ED Officials Provide an Updated Guide on All Things FAFSA Simplification
By Hugh T. Ferguson, NASFAA Senior Staff Reporter
A group of Department of Education (ED) officials joined the 2022 NASFAA Virtual Conference on Thursday to detail how the impending FAFSA simplification changes will be impacting financial aid offices for the 2023-24 award year and beyond.
Federal Student Aid (FSA) staff underscored that the updates to the form, as well as implementation efforts, will be a monumental task and pledged to work with the community to ensure a smooth transition process.
The high-level discussion went through background information on the simplification efforts, an overarching timeline of planned 2023-24 and 2024-25 updates, changes coming to the FAFSA experience, as well as key resources that are available to financial aid offices.
After going through a summary of legislation that sits behind implementation efforts, officials walked through how the phased implementation of the simplification process would begin to play out beginning in the 2023-24 year, how the FAFSA would be used to collect additional demographic information, and that the form would remove questions related to Selective Service and drug convictions.
FSA officials also touted that big changes were in the works concerning incarcerated students with the restoration of Pell Grants for that population, as well as more education programs that would build off of the Second Chance Pell program.
Additional policy updates concerned reminders on adjustments to cost of attendance calculations and professional judgment (PJ) policies.
In the months ahead, officials said there will be a number of events and meetings on changes related to FAFSA simplification, including the FSA Training Conference from Nov. 29-Dec. 1, 2022, and additional in-person and virtual meetings for 2023.
Attendees were then able to participate in a Q&A with officials over their top concerns related to updates to federal aid programs.
You can still register for the 2022 Virtual Conference through Friday, July 15. For the cost of just $250, everyone on your NASFAA roster can participate, and have access to session recordings for one year. Stay tuned for highlights from the conference this week!
Publication Date: 7/15/2022
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