Early FAFSA Opens Door to Further Simplification

WASHINGTON, DC – This fall, college students across the country will have access to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, months earlier than in previous years, arming them with financial aid information that can help students and families make better informed decisions about their college choices. 

The use of prior-prior year income data, which President Barack Obama made possible through executive action last fall, lays the foundation for the earlier release date of the FAFSA, and opens the door for further simplification efforts within federal financial aid. 

Lawmakers and higher education thought leaders, including NASFAA, have long called for efforts to streamline the federal student aid process. NASFAA suggested in its FAFSA Working Group Report creating a FAFSA application that directs students down one of three pathways — rather than taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach — depending on factors such as their family income, dependency status, tax information, and whether the applicant has been a recipient of public means-tested benefits. This proposal would be possible with the use of prior-prior year income data, and an increased use of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

“NASFAA has long been interested in ways to make the FAFSA more efficient and simple for students and families — in particular our neediest families should not have to prove time and time again that they are poor,” says NASFAA President Justin Draeger. “The use of prior-prior year income data on the FAFSA is an important first step in the simplification process, and can be a launching off to further simplify and streamline the application process.”

Although the overall political climate in Washington is polarized, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have shown both an interest in and support for simplifying the federal student aid application process. Now is the time to make changes to help expand access for students and families.

About NASFAA
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is a nonprofit membership organization that represents more than 20,000 financial aid professionals at nearly 3,000 colleges, universities, and career schools across the country. NASFAA member institutions serve nine out of every ten undergraduates in the United States. Based in Washington, DC, NASFAA is the only national association with a primary focus on student aid legislation, regulatory analysis, and training for financial aid administrators. For more information, visit www.nasfaa.org.

Featured

  • Uvalde Schools Receive AI Security Technology through Grant Program

    AI-powered gun detection and emergency response technology solutions provider Omnilert recently launched the Save Haven Grant program, according to a news release. The first recipient of the grant, aimed specifically at schools that have faced gun violence, will be the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (Uvalde CISD) in Uvalde, Texas.

  • Extron, CENTEGIX Partner for Comprehensive School Security Solution

    Professional audiovisual solutions provider Extron recently announced a partnership with CENTEGIX, which provides rapid incident response technology, to integrate two of their top products in the name of school safety.

  • Image courtesy of MiEN Company

    6 Ways to Pull Off a Major District Construction Project

    Designing and building a large-scale project on a K–12 campus is a monumental undertaking that requires the right blend of ideas, funding, design and execution to get it right. The process also relies on multiple partners, each of which has to handle its respective aspect of the project while also keeping the district’s broader mission and goals in mind.

  • S4L Launches 2025 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched its 2025 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which gathers information on K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide from the previous year. The data we get from you, our readers, forms an industry report offering an overview of current trends in school facilities.

Digital Edition