Less students filing for FAFSA amid rocky rollout over new changes to the form
TAMPA, Fla. - The Department of Education tried to make it easier to apply for college aid by creating a new FASFA system, but the effort has instead ended in a major fiasco.
The domino effect started with a rocky rollout. Typically, the online form opens in late October, but not everyone could access it this year until January. Once students were able to start filling forms out, they were met with technical glitches and a lot of changes to navigate.
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Those included condensed application questions, and the system now allowing the guardian, who financially supports the student, to keep their information private.
"One of the problems in the past was that families really didn't want to share the family financial system," explained Jack Wallace, director of government relations at Yrefy. "So now this year, the parent of the guardian can check a box, and the information will be automatically sent from the IRS to the Department of Education. "
To add another hiccup - the Education Department recently announced an error in the tax information they've sent to colleges due to a flaw in the FAFSA system.
Not only has that resulted in a decline in FAFSFA applications but also subsequent delays in scholarship and college applications for hundreds of thousands of seniors, especially those in lower-income families.
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"These are oftentimes students who are first-generation students. They come from generally low-income families who have big dreams, right, and who have faced a lot of adversity to get to the point of applying to college," said Angelica Solis-Montero, chief policy offer at Education Leaders of Color
According to data from the Times, as of March, less than one-quarter of Florida public high school seniors had submitted their application, down one-third from the same time last year.
The numbers are even worse for low-income Floridians: roughly two of every ten students at the state's 50 poorest high schools have completed the application this year, down 40% from this time last year.
As a result of the chaos, some colleges and universities are pushing back their enrollment deadlines as they wait for the FAFSA data needed to determine financial aid packages for students. That aid includes grants, loans, scholarships and work-study dollars.
The University of South Florida, University of Florida, and University of Central Florida — some of the state’s largest public universities — pushed their enrollment deadlines back from the traditional May 1 to May 15.
Florida State University said they would ‘adjust accordingly’ if further delays make the May 1 date untenable.
