By Jesse Kannam, Master of Public Policy Candidate at UC Berkeley

Exciting momentum is building across the country regarding the importance of talking about the financial aid process in schools and encouraging the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA form represents a crucial part of students’ transition from K-12 education to postsecondary since it is the key to accessing federal financial aid as well as many types of state and institutional aid.

This issue is especially pertinent due to declines in immediate college enrollment among recent high school graduates and FAFSA completion since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Communities and organizations have adapted to the virtual environment through innovations like live online chat platforms, virtual events, and one-on-one virtual advising meetings for families and students. One key step some communities have been taking to boost financial aid application numbers is to launch initiatives and campaigns to increase FAFSA completion among students, often called FAFSA challenges. These challenges often spur friendly competition among schools or communities and offer incentives to students and families.

Over the past five years, states, cities, and localities have organized FAFSA challenges as a strategy to increase the number of graduating high school seniors who complete the FAFSA and understand the amount of federal aid they can receive to help support their postsecondary education. Research indicates that strategies like offering personalized assistance, providing information about financial aid early in the college application process, and using data to inform outreach to students are effective in increasing FAFSA completion, and many FAFSA challenges include these elements within their campaigns.

In an effort to document what works, a few organizations have analyzed these initiatives, including the National College Attainment Network (NCAN)’s evaluation of its FAFSA Completion Challenge and the Education Strategy Group’s recommendations based on interviews with state and local stakeholders.

So, where do you start? Or, how can you improve your state’s existing FAFSA challenge? One strategy is to pull from the best ideas from states that have already approached the issue.

This blog post provides an overview of the common elements that states used in their FAFSA challenges in the 2020-21 school year. While the resources linked below are not exhaustive, hopefully, they are a good first step!

Eligibility

Some states establish requirements for a school or district to be eligible to participate in their FAFSA challenges, receive supplementary support resources, or qualify for prizes.

For example, in New York, eligible schools must have student bodies where at least of 50% students are economically disadvantaged, and a minimum of 20 students in their 12th-grade class, among other requirements. In Connecticut, to be eligible to participate in the state’s FAFSA Challenge Learning Community and receive seed grant funding, schools had to have a FAFSA completion rate below 50%, more than 45% of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, and a 12th-grade class of more than 50 students.

School & District Categories

States are also intentional about segmenting schools and districts into categories to compare FAFSA completion rates more fairly. Winners are then chosen for each category.

While some states create categories by school or district size, others categorize schools and/or districts by type and/or geography.

Winners and Prizes

States designate winning schools and/or districts in a variety of ways. Some states reward the schools that had the most students complete FAFSA, others reward schools that improved the most compared to their number of student filers the previous year, and some reward both. States also include prize categories that prioritize equity, innovation, and progress over various periods. Some examples of prize categories include:

• Overall highest percentage of FAFSA completions.
• Overall highest percentage increase in FAFSA completions.
• Largest week-to-week improvement (DC).
• Innovation:
  • Statewide (Missouri, North Carolina).
  • High-need districts (North Carolina).
  • Monthly (Arizona).
• Percentage of students from low-income backgrounds who filed (Missouri).

States use a variety of incentives to encourage students, families, school administrators, and staff to help increase the number of students completing the FAFSA. Connecticut, Missouri, and North Carolina offered cash prizes. For example, Missouri decided to award $750 to winning schools, while Connecticut awarded $5,000 to winning schools. The District of Columbia, Florida, and Michigan used combinations of gifts, trophies, and public recognition as incentives, and the Arizona challenge rewarded specific groups (students, schools, and counselors) with different prizes.

Additionally, within states, schools sometimes use incentives to encourage students to complete the FAFSA. These incentives can include graduation tassels, gift cards, and t-shirts. In some cases, these prizes and incentives are gifted by local partners, do not require financial resources, or are purchased through seed funding provided to the state or district, and therefore are a cost-effective strategy.

Data Sharing and Dashboards

To monitor and share FAFSA completion progress, some states made completion rate data publicly available. States utilized data visualization and disaggregation tools like Tableau. Information is disaggregated by school, district, and in some cases by county or region. See below for links to each state’s data dashboards:

• Arizona
• Connecticut
• Florida
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• Missouri
• Rhode Island (scroll down)
• Texas

Here are a few things states can consider as they create their data dashboards. These are my personal opinions and are not based on surveys or feedback solicited from school leaders or communities.

• Who is your audience? Is it students and parents? School leaders and staff? Some of the data dashboards appear overwhelming with the amount of information shared on the opening page. Any way in which states can offer multiple viewing options may be helpful for those who just want high-level takeaways rather than school-by-school information.
• Share the estimated amount of Pell Grant dollars students receive after they complete the FAFSA. To be eligible for Pell Grants, students must complete the FAFSA. The maximum grant amount shifts from year to year. For the 2021-22 aid cycle, students could receive a maximum of $6,495. Grant size is determined by financial need, and unlike a loan, Pell Grants do not need to be repaid (except under a few circumstances). The amount of grant aid that becomes available after students complete the FAFSA is a clear and inspiring metric that can be shared with your community.
• Display how the state is measuring against its established goal. Prior to the challenge, some states stated a goal for a percentage of students in the state they hoped would complete the FAFSA. Showing how a state is measuring against its goal is another clear metric to share with your community.
• Engage users with visual tools. Maps can help draw an audience to potential geographic gaps in completion. The use of color gradients can also point to completion trends across a state.
• Allow for filtering for students from low-income backgrounds. Some states included a filter in their dashboard that allowed users to see FAFSA rates for schools that had certain percentages of students from families with low incomes. This is a useful tool to see if states are implementing FAFSA completion efforts equitably and if states should put in additional work to reach students who could benefit most from financial aid.

Resources and Partnerships Available to Participating Districts

To strengthen statewide campaigns, state agencies and partner organizations often provide resources to the districts participating in FAFSA challenges. Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, and New York created challenge toolkits. Meanwhile, Arizona, North Carolina, and Rhode Island shared step-by-step guides for filling out the FAFSA. To spread the word and foster excitement, some states also created social media toolkits, like Missouri (scroll to FAFSA Filing section) and North Carolina.

To leverage existing capacity, a few states used their partnership with the College Advising Corps to have near-peer student advisers support FAFSA completion efforts within the schools they served.

According to the Form Your Future FAFSA Tracker, as of Sept. 24, 58.8% of the high school class of 2021 had completed a FAFSA, 4.2% lower than last year during this time. There is still much work to be done!

And while tracking FAFSA completion rates is central to these initiatives, there are so many other less-tangible benefits that come from communitywide FAFSA challenges. These initiatives raise awareness about financial aid opportunities and encourage partnerships between schools and community-based organizations with expertise and capacity in financial aid and college access.

On Oct. 1, the FAFSA for the 2022-23 aid cycle became available for students to complete. Use this blog post as a tool as your community organizes its own FAFSA challenge initiative to help make college accessible and affordable to more students.

By Stephanie Breen, NCAN Program Fellow

Over the past two years, North Carolina launched a statewide initiative to increase the number of high school students completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Using data-driven approaches, myFutureNC and the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) have worked diligently with community partners and education nonprofits to better support school-based practitioners and families in their FAFSA completion efforts. Some of the key players in these collaborative efforts include Carolina Demography, College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC), College Advising Corps, the Hunt Institute, and the John M. Belk Endowment.

With a progressive focus on improving FAFSA completion rates across the state, myFutureNC developed a six-pronged approach to catalyze the process. The six strategies include:

1. Setting a FAFSA completion goal.
2. Building shared ownership of FAFSA completion across K-12 and higher education stakeholders.
3. Creating incentives for local and regional implementation of FAFSA completion best practices.
4. Using data to target support and report progress.
5. Establishing partnerships to provide training and support.
6. Spreading awareness to practitioners, the public, and policymakers about the value of FAFSA completion.

In setting FAFSA completion goals, myFutureNC collaborated with various stakeholders to develop a statewide goal of attaining an 80% FAFSA completion rate by 2030.

The organization connected this FAFSA completion goal with the education continuum of indicators through an interactive dashboard as well as statewide and county attainment profiles. Individuals can track the state’s vision and shared educational attainment goal of having 2 million North Carolinians with credentials or degrees. This tie to existing initiatives and priorities helped to build awareness and momentum and created buy-in at the state and local levels.

North Carolina’s First in FAFSA Challenge incentivizes administrators and counselors to boost FAFSA completion rates within their schools with a chance to win a $500 grant. The First in FAFSA Challenge tracks FAFSA completion rates across various school types and sizes drawn from federally reported data.

During the 2020-21 academic year, the first year of this challenge, nearly 77% of all public schools in North Carolina participated. The First in FAFSA collaborative awarded five Innovation Grants to schools that employed innovative strategies to boost their FAFSA completion rates for their senior classes.

The First in FAFSA Tracker has also provided local and regional stakeholders with tangible data that they can use to track district- and countywide progression in FAFSA completion. The tracker allows practitioners to identify their school’s progress compared to the completion rates of peer schools that share similar characteristics, including senior class size, the number of students of color, and the percentage of students from low-income backgrounds.

The data populating the First in FAFSA tracker have been available since 2014 via a student-level database run by the NCSEAA. But it’s these data, the First in FAFSA completion initiative, and the interactive dashboard displaying the data working in concert that are so promising in North Carolina.

As of 2021, 97% of North Carolina’s public schools have access to student-level data through the Finish the FAFSA platform. The platform provides data on students who have completed the FAFSA, which students have FAFSA errors and what those errors are, and which applications require further verification. By employing this tool, school practitioners are better equipped to monitor their students’ progression toward FAFSA completion and provide targeted support as needed.

“We wanted to make sure that data and the powerful combination of tools that were already in place across the state were more accessible to counselors. This would allow counselors to target their efforts in supporting students and families,” said Cris Charbonneau, director of advocacy and engagement at myFutureNC. “That’s where the connection between resources, practices, data, and tools have gone a long way in helping to lift up our FAFSA completion goals.”

In addition to data, at the core of this work is the commitment to spreading awareness about FAFSA completion practices through P-20 partnerships in North Carolina. This is being accomplished through myFutureNC’s communication channels as well as statewide communities of practice.

myFutureNC has collaborated with a number of community organizations to build momentum and awareness through the following programming:

• Hosting FAFSA Kickoff webinars with a statewide collaborative of 49 school districts to discuss how guidance counselors can navigate challenges and tricky situations related to the FAFSA.
• Offering statewide drive-in FAFSA completion events through virtual, hybrid, and in-person models. Students and families can get financial aid assistance at college campuses across the state throughout April, a practice that is continuing to support FAFSA completion efforts this fall.
• Disseminating FAFSA completion and college readiness-related resources to families, students, and practitioners, such as a YouTube series on navigating college as a first-generation college student, free and virtual FAFSA assistance to Latinx families, and e-newsletters with updates and invitations to FAFSA events.
• Establishing a FAFSA Network to provide on-the-ground training and support for a community of practice for practitioners in 42 priority districts. These districts were selected due to FAFSA completion as an opportunity for growth on their myFutureNC county attainment profile and other criteria.

While this blog offers a snapshot into the breadth of the exciting FAFSA completion strategies in North Carolina, NCAN encourages those who want to emulate these approaches to explore myFutureNC’s platform further.

In the coming months, NCAN will continue to highlight promising FAFSA completion practices to help practitioners and community organizations think collaboratively and creatively about boosting FAFSA completion rates in their states.

By Raymond AlQaisi, Policy and Advocacy Manager, National College Attainment Network

In an apparent resurgence to the growing “mandatory FAFSA” movement, three new states – Alabama, California, and Colorado – have adopted policies that will make completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) a high school graduation requirement.

In 2020, more than a dozen states were considering mandatory FAFSA policies but ultimately did not pass them, with no new adoptions last year – following the onset of the severe COVID-19 pandemic.

The basis for mandatory FAFSA policies is that completion of the aid form is the strongest predictor of college enrollment. Students are more likely to pursue higher education when they are aware of the financial resources available to them. Given this, NCAN supports mandatory FAFSA policies when adequate supports are provided to students in the process – among other important considerations for such policies to be effective.

Illinois is the last state to have adopted the policy, and at the time, when ranked nationally, was among the top 10 states for FAFSA completion. This cycle, Illinois is in the top five 5; 66% of the high school senior class has so far completed the federal financial aid form. Illinois is also currently among a handful of states that have seen increased FAFSA completion as compared to last year.

NCAN’s latest reporting that shows FAFSA completion for high school seniors is down significantly, which presents great concerns for college access. The national completion rate has declined by roughly 5% from the year prior, as of July 16, amounting to over a quarter-million fewer FAFSAs filed since 2019.

Reasonably, states are seeking ways to counteract these trends and mandatory FAFSA is a promising answer.

Alabama

In April, Alabama’s state board of education approved the adoption of mandatory FAFSA to take effect for the high school graduating class of 2022. Notably, this is a short timeline for the state to ask districts to implement, as other states have provided at least one year before their policies would take effect.

According to reports, the state board assures that the ability for a student to opt out and graduate is simple, though it will require completion of a waiver form. With support from state leaders, including Governor Kay Ivey, the policy is intended to help the state reach its goals for postsecondary attainment and workforce development.

Some individuals have raised concerns about the state ensuring students have the support they need to complete the FAFSA. Alabama Possible, an NCAN member, celebrated the policy’s enactment but has publicly called for the state to provide what is necessary for it to be successful.

Chandra Scott, executive director of Alabama Possible, wrote that “funding must follow this critical new policy to make sure that schools can provide the needed supports to students and families to make sure that those who will benefit most will be able to fulfill the graduation requirement and complete the FAFSA.”

California

At the end of June, California enacted its 2021-22 state budget, which included such a FAFSA requirement to begin the 2022-23 academic year.

California, in a first to take this approach, is placing the “requirement” on local educational agencies (LEAs) to confirm that their seniors (those who have not opted out) complete either the FAFSA or California Dream Act Application. The state ensures that students’ ability to graduate will not be negatively impacted by opting out. Additionally, to facilitate the process, California will issue further guidance and standardized forms for LEAs.

Colorado

Last month, the Colorado state legislature passed the Higher Education Student Success bill which included such a requirement.

The law establishes a grant program for LEAs that choose to adopt the requirement, supplementing efforts to assist students in FAFSA completion. Notably, the funding attached that drives this requirement is a unique approach and will help ensure students are well-supported for future FAFSA cycles.

The bill text cites support for partnerships between LEAs, higher education institutions, and community-based organizations that all play a role in students’ FAFSA process; and says that the program will support postsecondary attainment, considering the pandemic’s severe economic impacts.

By Ainsley Ash, NCAN Communications Intern

Anyone in the college access and success space knows Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion is crucial to increasing the odds that a student will pursue postsecondary education. According to one study, 92% of high school seniors who completed the FAFSA enrolled by the November following graduation, versus 51% who did not complete a FAFSA.

FAFSA completion numbers are way down for the high school class of 2021, and states are responding by ramping up their efforts to assist students.

According to NCAN’s #FormYourFuture FAFSA Tracker, only 39.9% of the class of 2021 has completed the FAFSA, as of Feb. 19. That’s about 9% less than the previous academic year.

As the end of the school year draws closer, it will be a race against the clock for districts to increase their FAFSA completion numbers before students graduate and potentially become more difficult to contact.

Here are some strong examples of the work that organizations across the country are doing to increase FAFSA completion rates.

Implementing State- and District-Level FAFSA Challenges

The Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) organizes the College Cash Campaign. A major component of this campaign is to create a competition that encourages high schools to reach at least 75% FAFSA completion. MCAN has a comprehensive list of recommendations for how individual schools can increase their FAFSA numbers. They include examples such as hosting FAFSA nights, publicly tracking FAFSA goal progress within high schools, and offering incentives to students.

MCAN is certainly not the only NCAN member sponsoring a statewide FAFSA campaign. Take the Florida College Access Network, for example. Their statewide FAFSA initiative aims to reward schools whose yearly FAFSA completion rates increase by at least 5 percentage points.

[See a list of other states that have implemented challenges to boost FAFSA completion.]

Of course, statewide organizations are not the only ones that can launch FAFSA challenges.

In the fall, the School District of Lancaster launched a FAFSA completion campaign filled with FAFSA days, one-on-one meetings, and a “FAFSA Phone Blitz,” during which parents received phone calls asking them to schedule FAFSA appointments.

Similarly, Baltimore City Public Schools uses a FAFSA Tracker, managed and created by Chiefs for Change, that shows the leaderboard for each school’s FAFSA completion rates. The district encouraged students to register for their virtual “FAFSA Fest,” which took place last week. During the event, students and their families received one-on-one FAFSA assistance and were entered into a raffle to win prizes.

Utilizing Student-Level FAFSA Completion Data

Most states have the ability to share student-level FAFSA completion data with districts, which can be distributed to schools to identify which students have completed the financial aid form.

NCAN member Iowa College Aid has utilized these data so well that every public high school in the state automatically receives this information. In this article, Iowa College Aid details how they set up this data-sharing process.

Once a school or educational organization has access to student-level FAFSA completion data, this information can make the process of identifying and assisting individual students much more efficient and effective.

Offering Virtual FAFSA Assistance

In another effort to meet the needs of more individual students, many organizations are adapting to serve students virtually. Online financial aid assistance offers a safe and effective way to reach students and their families.

The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance is now offering virtual office hours and email communication to help students complete their FAFSA.

Other organizations are taking large-scale, often schoolwide events online. For instance, the Connecticut Association of Professional Financial Aid Administrators and the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority have transitioned to hosting virtual FAFSA days for students in their states.

Broward County Public Schools in Florida has hosted a number of virtual FAFSA completion assistance events throughout the 2020-21 school year. You can learn Hosting FAFSA Drive-Insmore about how the district planned these events and recruited volunteers for support on the NCAN blog.

Hosting FAFSA Drive-Ins

NCAN member Get2College has hosted several successful FAFSA drive-in events for students in Mississippi. College access organizations in Arizona are doing the same thing.

Essentially, families drive up to an outdoor location, remain in their cars, and are assisted by a socially distant staff member. These drive-in FAFSA sessions are similar to pre-pandemic ones, albeit a little bit more high tech – complete with tablets, mobile hotspots, and generators.

These practices can certainly be reproduced and modified to fit the needs of specific college attainment organizations and communities. For NCAN members working to support the class of 2021, FAFSA completion efforts such as these can be the difference in whether or not a student unlocks thousands of financial aid dollars and, ultimately, enrolls in college.

(FAFSA drive-in event image courtesy of Woodward Hines Education Foundation)