On behalf of its members, NASFAA submitted comments on the 2010-11 draft FAFSA earlier this week to the Department of Education.

NASFAA commends the Department’s efforts to clarify and improve the FAFSA structure and language, and on its diligent review and consideration of all submitted comments.

Among our recommendations this year:

• In light of recent concerns about fraudulent high school diplomas, we encourage the Department to explore ways to assist schools in identifying them, perhaps by expanding the high school completion question to include school name and date diploma received; and
• Build on usability improvements by restructuring the dependency status questions on the paper FAFSA to mimic the skip logic of FAFSA on the Web.

NASFAA thanks members who submitted copies of their comments to us. Your careful review of the draft FAFSA will help to make the final version even better.

By Karen McCarthy
Assistant Director of Professional Assessment, Training, and Regulatory Assistance

Posted 11/06/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.