Members of Congress and higher education leaders last week continued
to highlight how the disastrous rollout of the revised FAFSA is affecting students,
while urging the Department of Education (ED) to promptly address the ongoing
problems.The FAFSA implementation has been “a rolling catastrophe,” ACE
President Ted Mitchell said on the latest
episode of dotEDU. “And as we know, it rolls right over a population of
students we care deeply about, first-generation, low-income students, many of
whom are students of color who are trying to reach out for that American dream
in terms of higher education and what they're finding is impediments at every
turn.”
Mitchell’s sentiments were shared by a bipartisan group of
legislators during a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee
hearing on the issue. Republicans, Democrats, and witnesses agreed that the
botched FAFSA rollout has harmed students and institutions and called for
urgent action to support them.
“The Department of Education’s FAFSA rollout was mired in
delays and dysfunction,” said Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), chair of the Higher
Education and Workforce Development subcommittee. “Without accountability, the Department
of Education’s botched implementation threatens to damage students, families,
and institutions.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), ranking member of the
subcommittee, added that “these setbacks put decades of progress in jeopardy,
slamming the brakes on efforts to widen access to higher education and
financial stability for students of color, first-generation students, and those
from low-income backgrounds.”
ED
said that students would be able to make corrections to their FAFSA forms this
week, and it would reprocess Institutional Student Information Record (ISIRs) affected
by known errors. ED announced that upwards of 30 percent of submitted forms contain data errors and will need to be processed, and a significant portion of submitted forms contain other errors.
To help navigate the ongoing FAFSA crisis, ACE published a timeline
of key developments, which will be updated regularly
As delays and glitches plague the FAFSA rollout, students
and institutions continue to feel the impacts. As of March 29, ED reported that
40
percent fewer high school students had completed the FAFSA than they did by
that date in 2023.
“I'm worried that this drop will be greater than the
pandemic drop,” Mitchell said on dotEDU. “But certainly the same groups of
potential students are those who are sitting on the sidelines--low-income
students, first-generation college students, and many students of color--who
once again are feeling that this system is stacked against them and that they
really don't belong in the higher education system.”
A recent survey led by ACE, EDUCAUSE, and NACBUO of stakeholders at member colleges
and universities revealed challenges institutions are facing with the new FAFSA
system. Forty-seven percent of respondents indicated their institutions
would be adjusting May 1 enrollment deadlines,
with 13 percent already having done so, a number that continues to grow.
ACE and other higher education groups are
encouraging colleges and universities to provide flexibility regarding enrollment
and financial aid deadlines. You can view ACE’s list of institutions that have extended
their deadlines here. Email Nick
Anderson, ACE vice president for higher education partnerships and
improvement, to have your institution included.