Regulators tell U.S. House of Representatives that FAFSA rollout gap is closing
WASHINGTON — Months after Lite launches Form to apply for federal financial student aid Faced with a series of well-publicized problems that have delayed processing and frustrated students and families, government regulators on Tuesday offered some additional explanation of what went wrong and made recommendations for the U.S. Department of Education going forward.
Members of the U.S. House Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee expressed frustration over the botched rollout and its impact on students and families during a hearing Tuesday that coincided with the release of a pair of discoveries from Government Accountability Office About the major issues plaguing the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) rollout.
Although the application process was improved after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act, advocates have expressed concern about processing delays caused by changes to the form. Not adjusted for inflation, it is Formula calculation error and its Tax data errors. Initially, significant issues also prevented parents without Social Security numbers from filling out the form.
The department has worked to resolve issues with the 2024-25 forms and re-evaluate implementation of the 2025-26 forms, taking into account feedback from students, families and stakeholders.
on Monday, Department releases report Review the implementation of the 2024-25 forms and the progress made in trying to improve the user experience since the streamlined forms were introduced.
As part of these efforts, the Department Phased rollout using 2025-26 form Working to resolve any issues that may arise before opening to everyone by December 1st.
Members of both parties criticized the rollout of the 2024-25 forms at Tuesday’s hearing.
“The rollout of the FAFSA has been mired in delays, errors and frustration, and for some of our most vulnerable students, their dreams of pursuing higher education have been lost,” said subcommittee chair Burgess Owens.
“The real-life consequences of the Biden administration’s failure are devastating,” the Utah Republican said.
Rep. Frederica Wilson, the subcommittee’s ranking member, said implementation of the FAFSA simplification bill was “derailed by a series of mistakes made by the Department of Education, resulting in delays and ongoing setbacks in the rollout of new applications.”
The Florida Democrat expressed frustration that “in addition to the dozens of letters sent by Congress, this is not the first hearing this year on the same issues we have had, nor is it the first filing cycle on these issues.”
lack of information
In two GAO reports released Tuesday, regulators found that about 432,000 fewer people had filed the FAFSA than last year, a 3% decrease as of the end of August.
According to GAO, the decline in submissions “is most pronounced among low-income students and families.”
Investigators also found that the department did not consistently provide students with timely information about processing delays, changes in student aid eligibility or “solutions to technical obstacles they encountered during the application process.”
Melissa Emrey-Arras, the GAO director who oversees education, said at Tuesday’s hearing that delays “significantly hinder (students’) ability to choose a college, think wisely about their finances, and The ability to afford school.”
“Can you imagine? It’s like buying a house but not knowing how much assistance you’re going to get and having to commit on the spot,” Emre-Aras said.
unanswered calls
The government watchdog also found that nearly three-quarters of all calls to call centers went unanswered in the first five months of the rollout in 2024-25 due to staff shortages – a total of 400 out of 5.4 million calls. Thousands of calls went unanswered.
As for communications with schools, GAO found that the department “consistently failed to meet committed deadlines and failed to adequately notify colleges” of changes in the time frame during the 2024-25 FAFSA rollout.
Marisol Cruz Cain, director of the Government Accountability Office, which oversees information technology efforts, said the federal student aid office “did not fully test the system, which resulted in a number of performance issues.”
Cruz Cain said that after the initial deployment, “FSA discovered 55 defects, nearly double the number found when testing the entire system prior to launch.”
improvement plan
on a monday Letter to College and University Presidents Regarding progress on the 2025-26 forms, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department “has been working tirelessly to overhaul a system that has remained largely unchanged for more than four decades. And itself includes 20 different subsystems that require significant change – transformation to achieve the most sweeping changes to federal financial aid eligibility and processes in years.
This department is in its Report On Monday, the company took 10 steps to improve the FAFSA application process, such as increasing the number of call center agents, adding more than 700 new agents. The department is also working to address issues families without Social Security numbers face when filling out forms.
The department’s efforts also include strengthening its leadership team and “providing additional outreach and support to students and families who most need help completing forms.”
In a statement responding to Tuesday’s hearing, a department spokesman said, “After the first major overhaul of the FAFSA system in more than four decades, more than 500,000 more students are eligible for Pell Grants than at this time last year.” .
“We have solicited input from students and families, universities and partners and provided more than 1,000 documents to the Government Accountability Office,” the spokesperson added. “Thanks to this input and community partnerships, we have improved our performance compared to this time last year.” By comparison, we have now narrowed the FAFSA completion gap to about 2%, down from 40% in March.”
