA. NCAN encourages everyone to work through getting their identity verified now so that the process is complete before the FAFSA opens for next year.

NOTE: Only students from the Freely Associated States who are eligible for federal student aid, should use this process. Students who are not eligible, non-citizens, and DACA recipients are not eligible for federal student aid.

FSA Resources

  • FSA has announced a set of known issues with the FAFSA and is updating this web page when these issues are resolved. We encourage you to check this page frequently. This page is organized by issues and resolved issues can be found at the bottom.
  • The FSA Forms Library contains access to the paper FAFSA and the Attestation Form necessary for FSA ID identity verification process.
  • FSA has published web sites in English and Spanish to support FAFSA completion for those without an SSN.
  • The FAFSA simplification web site contains the most current announcements pertaining to the 2024-25 form from FSA.
  • The FSA Financial Aid Toolkit contains resources for counselors and advisors to use with students and parents.
  • FSA recently announced several technical fixes to previously known issues. Those include:
    • Students Unable to Save or Submit A FAFSA Form When Entering an Alien Registration Number That Ends in Zero
    • Some Students with A Date of Birth of 2000 Are Looped to Unusual Circumstances Page
    • Users With No-SSN Are Unable to Enter A FAFSA When Upgrading Their Limited Account to a Full FSA ID Account
  • The Federal Student Aid Estimator tool can provide students with an estimated SAI based on the information provided. The tool currently uses tables in the SAI formula that have not been updated for inflation.
    • FSA recently added this note to the top of the website:

      "With this tool, students can find out how much federal student aid they may be eligible for in the 2024-25 award year. Note: This tool estimates the Student Aid Index (SAI) for the 2024-25 award year. This estimate doesn’t reflect the changes - accounting for inflation - to the SAI calculation approved in early 2024. For most students, this tool will provide a close estimate of their federal student aid. The SAI estimate will be updated with the new calculation in spring 2024."

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)

NCAN

Below, you will find a collection of official and unofficial issues, challenges, and workarounds that we at NCAN have curated from our own efforts, our members, and the field at large to make sure this new process works for students.

  • FSA updated the tables used in the SAI calculation for inflation. FAFSAs submitted beginning the afternoon of March 8 now have the correct SAI appearing on the student confirmation page. For all FAFSAs submitted prior to this, the SAI that will appear on their FAFSA Submission Summary will most likely vary from the one they originally received in their email confirmation. 
  • FSA recently announced that they will update the current tables used in the SAI calculation to reflect the inflation adjustment ordered in the FAFSA simplification legislation. The adjusted tables will likely reduce the SAI for many students and increase their aid eligibility. This late decision announcement was not accompanied by any timeline for the adjustments and is likely to further delay the release of ISIRs and FAFSA Submission Summaries beyond late January.
  • FSA recently announced that state agencies will be able to share FAFSA completion data with Designated Entities. NCAN has been advocating for this change for months. State agencies will need to sign an updated Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) agreement form that became available the week of April 29. Once the new agreement is signed and all guidelines have been followed for sharing with groups like TRIO, GEAR UP, and college access organizations, they will have access to student level FAFSA completion data.
  • FSA now shares weekly data files for “completed” FAFSAs. NCAN has launched our FAFSA Tracker for this year and will update it every Friday as we receive new data. Please note that the Tracker now contains data for both completed and submitted FAFSAs as of now.
  • FSA Information Center call volume has resulted in extraordinary wait times, with the system throttling based on volume that results in dropped calls or reaching representatives who indicate they cannot be of help with the issue(s) referenced. Users may wish to use the “Live Chat” here or send questions via email. FSA recently announced that they have added staff to the call center, including more Spanish speaking staff to help reduce call times and serve those who need language assistance.

FSA ID

NOTE: FSA announced on April 30, 2024 that contributors without a SSN can now access their online FAFSA. The contributor will need to have established their StudentAid.gov account (FSA ID) but does not need to wait to have it verified before accessing the online form. All contributors without an SSN will need to enter all data manually into the form. It is expected that all FSA IDs will need to be verified for the 2025-26 FAFSA.

  1. FSA changed the wording on the initial page for contributors wanting to create an FSA ID who do not have a SSN. This is what the screen looked like previously:



    This is what the screen looks like now:


    This is in response to high numbers of contributors checking the box and the system determining that they already had SSNs. This new language is to help clarify who should check this box and therefore go through the process for those without an SSN.
  2. FSA has indicated that there should be a seven-14 day turnaround time to verify an FSA ID after the form and documents are submitted.
  3. On the third screen, contributors both with and without an SSN have reported the process stalling. No error message will appear; instead, the system will simply scroll back to the top of the page on its own. A workaround may be to delete the street address and see if that lets a user progress to the next page, but this has not worked for all contributors. If you have tried this to no avail, call the FSA Information Center and ask for an FSA ID Tier Two Specialist.
  4. Contributors without SSNs may not be presented with any questions from TransUnion and are instead directed to the manual identification process. This should only happen with the demographic information entered on the initial pages does not match anything in the TransUnion system (and therefore the system cannot generate any questions for that contributor). If this occurs, the only option is to go through the manual identification process or complete the paper version of the FAFSA.
  5. Any contributors emailing an Attestation Form and copies of identification documents to FSA must also include a case number to add to the form. FSA announced on February 20, 2024, that the FSA ID system will be updated to automatically generate a case number when the person does not successfully complete the TransUnion questions online. The person will receive an email with the case number and further instructions. Contributors can request a case number using the live chat option in the FSA Information Center and do not need to call.

FAFSA Online Form

Note: Please direct your attention to FSA’s known issues web page. As FSA resolves these problems, they will update the page.

Some minor issues remain with the online form:

  1. Corrections available. Students were able to begin making corrections to their FAFSA in the middle of April. FSA never emailed students to tell them their FAFSA was processed. The burden is on the student to log in and check to see if their form has been processed and access their FAFSA Submission Summary. Students without an SAI calculated need to make some type of correction to their form. The most common requirement is a missing signature from the student or one of the contributors. Students may also add colleges. Please note that the institutions cannot make corrections yet as of early May.
  2. Manual entry. All contributors that do not have an SSN will be required to complete their section by entering all answers manually. FSA has indicated that this process is likely to remain for the entire 2024-25 FAFSA cycle. They are hoping to have the functionality of being able to transfer data from the IRS for the 2025-26 cycle.
  3. Disappearing FAFSAs. There are numerous reports of students and parents logging in and not seeing a submitted FAFSA on the dashboard. FSA indicated that it happens the most when using Safari and Edge browsers. We have had suggestions from users to clear the cache or change browsers. FSA assures us that the forms are in their system and have not been lost. 
  4. Inviting contributors to the form has presented its own series of issues. In addition to the problems experienced by contributors without SSNs (outlined above), many individuals have received error messages that the information they entered does not match what is in the FSA ID, despite the information seeming identical. The matching system is extremely detailed – an extra space before or after a name or the street address not written exactly the same can create issues. For example:
    1. If a contributor’s address linked to their FSA ID is “123 First Street” but they wrote “123 First St” in the form, this may present an issue.
    2. If a contributor’s name linked to their FSA ID is “Jane Doe” (note the lack of an extra space before or after the name) yet they wrote “Jane Doe “ (note the extra space after the name) in the form, this may present an issue.
  5. Invitations to contributors may not be sent via email despite a valid address being provided. We recommend that contributors whose FSA IDs have been verified login to their StudentAid.gov accounts to see if they can access the form via their dashboard.

We are aware that you have likely experienced other glitches with the online form. As other repeat issues are observed and reported, this page will be updated.

 

Thank you for your persistence in assisting students who need the FAFSA the most.