"The launch of new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms has hit some snags, leading to trouble and frustration for students and colleges," The Hill reports.

... "When the department said at the beginning of December the new forms would have a “soft launch,” experts knew issues were bound to arise."

"'When we saw that they were going to do this soft launch, that was an indicator to us that internally the Department of Education thought that there might be some issues when [the FAFSA forms] did roll out,' said Karen McCarthy, vice president for public policy and federal relations at National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."

... "'The first weekend that it was open was very challenging, and there was such a limited time that the FAFSA was actually open. The Department of Education has been gradually increasing the hours per day that it is open and available. I think that they will shortly be getting to the point where it will just stay open and available like it does in in normal time,' McCarthy said."  

"While she believes the issues with accessibility will fade in the next few days, other problems seem to be waiting in the wings."

.... "The next stop for the new applications will be working through the bugs with the forms themselves now that more students and families will be able to access them."

"'There are some reporting issues that the department is trying to resolve that affect certain subpopulations of FAFSA completers so some folks are seeing some issues, some of which are more minor, some of which are bigger,' McCarthy said." 

... "'Schools are not getting any processed FASFAs from the department yet and considering how bumpy the rollout was of the actual FAFSA … we are … It’s a reasonable question for us to ask if the department does still plan to get those processed FAFSAs out to schools later this month, or if there will be a further delay on that,' McCarthy said."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 1/8/2024