Fix the FAFSA before next year’s forms are introduced

In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act, a bill that aimed to simplify the process of applying for federal financial aid for college. But the Biden administration botched the implementation. When the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid form was released last year, it was 90 days late and plagued with technical issues, leaving many students struggling to complete it and colleges unable to award financial aid.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, in a year when college enrollment was expected to increase, 9 percent fewer high school seniors and first-time applicants completed the FAFSA form for the 2024–2025 academic year compared to the previous year. the largest decline in lower-income students. Counting returning applicants, 14.338 million students filed FAFSA applications, a decline of 432,000, or 3 percent, from the previous year, according to the GAO. Another 1.6 million people started the form but never completed it.

Two GAO reports released last week reveal the federal government’s incompetence in launching the simplified FAFSA. The reports highlighted the government’s inability to properly manage the project and ensure technical requirements were met, as well as a lack of communication with students and universities.

As we approach the next FAFSA cycle, the U.S. Department of Education has already announced that it will release the 2025-2026 form in December, instead of the traditional October 1 date. The government must use this additional time to learn from the past year and ensure the form is completely ready – fully functional, with plans to address any lingering issues and communicate with students and schools as needed.

The greatest need is to improve technology, for which taxpayers are paying as much as $141.7 million. One GAO report, focusing on technical aspects of the 2024-2025 launch, found that the initial contract included 25 technology solutions necessary to enable students to complete the form, calculate financial aid eligibility and report the results to colleges. Eighteen features were delayed after the project launch date.

Additionally, education officials have failed to develop a cost estimate for the project or a credible timeline, according to the GAO.

Inadequate testing led to officials identifying 55 defects only after the FAFSA was launched. For example, the agency initially overestimated some students’ aid eligibility because the software incorrectly excluded their family assets.

If a student made a mistake on their FAFSA, the ability to correct errors was not created until April 15.

The form had issues with including families where the student’s parent or spouse did not have a Social Security number – for example, if they did not have legal immigration status or lived in another country. For several months, these family members were unable to access the form at all. Once access is granted, family members should be able to electronically verify their identity based on documents. However, the electronic process rarely worked and the Department of Education did not have enough staff to manually verify their identities, so verification took an average of 22 days.

When problems arose, the Department of Education did not help students resolve them. The department maintained a call center, but of the 5.4 million calls between January and May, 4 million went unanswered due to staffing shortages. When a student had a technical problem, he or she was generally instructed to “try again later,” even if the problems resulted from errors that took the faculty months to fix.

34,000 students submitted FAFSA applications using paper forms. The Department delayed processing these forms until August 2024 – potentially too late for students to make the decision to start their studies in September – without informing students of the delay.

About 3 million students who filed the FAFSA in the first month received incorrect preliminary estimates of financial aid eligibility because faculty did not properly account for inflation and students were not told their estimates were incorrect.

One likely source of the problems was a lack of leadership. Since the project began in February 2021, the Department of Education has employed six CIOs.

Going forward, the Department of Education must implement the GAO’s recommendations. It must find staff and money to resolve remaining technical issues, run a call center, and notify students and universities about when the app will be available and if any technical issues arise. It needs appropriate technical testing and verification processes to ensure that the software functions properly, with management providing oversight. This process must eliminate barriers for families where someone does not have a Social Security number or needs a form translated.

Kate O’Hara, vice president of student services and enrollment management at Bristol Community College, said the college had to reschedule financial aid, advising and enrollment events last year. Staff struggled to help students work around technical issues, and financial aid workers had more work to do because the government failed to develop the ability to allow colleges to correct forms in large batches. “It would be nice to address these issues to make them less frustrating for students,” O’Hara said.

It would be more than nice. This is what the law requires and this is what students need.

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