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Draft 2020-21 FAFSA Open for Comment

By Megan Walter, Policy & Federal Relations Staff

The Department of Education (ED) has posted a draft of the 2020-21 Paper Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and other related documents (e.g., Paper Student Aid Report). The documents can be found under Forms and Instructions in the docket on the regulations.gov website.

Due to the changes to the 1040 tax form, the 2020-21 FAFSA has changed a few questions. As tax forms 1040A and 1040EZ no longer exist, and all filers will use the 1040 to file their taxes, question 35 on the FAFSA will no longer read “If you have filed, or will file a 1040, were you eligible to file a 1040A or 1040EZ?” and instead will read, “Did (or will) you file a Schedule 1 with your 2018 tax return?” Subsequently all mentions of 1040A or 1040EZ forms are removed from the FAFSA.

For questions 37 and on, all line item numbers are updated to match the numbering system on the new 1040 form. Conforming to the new tax form, exemption questions are removed from both the student and parent sections, and the IRS and/or pension distributions questions are combined into one question, as the new tax form has them totaled together.

The supporting documents with the draft FAFSA also provided a preview of one of the changes that will show up on the Student Aid Report (SAR) Acknowledgement. The SAR Acknowledgement will now include a “Children of Fallen Heroes” indicator, abbreviated as a CHF on the form, which will populate a Y if the student has been previously identified as eligible.

Comments should be submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal by selecting Docket ID number ED-2019-ICCD-0039. In addition, please submit a copy of your comments to NASFAA so that we can represent the interests and concerns of our member institutions.

Comments are due by June 3, 2019.

 

Publication Date: 4/5/2019


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