Patience, all - update on 2024-25 FAFSA

Yup, the announcement was released today: 2024-25 FAFSA Student Aid Index Update and Timeline | Knowledge Center. What I don’t see is a timeline related to the ability for students to access their FAFSA for corrections. I suspect that it’s the same as the timeline for sending the FAFSA to colleges, but I could be wrong. Edit: ED sent out a press release that indicates that students can update their FAFSA at the same time that the FAFSAs are being sent to schools in March).

This holds up so much in making decisions and committing to a college.

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Hearing on a counselor website that schools need a software patch which is also not yet complete. That probably means more to you than to me!

Software patches are released frequently, and they are relatively easy to install. But schools typically use a third party software system that supplements the federal system. Not only do the vendors need to get the information they need from FSA to get that developed, but then schools will have to do their own testing to ensure everything works correctly. I think that’s why the timeframe is pushed out so many weeks.

It is inexcusable. I have led software development and installation teams for large-scale implementations since the 80’s. There is no excuse for this. There are so many tools out there that are available to scale testing to a level consistent with what would be expected for FAFSA. If this wasn’t tested, passed QC and ready for implementation by October, they should have pulled the plug on the 2024 implementation. Period.

If I would have ever attempted to implement a system in this condition, my entire team and I would have been fired without hesitation. No software is perfect, but any project manager worth hiring knows when their product is not meeting a minimum performance threshold and it’s time to reassess.

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I am posting this as a suggestion and not for discussion, please.

Perhaps it’s time for folks to reach out to their elected members of Congress to find out why this wasn’t completed in a timely manner…and light some fire over those responsible for this very very poor implementation.

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Wouldn’t delaying the whole thing have required legislation by Congress? I am not sure. I am just asking because I thought that the change came out of an act of congress.

Also, while I am deeply frustrated and even a little terrified about what this will mean for my kids, I am also under the impression that many thousands more students will be Pell eligible and recieve higher grants by addressing the inflation tables now. So delaying the 2024 implementation of the new formulas and tables would also create a lot of harm to some families. Still I feel as if there had to have been a better way than what we have seen.

I even wonder if provisional processing and then amending could have worked better at least as far as the inflation tables go. I don’t know if that would have been a practical solution or even implementable. But as I understand it, the inflation correction will only increase Pell grants for some students. Thus, I don’t think they would have needed to reduce grants after fixing the inflation figures --so it would have just been happy news for those families whenever the inflation adjustments finally happened.

Yes I believe so.

Yes, I think that’s the whole problem: they were under a deadline enshrined in legislation. They also had all kinds of headaches last year with the restart of the student loan payments. Not sure how this all deteriorated to where we are now, but I’m sure both things were major headaches.

They had THREE years to get this done. Three years. They weren’t asked to do it yesterday.

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I don’t disagree!

Three years, though, that were during a pandemic.

It’s still a complete disaster, for everyone.

Sorry, but I can’t blame this on the pandemic.

In the summer, they claimed to be on schedule for an October normal FAFSA release. Then that was pushed to December. Then January. Then it was released in January, but oops, they forgot to put an important provision (income protection allowance change) into their calculation. Oh…and let’s not talk about all the submission problems folks are having.

Then they said…corrections and submissions to colleges will be in January, then February, and now March.

Clearly whoever is doing this work isn’t doing it very well. And that has nothing to do with the pandemic.

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I have to assume the wait lists will have a lot more movement this spring, so many people holding multiple spots while they wait on finances.

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I hear what you are saying, but from what I am seeing, this problem is a whole lot bigger than addressing problems with the inflation tables … which could have been addressed earlier as well.

I can’t speak to whether it takes an act of Congress to make this go or not, but it seems clear that the impact this is having on families that have to place housing deposits and make other commitments is enormous. I know it is big for us. I can’t even imagine the procedural nightmares this is causing to FA departments, let alone the extra costs.

Yes, I am definitely not defending the agency. It has been a disaster and very stressful for students and the colleges. I am just suggesting that the idea of putting it off another year because it wasn’t ready in October would have been complicated and also have hurt many families. Six months ago, lots of posters were reminding this forum that until recently, the form never opened until January and the October date is a recent phenomenon.

I just read this NY Times article (gift link), and apparently some 1.3 million students will get larger grants because of the inflation changes alone. And I think many thousands (millions?) more are newly eligible for grants because of the simplification act. The article also makes it sound like the Education Department asked for additional funding last spring to help with the implementation of various responsibilities including the ever-changing student loan picture post-pandemic and the request was denied by congress. Apparently the writing was on the wall that it was unlikely to go well a year ago.

Still, I am personally really grateful because my kids’ Pell grants will increase substantially compared to last year. So I am less upset about the original delay from October to December. But the fact that it has been such a disaster since December is pretty infuriating. And even if my family’s grants are likely to increase, nothing is guaranteed until the information is actually processed, the data is sent to the schools, and financial aid packages are allotted.

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“….Students, parents, and families continue to share with us how easy and fast it is to complete and submit the 2024–25 FAFSA form,” said Federal Student Aid Chief Richard Cordray….” :face_vomiting:

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Does anyone really think this will be done by March?

I thought this started with the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2019. (Then there were further changes in 2020 and 2021.) So it’s been FIVE years.

Right…but I think the final legislation was three years ago. But you are right. It’s not like they didn’t have a heads up that this needed to be done.

Someone somewhere decided to either drag their feet, or decided this was a low priority.

It is affecting thousands and thousands of people. And really, where is the accountability?

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So I just got some info from a different perspective. Forgive me as I don’t really speak IT but my husband was saying at their work they need to do some sort of upgrade to their system to even be able to accept the new FAFSA (I think because of the patch?)

Supposedly they have struggling to get it upgraded for a year and a half. They were in a real panic when they thought it was days away. Hopefully they get it done by mid-March !