The student portal for each college should indicate whether the FAFSA has been received. Parents really need to do deep dives into the student portal, and I’m sure the colleges would appreciate it!
Every single college we sent apps to in the last few years had a big check mark when financial documents were received.
Glad I saw this. Logged into one of the admitted schools and saw FAFSA was received 4/2.
Edit:
Submitted 1/17, processed 3/27, received by at least one school 4/2.
This was posted today, regarding corrections and school additions:
We have completed the development of the necessary code, and this week, we are entering the final phases of testing, which may include the corrections functionality being available for brief periods of time (i.e., several hours at a time) over the coming days to those who have submitted FAFSA forms.
Timeline for student corrections: Our goal is to make student corrections broadly available early next week.
I still wonder what will happen with the tens of thousands of middle/upper-middle-class families who were instructed by various agencies/school officials early on to check the free lunch box if their student received a free lunch because everyone in their district or state did (versus being income based).
Then, because of checking the “my student received a free lunch” box, those families did not have to include any assets in their FAFSA forms.
In a regular year, a FAFSA submission like the above could be selected for verification but my guess is that is not happening this year.
Do you have a source citing the ‘tens of thousands?’ Thanks.
I agree some of the families who checked the box but don’t qualify for free/reduced lunch based on need may end up getting some additional aid this year. But, I doubt it’s that much money in the big picture, and most of these students are likely attending FAFSA only schools which typically don’t need full need anyway.
What state provides free and reduced lunch to every student in the district? That wouldn’t be the same program.
I could see some people just checking that box out of desperation, though. I don’t think most people realize it’s a federal program.
The math behind SAI doesn’t math. If I hadn’t thought differently and often starting 16 years ago and counseled S24 differently than his friends’ parents did, I’d be very upset today. Our SAI is well beyond what we can reasonably afford on our current “upper middle class” income.
If I didn’t read online often, I would have been shocked. As it was, I just yawned and went to bed.
Post covid there are some districts and states that do, google is your friend. What shmom41 is referring to is a known problem, and FSA actually had to change directions on that FAFSA question earlier this cycle. I haven’t seen an estimate of the numbers of students who do receive free/reduced lunch but don’t actually qualify based on federal need calculation…these are the families who may have correctly answered that FAFSA question at the time, but whose FAFSAs may actually show more need than they have.
Michigan has free lunch for all students. I know quite a few who answered yes to it, but don’t qualify for the income program. Most I know answered it correctly, but I read some high schools were directing kids to say yes to it since they do get free lunch.
Google shows the same federal program that existed pre-covid.
I do know that Covid relief might have been applied in this way but that’s been over for some time.
Again, some/many districts provide free/reduced lunch for all students regardless of need.
The FAFSA question doesn’t technically ask if the student qualified for the federal lunch program based on need. It just asked if they received free/reduced lunch.
So, students in the districts that provide free/reduced lunch to all, regardless of need, answered the FAFSA question yes, that they received free/reduced lunch. (Which means they didn’t have to put asset info in FAFSA)
Does that make sense?
I live in a state where they continue using Covid money to fund this. Not sure of the percentages but if around 25 percent qualify for free and reduced, the district can provide free lunch/breakfast to everyone in the community. Like if Bill Gates lived here, they’d get free lunch. Because everybody does.
I filled out the FAFSA with my son in January, and the FAFSA clearly asked about the federal free/reduced lunch program.
I don’t see how anyone could have confused that with a private pay or locality pay lunch program unless the parent is unaware of the federal program, which I imagine very few parents are.
If you think it’s funny that I understood what I read, well, that shows how you view parents, I suppose.
Your explanation would only apply to people who didn’t read the form or pay attention when they filled it out.
Clearly I’m not explaining this in a manner you can understand it. It’s good that you aren’t affected by the issue.
Yes. It’s through NSLP. Administered by the state DOE.
The FAFSA clearly didn’t ask about this program. My state has it in some school systems, too, but not all. FRLP is income-based and state-wide, however.
Are you all expressing concern about counselors telling students to lie on the form?
I already said I filled out the form correctly. It was very easy to understand.
Here’s the updated guidance FSA put out when they realized students who didn’t meet the requirements for fed free/reduced lunch were accurately answering the fafsa question. FSA did not change the wording of the FAFSA question…it still technically says nothing directly about meeting the fed requirements for free/reduced lunch.
Here’s the FAFSA, see Q18
https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/2024-25-fafsa.pdf
Not lying. There was legitimate confusion about how to answer. It’s well documented that this is the case. Guidance was inconsistent. People asked what answer they were supposed to offer, in good faith. And some people in administrative positions explored the question in good faith… and offered the wrong answer. This is a problem that has been widely acknowledged. I suppose some people might knowingly be committing fraud. But lots of people just got incorrect guidance. And even that wasn’t in bad faith. It’s great that you were clear about how to answer. You won’t have any issues. But many others got the incorrect answer.
Exactly…so these students did answer the question accurately. I would also expect plenty of families have no idea whether or not federal dollars pay for their free/reduced lunch.
Here’s an article that says originally the Michigan schools were advised to have students answer yes to the question. MCAN Provides Clarity on FSA’s Changes to FAFSA Free or Reduced-price School Lunch Guidance | Michigan College Access Network
The question asked if you received free lunch. Our entire state does. Answering “yes” was a genuine response.
Big picture no one is sure how many FAFSAs are affected…if anyone has a source please share.
This could significantly change some students aid, but also could have little impact depending on the college they attend. Let’s hope FSA clarifies that question better next year.