Fewer low-income students applied for college financial aid after botched FAFSA rollout

Washington (CNN) — Fewer low-income students applied for college financial aid for the current school year after the rollout of an updated version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA, was plagued with problems.

Submitting the form is required in order to access federal Pell grants, student loans and other kinds of financial aid. Without the financial help, college could be out of reach for some students.

Total FAFSA submissions were down 3% – or by 432,000 – compared with the year before as of August 25, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.

The drop in applications was largest for families whose incomes are between $30,001 to $48,000 and individuals with incomes of $30,000 or less, the GAO said.

Preliminary findings from the new analysis were released Tuesday at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing.

Members of both sides of the aisle have been critical of the Department of Education’s rollout of the new version of the FAFSA.

“The Biden-Harris administration has left millions of students and families scrambling in the dark,” Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican and chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, said.

Owens said that some of the GAO’s findings are “horrific and inexplicable.”

Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat and ranking member on the subcommittee, said that the rollout of the updated FAFSA was “derailed by a series of mistakes made by the Department of Education.”

“I’m most upset that the delays and ongoing setbacks have meant that some of our … students have just decided not to go to college at all,” she added.

The Department of Education released its own analysis this week and said that as of September 20, FAFSA applications were down just 2% compared with last year.

Like the GAO analysis, the department also found that FAFSA submissions are still lagging among lower-income students. But the department said that the gap shrunk over the summer.

Students can still submit the FAFSA to receive financial aid for the current school year, but they most likely already decided if and where to enroll.

The GAO said that students generally had about 100 fewer days to complete the FAFSA this year. It also found that nearly three-quarters of calls – about 4 million – to the Department of Education’s call center went unanswered during the first five months of the rollout due to understaffing.

Congress mandated that a new version of the FAFSA be released by 2024. The overhaul was intended to make the process of applying for financial aid simpler. But the rollout was plagued by delays, numerous technical glitches and administrative mistakes. The form wasn’t available until three months later than the usual October 1 date.

Many students had not received their financial aid award letters by May 1 – the traditional date used by colleges to require students to decide whether they are enrolling in the fall.

At that time, FAFSA completions among high school seniors were down 29% compared with the prior class at the same point last year, according to the National College Attainment Network.

Now, submissions for first-time applicants, including those who graduated from high school in the spring, are down about 8.5%, according to the Department of Education.

To help families avoid having to deal with glitches or other problems with the form this fall, the department has decided to open up the 2025-2026 FAFSA in phases. Only a limited number of students and families will be able to access the form on the traditional October 1 launch date as the department conducts a testing phase. The form is scheduled to be available to everyone on December 1.

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