Draft 2017-18 FAFSA Open for Comment
By Karen McCarthy, Policy & Federal Relations Staff
The Department of Education (ED) has posted a draft of the 2017-18 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.
The most significant changes, of course, reflect the implementation of prior-prior year (PPY) income on the 2017-18 FAFSA. As such, some date references have been incremented from the 2016-17 FAFSA, and others have not.
Other significant changes include:
- Discontinuation of the pre-printed FAFSA booklet. The PDF FAFSA will still be available for download from various ED web sites, and students will be able to obtain paper copies of the PDF FAFSA by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).
- Modifications to the Step Six instructions to indicate that state grant agencies will no longer receive the list of colleges submitted by the student. Revised instructions are: "...All of the information you included on your FAFSA, with the exception of the list of colleges, will be sent to each of the colleges you list as well as your state student grant agency. It does not matter in what order you list your selected schools. To find out how to have more colleges receive your FAFSA information, read What is the FAFSA? on page 2."
- Addition of Medicaid as a qualifying means-tested program for the Simplified Needs Test or Automatic EFC Formula.
Comments should be submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal by selecting Docket ID number ED-2016—ICCD—0037 or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. 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 May 31, 2016.
Publication Date: 5/18/2016
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