While federal education officials are still trying to clean up the botched implementation of a new financial aid application form, many students in Tarrant County who want to attend college are still having trouble filling out the form.
But they don’t have to do it alone. School districts and education advocacy groups in the Fort Worth area rushed to organize aid for students who couldn’t fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, during the regular school year.
FAFSA applications in counties across Texas, including Tarrant County, dropped sharply this year. In a normal year, such a drop would be a sign that fewer students are planning to attend college, since nearly all students who do attend college file during the school year, when they have easy access to help from school counselors.
But this year has been anything but typical. The redesigned form was released months later than usual, and even then, technical glitches kept many students from filing. College readiness officials say they’re still working with many recent graduates who plan to attend college but haven’t been able to complete their financial aid applications because of all the problems with this year’s form. Many are cautiously optimistic that they can help those students’ college dreams come true, despite the obstacles.
“I really think we’ll get there eventually,” said Jason Titus, managing director of programs for the T3 Partnership.
The updated FAFSA form is simpler for some, but unusable for others
The U.S. Department of Education has begun a redesign of the FAFSA after Congress directed the agency in 2020 to make the form easier for families to complete. Agency officials say the new form is simpler, reducing questions to fewer than 20 instead of more than 100.
But the rollout of the new form was slow. Students didn’t get access to the form until late December, about three months later than normal, giving students, families and high school counselors less time to complete it. And even after families got access to the application, technical glitches prevented many from completing it. Students whose parents were undocumented faced particular challenges, as a technical glitch made it impossible for parents without Social Security numbers to list themselves as contributors.
A number of these challenges have now been resolved. But others don’t. In mid-June, education officials announced that colleges would not be able to submit batch corrections until the first half of August. In a normal year, that process is available as soon as the form opens.
Colleges have had a workaround to submit corrections individually for each student, but Justin Draeger, CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement that this is impractical for large universities that process thousands of applications each year, as well as for under-resourced financial aid offices. The delays only add to the uncertainty for students waiting for information, he said.
“Ultimately, it is the most vulnerable students who will again be harmed by this delay,” Draeger said.
Minister of Education acknowledges problems
During a keynote interview last month at a conference hosted by the nonprofit Education Writers Association, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona acknowledged that the botched rollout of the new application has created a frustrating situation for everyone involved in the college process — students, families, high school counselors and college admissions officers. The department is working with governors, school superintendents and community partners to help students and their parents overcome the obstacles that have caused the delays and other problems, he said.
But once the issues are resolved, Cardona said he is optimistic the redesigned form will lead to more students attending college. Replacing the old, complicated form with one that many families can complete in less than half an hour will give more students access to financial aid, he said, which for many is the most important factor determining whether they can attend college go or not. The old form is part of a larger education system in which factors like a student’s race and place of birth are better determinants of college access than academic skills, he said.
“There’s a lot of work we’re doing to fix a broken system,” he said. “Improving FAFSA is part of that.”
T3 is expanding FAFSA support for Tarrant County students
The T3 Partnership, also known as Tarrant To and Through, works with school districts in Tarrant County to help students attend college and earn a degree. Earlier this year, the organization received a $240,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support students through the FAFSA process.
Titus, the organization’s program director, said the organization used part of the grant to hire eight employees to work with students on completing the FAFSA over the summer. Those employees joined a team of 10 college readiness advisors the organization already had, he said.
The fact that T3 had relationships with districts in place before the botched rollout began helped mitigate the worst effects for students, Titus said. Also, the fact that the organization already had a system in place to reach out to students who might need help with college readiness issues over the summer meant it was well-equipped to provide FAFSA support, Titus said. The group runs a program called Summer Launch that helps college-bound students stay on track and prepare for their freshman year. Last year, about 700 students enrolled in that program. This year, the group expects to see more than double that number, he said, largely because of all the challenges that come with the FAFSA.
Titus said he is confident Tarrant County students will not see their academic plans derailed as a result of the rollout. The situation has created headaches for many families and a huge amount of work for university employees across the country, he said. But FAFSA applications are continuing to trickle in this summer, he said, even if they are later than normal. Even in a normal year, some students wait until August, just weeks before the start of the fall semester, to fill out the form, he said. That number will be higher this year, he said, but he’s hopeful the college prep staff in the Fort Worth area can handle it.
FWISD and AISD are seeing declines in FAFSA applications
Christina Galanis, director of high school student engagement for the Fort Worth Independent School District, said the district has seen an increase in the number of students who filled out a waiver exempting them from a state law that requires all students to apply for financial aid before graduating from high school. As of June 14, the district’s FAFSA applications were down 18% from last year, according to an analysis of federal data by the nonprofit National College Attainment Network. But Galanis was quick to point out that even after those declines, about 67% of the district’s graduating seniors filled out the form, compared with about 53% of seniors statewide.
Galanis said she’s optimistic that many of the seniors who filled out an opt-out waiver still plan to attend college. Because applying for financial aid is a graduation requirement in Texas, students who couldn’t complete their applications before graduation had no choice but to opt out, she said. But many of those students worked with college prep counselors this summer to finish their forms, she said. She knows of one student who struggled with the application because his parents were undocumented but plans to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall. The district put that student in touch with a T3 counselor who specializes in helping children of undocumented parents navigate the application process, she said.
Galanis said the issues are particularly burdensome for the district’s mixed-status families, some of whose members are U.S. citizens and some of whom are undocumented. But recent graduates who have not yet completed their FAFSAs can still get help this summer, Galanis said. Fort Worth ISD operates a program called Summer Link designed to help recent graduates stay on track for college, a career or military service over the summer.
The Summer Link program has been around for more than a decade, but Galanis said it is shifting its focus to FAFSA support this year. Advisors regularly call recent graduates to check in. Advisors from Summer Link and from T3 are ready to assist students who have yet to complete the form, she said. She also pointed to a texting service run by the TxCan initiative in partnership with the nonprofit uAspire as another way students can get help.
As of June 14, Arlington Independent School District had seen an 18% drop in FAFSA applications. Telisa Brown, director of guidance and counseling for Arlington ISD, said the delays were a major obstacle for many of the district’s graduating seniors. When the application opened in December, some students were able to get through it quickly, while others encountered problems that prevented them from completing it at all, she said.
When it became clear that many students would not be able to complete the application before the end of the school year, district leaders worked with InspirED, the organization it partners with to run college achievement centers on its high school campuses, to place college and career counselors at each of the district’s summer school locations, Brown said. Students who have questions about the FAFSA or need help completing it can make an appointment to speak with an advisor or simply stop by, she said. Advisors will also meet with students virtually, she said.
For help from a uAspire advisor completing FAFSA, text Hello to (469) 940-5412. An advisor will respond within 24 hours, Monday to Friday. Advisors are available to provide support via text message or virtual meetings.
