Congress passes bill aimed at improving college financial aid process
The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have approved a bill requiring the U.S. Department of Education to make a critical financial aid application available to students enrolling in college by Oct. 1 of each year.
The department changed the formerly long and complicated Free Application for Federal Student Aid last year, but that delayed its release from the 2023-24 school year to Jan 1. The rollout of the new form was also fraught with technical issues that frustrated many students, parents and higher education officials. Students are required to complete and submit FAFSA to qualify for any federal financial aid. The legislation passed the House last week and the Senate on Thursday.
If the Education Department is unable to make FAFSA available by Oct. 1 each year, the bill says the Secretary of Education would have to testify before Congress about the reasons why. The current law requires the form to be released no later than Jan. 1 of the applicant’s planned year of enrollment or around Oct. 1 prior to the applicant’s planned year of enrollment.
In an editorial meeting with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona responded to questions about the FAFSA delay by saying the government system used to process the form is old and slow.
“We knew that the bandwidth was going to get taxed and I’m proud of the fact that we have a new system where students are enrolling,” he said. “Yes, there were some adjustments that needed to be made to make sure the user experience is good. But we’re proud of the fact that the better FAFSA is out.”
Cardona announced Thursday the Class of 2025 can access this year’s form 10 days before its Dec. 1 goal.
“After months of hard work and lots of feedback from students, schools and other stakeholders, we can say with confidence that FAFSA is working and will serve as the gateway to college access and affordability to millions of students,” he said.
The Institute for College Access & Success is an organization that advocates for ways to make college more accessible and affordable. President and CEO Sameer Gadkaree agreed with the earlier release date required by the legislation.
“The 2024-25 FAFSA is now open and the roll-out appears to be proceeding smoothly,” he said in a statement to the AJC. “Now that the hard work of updating the FAFSA is complete, future years should see a return to an October rollout of the form.”
Staff writer Tia Mitchell contributed to this report.
About the Author
Martha Dalton is a journalist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, writing about K-12 education. She was previously a senior education reporter at WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate. Before that, she was a general assignment reporter at CNN Radio. Martha has worked in media for more than 20 years. She taught elementary school in a previous life.
