LAFAYETTE, La. — Changes made to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid ARE leaving students confused and unsure why the changes happened at all.
According to the StudentAid website, the purpose of the FAFSA Simplification Act is to redo the processes and systems used to award federal student aid for the 2024-2025 school year. We've listed the changes below.
Gregory Thornburg is the Director of Financial Aid over at SLCC, and he says 300,000 FAFSA applications will have to be reprocessed after a technical glitch was discovered with the new system.
He also worries that families may get their financial aid packages too late in the semester.
“It's difficult on students and families to make financial decisions if they really have no clue what amount of Pell grants, maybe other grants if they don’t know what funding they have that's a big decision on many students and families,” he says.
KATC spoke with one SLCC student who says that the changes kept some of her friends out of school.
"I had other friends who didn’t get theirs or they were having problems receiving theirs," Jacey Cobb said. "One of them was really stressed and she has a kid at home and she just needs the extra help and didn’t have it, so she has no choice but to drop her classes.”
According to Thornburg, filling out the FAFSA as early as possible is the best way to avoid delays and he also recommends checking emails frequently to keep updated with the processing of the FAFSA application.
THE WEBSITE LISTS THESE CHANGES:
1. Replacing the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) With the Student Aid Index (SAI)
Starting with the 2024–25 award year, students and families will see a different measure of their ability to pay for college, and they’ll experience a change in the methodology used to determine aid. The new need analysis formula removes the number of family members in college from the calculation, allows a minimum SAI of -1500, and implements separate eligibility determination criteria for Federal Pell Grants.
2. Modifications to Family Definitions in FAFSA Formulas
Expect changes in how a student’s family size is determined aligning more with what was reported on the student’s/parents’ tax returns.
3. Expanding Access to Federal Pell Grants
- The FAFSA Simplification Act will expand the Federal Pell Grant to more students and will link eligibility to family size and the federal poverty level (starting with the 2024–25 award year).
- Incarcerated students in federal and state penal facilities will regain the ability to receive a Federal Pell Grant (starting with the 2023–24 award year).
- Federal Pell Grant lifetime eligibility will be restored to students whose school closed while they were enrolled or if the school is found to have misled the student (starting with the 2023–24 award year).
4. Streamlining the FAFSA Form
Where possible, the law mandates that we use data received directly from the IRS to calculate Federal Pell Grant eligibility and the SAI. This data exchange has been made possible by the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE Act), which we’ll implement alongside FAFSA simplification starting with the 2024–25 award year. The FAFSA Simplification Act also removes questions about Selective Service registration and drug convictions. It also adds questions about applicants’ sex, race, and ethnicity, which have no effect on federal student aid eligibility (starting with the 2023–24 award year).
