I live in a town in MA that provides free meals to all students. Such a large % of the population qualifies for reduced/free meals that I believe the town made the call a few years ago that it was easier just to make it free for all. How it’s funded - Federal/State/Local, I have no insight.
When I filled out the form I did check it off that my students received free meals. I don’t think that will play into anything once they look at income and see I don’t qualify for federal aid.
Same with our school district. Free lunches for everyone since COVID. Not sure if that’s the case for the entire state though.
Sometimes things will get a pass simply because it is a very small issue in the scheme of things. It’s likely that few families will qualify for Pell just because they answered yes to that question when they should have answered no. They might get more institutional aid, but that is an institutional consideration. And most schools that don’t also require Profile don’t have a lot of institutional aid that would go to people simply because of this response. Truthfully, it’s probably not many (overall) who will benefit when they shouldn’t have. There are other reasons people benefit when they should not, based on answering other questions incorrectly. There is always error, and some will get through.
If people know that they did something wrong, they should fix it. But I don’t think schools are going to be trying to find this error. Some may create programs to identify income levels that exceed free/reduced lunch with the free/reduced lunch question answered affirmatively, though. You never know.
Announcement back on January 12th. 8 states with free lunch for all students, plus numerous districts.
Of course, back in January, we all thought things would be really smooth by April.
I finally was able to provide a signature this morning. FAFSA submitted 2/25, processed 3/25 with corrections (signature) needed. A message after submitting says that corrections are being processed and the form will be available to schools in 1-3 days.
Was able to submit mine as well, seems they’ve moved up the timeline! Good to finally be able to sign this and get it out of the way…
Was able to provide signature - FINALLY!!! But, our SAI is 70,000. I knew it would be high, but was hoping not that high! Has anyone heard of a student not securing a federal loan because of a lack of need. To clarify - we DO have need because we cannot cough up $70K/year for school!
All students who file a FAFSA qualify for $5.5k student loan. The level of need informs how much of that loan (with a cap) is subsidized vs unsubsidized.
If he needs more to bring it to $10K per year, does that mean we would have to secure a private loan for the difference?
Yes a private loan or parent plus loan. Either way, the debt will be in the parents directly or as co-signers.
Do you have more affordable options? Generally going above the student loan limits is less than ideal.
Hey whoa!
Was able to get into the FAFSA system to add schools for one of our twins. But I must have hit a narrow window because by the time I got signed in with the other twin I couldn’t add them anymore.
Still… progress.
I just tried to add a school. No editing available that I can see.
Missed it by THAT much!
Just keep trying. You may get lucky.
Yeah. Agreed. That’s how I got the FAFSA filed in early January. Just kept signing in.
We are paying for the rest of his tuition out of pocket. He has to cover at least $7500 with loans.
Perhaps he can make that much working this summer?
Regardless, the extra $2500 will have to be a private loan (which he likely won’t be able to get without a cosigner) or a parent plus loan.
His freshman year Direct Loan is $5500 max. Any loans above that amount will either need to be co-signed by parents or taken out by parents.
Finally D24 signature is in. Site was down for maintenance in the afternoon. but available now. FAFSA filed Jan3, missing signature for D24, two clicks and D24 signature is done. cant see SAI until processing is complete(1-3 days it says). thanks for keeping this forum active with updates on this. good luck to everyone!
In Colorado we voted after Covid to keep free school lunch for all. In Denver, students also get free breakfast.
The schools still encourage families to fill out the application for FRSL because then the feds pay for it, and there are other programs the kids may qualify for (after school care, summer camps, activity fees).
At Title ONe schools, all students get free lunch, even those who otherwise wouldn’t qualify. Not sure about the paperwork.
Form correction is now available. I just added schools to my D24’s list and I was able to submit the change successfully.