Kvaal: 'Today We’re In a Much Better Place' After Challenges with 2024-25 FAFSA
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
As the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Virtual Training Conference winds down, Education Under Secretary James Kvaal thanked the financial aid community for their work after a hard year, and noted that the FAFSA is in a much better place today than it was just under a year ago.
With the 2025-26 FAFSA officially launching just two weeks ago, Kvaal said the form is in “much better shape” compared to last year’s launch. With such a tumultuous rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA, Kvaal noted that many financial aid offices had to face confused and frustrated students, which required them to work overtime to get financial aid offers to students.
“We will continue to work to improve the FAFSA, and the result will benefit students for years to come,” Kvaal said. “This means more students from lower-income backgrounds will have the opportunity to enroll in college, complete their degrees, and build a better life. When we work together to make college affordable, we help students win.”
Additionally, Kvaal touched on similar sentiments shared by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in his keynote address on Wednesday. As the Department of Education (ED) prepares to transition to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, Kvaal said it’s important to remember what matters most: serving students.
“There's been a lot of conversation these days about winning and losing in politics, and for the past months, it seems like it's been all we've heard about,” Kvaal said. “...It seems that people want you to believe that there are two sides, with one winning who will dictate our future. Those who win do have the fate of our future in their hands, I agree with that, but it's not about sides. It's not about politics. It's about our students, because as Americans we're only going to win when our students do.”
Thursday’s conference agenda had sessions focused on financial responsibility, the Clery Act and managing campus protests, auditing requirements for Title IV programs, and gainful employment (GE) and financial value transparency (FVT) reporting.
As the institutional reporting deadline for GE and FVT institutional reporting nears – January 15, 2025 – presenters David Musser, deputy director of FSA’s Policy Implementation and Oversight, and Blien Seyoum, management and program analyst of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), answered frequently asked questions by institutions.
Those questions include:
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Many schools believe that they need to evaluate the Completers List first in order to know which students must eventually be reported on. “That's not true. The two processes are separate. The students included on an institution's Completers List will never be the exact same as the students they report on. The department provides a different set of reports that schools will use to identify the students who must be reported on,” Musser said.
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My school has already submitted the Student Submittal File, and we selected the transitional reporting option. After reviewing our records, we have decided it would be better to use standard reporting. Are we permitted to resubmit our Student Submittal File and switch to standard reporting? Yes, but only until the reporting deadline on January 15, 2025.
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Do reporting requirements apply to programs that are no longer active or no longer qualify for Title IV funding? Yes. Institutions are expected to report on all programs, including those that have been discontinued or voluntarily withdrawn. The only exceptions are for program groups of substantially similar programs that did not produce at least 30 total completers over the four most recently completed award years.
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Why are there students missing from our school’s Completers List? Two possible reasons. The student could have graduated outside of the cohort period for the 2YP or 4YP cohort period; depending on how the program was evaluated. No action is needed here. Or the graduated status was not successfully certified in NSLDS.
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There are students on our school’s Completers List that did not receive Title IV aid for the program, how can we remove them? Schools can remove the student on the Completers List page on the NSLDSFAP website.
As a reminder, attendees can access recordings of conference sessions on the FSA Virtual Training Conference website.
On Friday, the virtual training conference will conclude with the exhibit hall. Stay tuned to Today’s News for more updates on the FAFSA and FSA programs, and read our past coverage for recaps of this year’s conference.
Publication Date: 12/6/2024
Peter G | 12/6/2024 5:21:21 PM
"It's not as sh***y as it was last year!" is not exactly the resonant rallying cry I think Kvaal wants it to be.
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