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On Sept. 24, two leaders from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development about issues related to the rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
While the GAO officials did not paint a pretty picture, they did talk about a few recent positive strides made by the Department of Education. The official recap from GAO used words that included botched, numerous delays, tech issues, and glitches.
According to the GAO’s summary, the Department of Education’s original intent was to streamline the form to make the financial aid application process easier for students. However, the rollout was delayed three months, and multiple technical issues blocked some students from completing the form. Student support was also lacking-about three-quarters of calls to the call center went unanswered.
Decline in FAFSA Submissions, But GAO Notes Progress
More specifically, in its preliminary findings, GAO found:
- Current financial aid applications from high school seniors and other first-time applicants are down by 325,000 or nine percent compared to the previous cycle.
- Returning applicants dropped by 106,000 or one percent compared to the prior year.
- Total applicants decreased by 432,000 or three percent.
- Graduate students were erroneously told that they were eligible for Pell Grants.
During her Sept. 24 testimony, Melissa Emrey-Arras, director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security at GAO, said the Department of Education recently closed a significant gap — decreasing the drop in applicants from 1.4 million to 432,000. They partnered with states, school districts, and nonprofits, using extensive email and text messaging campaigns and social media outreach to reach students.
“The department needs to continue community partnerships, needs to continue to engage with the students that have not submitted FAFSA so that they are not left behind and lost,” she said in her testimony.
Other glitches that have been corrected include allowing parents without a Social Security number to start or contribute to the application and ensuring students born in 2000 can complete it. These items were fixed on March 8, approximately two months after the launch.
DOE Response
In an email, an Education Department spokesperson shared the agency’s statement and response with HigherEdJobs.
“After the first major overhaul of the FAFSA system in more than four decades, there are more than 500,000 students eligible for Pell Grants than there were at this time last year,” the statement began.
“We have sought advice from students and families, colleges, and partners and provided more than 1,000 documents to the Government Accountability Office. Thanks to this input, along with community partnerships, we have now narrowed the FAFSA completion gap to about 2% compared to this time last year – down from 40% in March.”
The spokesperson also shared a link to a report highlighting its progress.
Background on GAO’s Study
Republican members of Congress wrote to GAO on Jan. 24, 2024, asking them to review the simplified FAFSA rollout. In their review, GAO assessed how the rollout affected students, how students received information and support, and how colleges received information.
The GAO teams analyzed Department of Education data on FAFSA submissions and processing for the current application cycle (2024-25) and comparable data for the prior year.
GAO also examined data and performance metrics from the call center, interviewed Department of Education officials and other key stakeholders from higher education associations, and reviewed relevant federal laws and guidance.
Recommendations
The GAO made seven recommendations to improve the process by the start of the next FAFSA cycle by December 2024. Their suggestions include to:
- Identify ways to reduce the burden on students and families by addressing the remaining technical issues and streamlining the process for parent or spouse contributors to reduce the time required to complete the FAFSA form.
- Improve translation services through the call center to support languages other than English and Spanish and make the FAFSA application available in more languages.
- Hire sufficient staff to increase capacity at the Federal Student Aid Information Center call center to meet demand and improve customer service.
- Develop policies to communicate key milestones of the 2025-26 FAFSA and future cycles to colleges and stakeholders in a timely and reliable manner.
GAO will track progress on these recommendations on its website (click the “recommendations” link or scroll down).
What’s Next
During the hearing, Marisol Cruz Cain, director of GAO’s Information and Cybersecurity team, said the agency will track when the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) plans to deliver the remaining functionality for the FAFSA and the status of those plans.
“We want to look further into the level that the system was tested prior to launch, what testing has been done since the launch, and what testing will be done as additional functionality is rolled out, including for the next FAFSA cycle,” she said.
GAO also plans to study the extent to which FSA and the Department of Education oversaw contractors during the system development process. This includes investigating whether FSA had the appropriate skillsets to manage the contractor effectively and perform oversight.
According to Cruz Cain, the office’s final recommendations and findings will be available in 2025.
Following the hearing, the Department of Education announced it would start testing the 2025-26 FAFSA in early October with a small group of students recruited by six community-based organizations. The students will submit FAFSA forms, and the department will process the records, sending them to institutions of higher education and state agencies.
According to the press release, the beta testing period will allow the department to identify and resolve system errors that could impact students, contributors, and institutions.
