Rates of FAFSA completion among KY high schoolers are way down. Why that matters

Completion rates for this year’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, are significantly down in high schools across Kentucky amid a rocky rollout of a simplified version of the form.

The federal form, used by students to apply for financial aid and by institutions and states to determine who gets it, has faced delays and technical glitches since it was soft launched in late December — two months later than normal.

For admissions directors such as Jenny Sawyer at the University of Louisville, this year’s compressed timeline has been a major headache, given there’s much less time to work with students on financial aid packages.

Amid all the confusion, Sawyer worries many Kentucky high school students might walk away from the entire process. Some of them might wait a year and try again, but others won’t. There’s a strong correlation between FAFSA completion and college enrollment.

Sawyer is also concerned first-generation college students and those from low-income households in particular have the most to lose.

“They’re just not filing the FAFSA at a time when you have even more reason to file,” she said, referring to an additional $1.8 billion in aid available to students this year.

How far behind are KY’s high school FAFSA completion rates?

In late February, Sawyer described her experience looking through federal figures on FAFSA completion rates, picking Kentucky high schools at random.

“I very rarely saw one that wasn’t 50% behind,” she said of her findings.

Now, with updated figures released Friday, the situation at many Kentucky high schools doesn’t seem to have improved much. Completion rates are significantly behind where they were this time last year. The new figures are current as of March 1.

At Lafayette High School in Lexington, for example, the federal figures credit the school as having 216 FAFSA applications submitted by March 1. Though, as is the case at many other schools, Lafayette reported less than five applications as being complete.

Compare that to where the school stood March 1, 2023, when 329 applications had been submitted and 316 were complete.

A similar pattern is playing out at each of Fayette County Public Schools’ high schools and Kentucky high schools more broadly, according to the federal data.

In releasing the figures, the studentaid.gov website notes, “At this time, we are approximating our normal assumptions for who is, or is not, a graduating class of 2024 high school senior. These numbers will adjust once additional information is available with 2024–25 FAFSA cycle processing. Current cycle district completion rates cannot be calculated until FAFSA processing occurs nor can the number of completed FAFSAs at the high school level be tabulated. Until submitted 2024–25 cycle FAFSAs are processed, schools new to this cycle will not appear in the data.”

When asked to confirm whether the federal figures are accurate for the district’s high schools, FCPS spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith told the Herald-Leader in an email, “FCPS is not able to comment on data generated outside of our organization and not reviewed by any members of our team.”

Davidson-Smith declined any further comment on behalf of FCPS.

What are the issues with this year’s FAFSA?

As explained in a recent piece by Vox, this year’s changes to the FAFSA stem from efforts to make filling out the form easier for students and their families. The new and improved form uses data from Internal Revenue Service tax returns to determine family income, and the form itself asks fewer questions.

Sawyer said one mother she spoke with reported the form only took about 15 minutes to complete.

“It is a much better FAFSA,” Sawyer said, adding that next year the changes will likely be seen as a net positive, provided the technical issues are fixed.

The technical issues have set this year’s FAFSA applicants back, however. The form has historically opened for applicants Oct. 1, but instead “soft-launched” in late December. Even then, students faced issues logging in to the site, and it was repeatedly down for maintenance.

In January, some of those issues were resolved, but the U.S. Department of Education then decided to change the financial aid calculation due to inflation, making an additional $1.8 billion available to students.

All of this meant the department wouldn’t send data to colleges until the first half of March, a process just now taking place months behind schedule. College Decision Day traditionally lands May 1, meaning students are feeling the crunch right now.

How are institutions responding?

At least one public university in the state, Northern Kentucky University, has announced it will move the traditional deadline for claiming merit-based scholarships from May 1 to June 1.

Thursday, the private institution Transylvania University said it would begin issuing financial aid estimates to incoming students and their families.

“Our aim is to provide students and families with a realistic idea of what financial aid they can expect and how that aid can offset their cost to attend Transylvania,” Jennifer Cosens, Transylvania’s director of financial aid, said in a university news release. “The format for these estimates is fairly similar to that of our official financial aid offer, and we hope this preview will help students be more informed and prepared when we are able to provide official offers in the coming weeks.”

What should you do if you’re struggling with the FAFSA?

If you have plans to attend college, but haven’t yet filled out the FAFSA, the best thing you can do for yourself is to complete it now.

The federal government is only just now beginning to share student data with some schools, and any institution will likely need additional time to provide you with a financial aid offer. Filing the FAFSA as soon as possible ensures you have more time to make a decision about which institution you want to attend.

Review these pro-tips from the U.S. Department of Education:

1. Create a studentaid.gov account and have your parents or guardians do the same.

2. Gather your documents. Starting this year, you can grant permission to have your financial information imported directly from the IRS, but you may need to have your 2022 tax returns. Also, assemble any records of child support payments received, current balances of cash, saving and checking accounts and the net worth of any investments your family has.

3. Students should fill out their section of the FAFSA first and be sure to read each question carefully. Look for in-form resources if you need help. Once you’re done, don’t forget to sign and submit the form. You can make corrections if you need to.

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