At the end of December, the U. S. Department of Education is releasing a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, the form that helps determine students' eligibility for federal college funding.
The new application, called the "Better FAFSA," is intended to be shorter and easier to fill out than previous iterations. Jason Gonzalez with Chalkbeat joined us to talk about the details and look ahead to possible impacts on Colorado.
First of all: Why is the FAFSA so important?
“The FAFSA opens up the opportunity for free federal money, as well as institutional aid from the universities or colleges that students might be going to, And so this just helps pay for college,” Gonzales said.
The federal government said the new form was delayed because of difficulty simplifying it.
“This (FAFSA) opens up every October," Gonzales said. "But this year, it should be out by the end of the month.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the new application will replace the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) with the Student Aid Index (SAI) to determine what funding students are eligible for. It will also remove a majority of the questions included in the original FAFSA application.
“They're going from over 100 questions to about 20,” Gonzales said of the FAFSA update.
Questions that will be eliminated include those about Selective Service registration and drug convictions. The new application has also been adjusted to import family tax details. In addition, the updates will render more students eligible for federal Pell grants, and the form will be available in more languages.
“This should make more students eligible, and more students should apply because it's short," Gonzales said. "The federal government really believes that this is going to be a better experience that helps students overall."
The timing of the updated form’s rollout, however, is causing issues.
“About half of all students actually fill out the form from October to December,” Gonzales said of a typical cycle. “Counselors and students’ families are all waiting right now to jump into that form, and it's going to be a really busy spring.”
Some have also pushed back on the fact that the federal government is still using 2020 tax information for new FAFSA applications.
“There’s been a lot of inflation since then,” Gonzales told KUNC. “So some students might get less money. The students from the lowest income backgrounds should still get the full amount, but some students just might get partial awards. And advocates across the country are saying, ‘You need to fix that.’”
The federal government said it plans to reassess inflationary levels in 2024.
