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Large-Scale Efforts to Boost FAFSA Completion Are Happening Across the Country

Posted on May 27, 2020May 27, 2020 by Kelly Mae Ross

By MorraLee Keller, Director of Technical Assistance, National College Attainment Network

It’s a fact: As of the end of April, FAFSA completion numbers are behind compared to the same time last year. Completions by high school seniors and renewals from currently enrolled students are both lagging. Even more devastating is that we’re seeing the largest declines among Pell Grant-eligible students.

The gaps have grown dramatically since March, when college and K-12 education was interrupted by COVID-19. A concerted effort is needed to reverse these trends and keep students on track for enrolling in college this fall.

College access programs and school counselors had to make an abrupt shift to virtual advising in March, with a focus on seniors and completing all the critical steps for a transition to postsecondary education and/or the workforce. Advisers and counselors continue to provide individual assistance to students and families that still need to complete a FAFSA. However, it is going to take large-scale FAFSA assistance efforts to pick up these dropping numbers.

NCAN has identified a number of these efforts, which we encourage students and families to take advantage of. We also urge all states to continue or develop FAFSA completion supports.

National Resources and Efforts

Federal Student Aid: For general information about federal student financial assistance programs, help completing the FAFSA, and to obtain federal student aid publications, call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243). The TDD number for hearing-impaired individuals is 1-800-730-8913. Help is also available on the FSA website.

College Board, in partnership with Benefits Data Trust: These organizations developed a chatbot to help with FAFSA completion. It is available to high school seniors, current college students, and adult learners. Students must text to begin the service.

State Resources and Efforts

Arizona: Benji is a chabot available to help students and families with FAFSA completion.

Hawaii: Hawaii P-20 will start a “Next Steps to Your Future” summer advising campaign. Students will receive customized text messages from a dedicated adviser to assist with college/career transition. The state has also set up a FAFSA email hotline: FAFSA@hawaii.edu.

Illinois: Illinois Student Assistance Commission is providing free virtual college planning and financial aid advising and operates a free text helpline.

Indiana: Learn More Indiana is conducting a senior survey. Depending on student responses, information is being distributed to various agencies to provide support for transition after high school. Indiana also extended the state grant application deadline beyond April 15 for as long as funding exists.

Iowa: Iowa College Access Network (ICAN) continues to offer services via phone and virtual appointments via Zoom, Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Iowa is also administering a statewide texting campaign to seniors.

Louisiana: The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) is offering virtual office hours to assist people with questions about the FAFSA and state financial aid programs.

Michigan: Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) launched a free college advising hotline for high school seniors earlier this month and plans to run it at least through mid-June, possibly throughout the summer. It is being staffed by AmeriCorps advisers and supervised by MCAN staff.

Mississippi: Get2College staff members are available for virtual and telephone appointments to help Mississippi students and families. Students may contact the offices or go online to schedule an appointment. A live chat is also available online during business hours.

Nebraska: EducationQuest Foundation staff are available to help students through the college planning and financial aid processes. Students should call the nearest office to set up an online or phone appointment. Help is also available in Spanish.

New Hampshire: The NHHEAF Network’s Center for College Planning (CCP) continues to help all New Hampshire students with filing the 2020-21 FAFSA via virtual counseling appointments. To schedule an appointment with a college outreach specialist, call (888) 747-2382, ext. 119, or email collegeplanning@nhheaf.org.

Rhode Island: The College Crusade of Rhode Island will open its FAFSA completion assistance to any high school senior in the state. All appointments will take place virtually. To schedule an appointment with a College Crusade adviser, email fafsa@thecollegecrusade.org or text the word FAFSA to 95577.

Washington: Otterbot is a free texting service designed to help Washington students navigate financial aid for college and career education. Students can access Otterbot via text message 24 hours a day, seven days a week by texting “Hi Otter” to 360-928-7281.

NCAN will continue to search for resources to support our members and their students.

If your state has a current large-scale FAFSA completion effort underway, we would like to add it to this resource list. Please send a brief description and any appropriate web links to MorraLee Keller, kellerm@ncan.org.

(Photo by Qim Manifester on Unsplash)

Laura: Patience is Critical

Posted on April 17, 2020April 17, 2020 by Kelly Mae Ross

City: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Title: North Louisiana Regional Coordinator, Career Compass of Louisiana

A former college admissions officer, Laura Weego now serves on the other side of the college access pipeline. She leads a team of college and career coaches at Career Compass of Louisiana who help students create plans for what happens after high school graduation. Laura cites patience as one of the important attributes in helping students and families complete the FAFSA. She spoke with the Kresge Foundation about how Career Compass coaches partner with school districts to help students complete the FAFSA in a state where filing this form is a requirement for high school graduation.

Kresge: Why is it important for your community, and in your case northern Louisiana, to boost FAFSA completion among students?

Laura: A few years ago, FAFSA completion became a graduation requirement for high school students in Louisiana. That requirement put a big burden on the schools, the administrators, and the counselors. In schools that have large senior classes, it’s a daunting task to ensure that every student completes the FAFSA. Career Compass of Louisiana was already meeting with seniors and helping them with their post-high school plans, so it was just a natural fit for us to talk about the importance of FAFSA. Now, helping with completion has become a regular part of our meetings with students.

We meet with all high school seniors at least twice in a one-on-one setting, sometimes up to four and five times throughout the year. We make sure that every student sits down with a Career Compass coach. We help them work on their college applications, complete the FAFSA, and register for the ACT or SAT, if that’s what they need. We partner with local school districts so we have each student’s class schedule. Together with the schools, we build a schedule to meet with every student during one of their free periods or elective classes.

Kresge: What inspires you to do this work every day?

Laura: I think it’s fun to help students lay out their plans and realize they can go to college, whether that’s a community or technical college, a four-year university or a professional school. Doing this work opens conversations about possibilities, and in turn, how to make those plans a reality.

Kresge: Is there a standout story about working with a student or family?

Laura: I worked with a student and his mom, who was a single mom. The student wanted to go to a local community college near home so he wouldn’t have to move away. The student’s mother was unsure if her son would be eligible for any grants or aid and was reluctant about the whole process. In the end, he did qualify for aid, including the Pell Grant. Once we reviewed the amount of his Pell Grant alongside how much it was going to cost per semester for him attend the local community college, we realized he was not going to have to take out any student loans. The family was so grateful, and I could tell that a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.

Kresge: What advice would you give to professionals around the country who are doing this work?

Laura: FAFSA completion days work well, even in the rural parts of our state. I recently attended an event where we had 120 seniors learn more about the FAFSA. The school counselor did a great job informing families about what they needed to bring to the event. In essence, the counselor told her students, “It’s a requirement, it’s mandatory. Y’all better be here.” That night, we submitted 30 FAFSAs. Working with counselors and school administrators as they work to motivate their students, parents and school communities is key.

When helping students and families complete the FAFSA, the most important thing to keep in mind is patience. For many students and parents, this is their first time seeing the application and experiencing the process. It takes a lot of patience every single time.

Kresge: Any advice for a student who is trying to begin the FAFSA completion process?

Laura: Federal Student Aid has some fantastic YouTube videos. Many explain the process and are fantastic resources. So students, watch those videos!

Additionally, area colleges and universities have financial aid officers who are often more than willing to sit down with any student and any parent. These financial aid officers are often willing to help families through the process regardless of whether they’re planning to go to that university or college. They’re all financial aid professionals, and they want FAFSAs to be completed just like we do.

5 Cities Receive Awards for 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge Efforts

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Kelly Mae Ross

By Sara Melnick, Deputy Director, National College Access Network

The National College Access Network announced the winners of the 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge last week at the 2019 NCAN National Conference Indianapolis. Out of the more than two dozen U.S. cities that participated in the Challenge, five received awards for their outstanding efforts.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) effectively serves as the gateway to higher education for millions of students each academic year. But the complex and extensive nature of the FAFSA deters some students from applying for the financial aid for which they would otherwise qualify.

In an effort to boost FAFSA completion rates across the country, NCAN selected 25 U.S. cities to receive a grant of up to $40,000 each for the 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge. This work was led by a mix of school districts, postsecondary institutions, community-based organizations, and foundations.

NCAN challenged each of the grant recipients to increase their FAFSA completion rates by at least 5 percentage points for the graduating high school class of 2019. In an effort to address equity gaps, this Challenge specifically focused on cities with baseline FAFSA completion rates below the national average.

This project was generously funded by The Kresge Foundation and Ascendium Education Group.

Grand Prize – Mesa Public Schools (Mesa, AZ)

The grand prize winner of the 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge is Arizona’s Mesa Public Schools.

Mesa implemented several creative strategies to help more of its students file the FAFSA. The district used student-level completion data to strategically target non-completers and invite them to smaller, more intimate FAFSA completion events and one-on-one sessions. Mesa also implemented a campaign to clarify and disseminate information about FAFSA completion, spreading the word though social and traditional media, a website, flyers, and the school’s messaging system.

But a major key to the district’s success was its use of peer coaches. These coaches were recruited by school staff to spread the word among their peers about FASFA completion, its importance, and where to get help with the financial aid application process. The coaches received extensive training and used data to target their peers who had not completed the FAFSA. They supported FAFSA completion events at their high schools, led information sessions at lunch, and used social media to get the word out.

As the grand prize winner, Mesa Public Schools received $100,000 to continue its FAFSA completion efforts.

First Runner-up – Denton Independent School District (Denton, TX)

Denton ISD also took a multi-pronged approach to its FAFSA completion work. Strong support from the district superintendent helped generate more buy-in for the work. And the district’s director of counseling was the point person for all FAFSA-related activities, making it easier to coordinate efforts throughout the schools. Denton provided each school a small sub-grant to spend on activities to boost FAFSA completion. These funds were often used for student incentives and prizes.

Another key to Denton’s success was to use grant dollars to hire a FAFSA expert to complement the work of the school counselors. This FAFSA expert had the knowledge and, more importantly, the time to address complex FAFSA situations and work one-on-one with students and families in a non-threatening environment. The school district deemed the work of the FAFSA expert so important that it will to continue to pay their salary for another school year.

As the first runner-up, Denton ISD received $25,000 to continue its FAFSA completion work.

Award for Excellence in Overcoming Barriers and Perseverance – Rochester Education Foundation (Rochester, NY)

Rochester was one of the only sites that did not have access to student-level FASFA completion data, despite the district’s best efforts to obtain these data from the state. On top of that, two partners that would have expanded the Rochester Education Foundation’s ability to help hard-to-reach students with FAFSA completion were unable to participate in the project.

But with these lemons, the Rochester Education Foundation (REF) made lemonade. Here are just a few ways the site demonstrated perseverance in the face of significant obstacles:

Rochester built a cadre of counselors who became personally invested in this work.
REF implemented many more school-based FAFSA completion events than originally planned (15), in addition to six community-based events.
REF capitalized on the strong existing relationships with institutions of higher education and added new partners during the year. These higher ed partners provided in-school advising and trained volunteers; one institution even provided on-the-spot admissions decisions.

In the end, REF estimates that 47% of all FAFSA completions in Rochester happened at one of its events.

As the recipient of the Overcome Barriers and Perseverance award, Rochester Education Foundation received $10,000 to support future FAFSA completion work.

Award for Excellence in Community-Based Leadership – Citizens for Educational Excellence (Corpus Christi, TX)

Citizens for Educational Excellence (CEE) is a local intermediary organization that is also the hub of several collaborative efforts in the area that focus on equity in postsecondary access, and workforce development.

One of CEE’s major accomplishments during the Challenge was facilitating deeper relationships between local postsecondary institutions and the school district, as well as formalizing CEE’s partnership with the school district. CEE had provided support to the schools around FAFSA completion in the past, but this grant facilitated deeper involvement with counselors, who came to appreciate that CCE was there to support them (and not to create extra work).

Other activities implemented as part of this project included monthly competitions and awards for schools with the highest completion rates in the district; using traditional and social media to disseminate information about the FAFSA to the entire community; awarding graduation cords to students who completed the FAFSA; and engaging high school students to disseminate information about the FAFSA to their peers.

As the winner of the Community-Based Leadership award, CEE received $10,000 to continue its FAFSA completion efforts.

Award for Excellence in Training and Professional Development – Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (West Valley City, UT)

The Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA) is a state agency that has access to student-level FAFSA completion information and already does a great deal of outreach on FAFSA completion statewide. The challenge UHEAA faces throughout the state is that a fair number of high school seniors do not historically go right on to a postsecondary institution after graduation.

UHEAA used a variety of strategies to increase FAFSA completion rates, including outreach to students through social media and texting, engaging near-peers through the statewide advising corps, and providing student-level data to counselors and advising corps members so they could target non-completers through small group and one-on-one assistance. The organization enjoyed a strong partnership with local postsecondary institutions and the school district, and UHEAA provided all partners with regular communication that included project updates and progress, as well as information on relevant partner resources.

UHEAA also used its robust toolbox of training resources (videos, webinars, etc.) to train counselors and college access professionals on why and how to complete the FAFSA. The organization provided training to administrators, counselors, and teachers throughout the grant period. Counselors and college access personnel were trained to assist students through most straightforward FAFSA completion scenarios, but they also had access to help when they encountered more challenging situations.

As the recipient of the Training and Professional Development award, UHEAA received $10,000 to support future FAFSA completion work.

All five award-winning FAFSA Completion Challenge sites were actively engaged in the project and with NCAN throughout the grant year. They presented on their experiences during webinars, were active participants in the webinars when they weren’t presenting, agreed to be interviewed by evaluators and to share their stories for blog posts, and were always willing to offer insights and their challenges when asked.

The sites’ willingness to share best practices helped grow the power of the Challenge grants by spreading solutions to other cities around the country.

Read more about the Challenge on the Kresge Foundation website.

Illinois Becomes Third State to Require FAFSA Completion for High School Graduation

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Kelly Mae Ross

By Bill DeBaun, Director of Data and Evaluation, National College Access Network

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed H.B. 2719 into effect on Aug. 2, he made Illinois the third state to require FAFSA completion for high school graduation. The Land of Lincoln joins Louisiana, which implemented the policy during the 2017-18 academic year, and Texas, which will implement its policy with the 2021-22 academic year. The Illinois policy goes into effect during the 2020-21 academic year.

Based on Louisiana’s implementation of the policy and the positive effects the Bayou State saw both in terms of FAFSA completion and expanding the number of college enrollers, several other states have considered or are considering similar policies, including California, Indiana, and Washington, D.C.

As with the Louisiana and Texas policies, Illinois’ also allows for students to receive waivers to the graduation requirement. Specifically, the policy allows the student to “file a waiver with the student’s school district indicating that the parent or guardian or, if applicable, the student understands what the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and application for State financial aid are and has chosen not to file an application.”

Additionally, a school district must award a high school diploma to students who cannot meet the new requirement because of “extenuating circumstances, as determined by the school district” so long as “the student has met all other graduation requirements” and “the principal attests that the school district has made a good faith effort to assist the student or, if applicable, his or her parent or guardian in filing an application or a waiver.”

Illinois’ potential challenge here relates to the state’s Monetary Award Program (MAP), a need-based aid program that awards grants to students who attend a set of in-state postsecondary institutions. Funding for the program is doled out on a first-come, first-served basis, which means that students who apply later in the cycle (who tend to skew more low-income) are often left without grants for which they would otherwise qualify. The state most recently made the news because 82,000 qualifying students did not receive a MAP grant due to a lack of funding.

If the state’s mandatory FAFSA completion policy generates a number of new FAFSA completers, as anticipated, it could put more pressure on a critical in-state financial aid program that is already insufficient to meet all students’ needs. Policymakers in Illinois may have their work cut out for them to either expand funding, change eligibility, encourage low-income students to complete a FAFSA earlier in the cycle before funding runs out, develop some other policy fix, or some combination thereof.

Through June 28 of this year, Illinois ranked 10th nationally in terms of percent of seniors completing a FAFSA (63.3%) and 34th in terms of year-over-year percent change in number of FAFSAs completed (-1.9%)

(Photo via @GovPritzker on Twitter)

How Iowa College Aid Provides Student-Specific FAFSA Completion Data to Schools

Posted on February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 by Kelly Mae Ross

By Christina Sibaouih, MAISD, and Jamie Covell, MSW, of Iowa College Aid

The mission to provide student-level Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion data to Iowa high schools began with a pilot in one region of the state – a partnership between our agency, Iowa College Aid, and AEA PREP (Area Education Agencies’ Postsecondary Readiness and Equity Partnership). We soon realized statewide expansion was possible, though we knew we were in for a bit of a long ride.

In the end, our persistence paid off, despite the various obstacles along the road. Thirteen months later, we have officially expanded to 100 percent participation – all public high schools in Iowa are now receiving student-level FAFSA data.

The overall process is relatively simple:

Through use of our Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Iowa College Aid receives Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) for those submitting a FAFSA in Iowa.
Our agency also has an agreement with the Iowa Department of Education to receive a senior enrollment file, telling us all of the high school seniors enrolled in the state.
Our research team compares these two lists to determine which students haven’t completed or haven’t filed a FAFSA.
We upload this list to our Google system, run a script to produce each school’s report, and send an automated email to each AEA PREP lead when the reports are ready to distribute.
Then, each AEA PREP lead distributes automated emails that contain the report to the schools within their region.

The logistical steps involved in setting up this process, however, were much more complex than we expected.

Systems were the first barrier. Our agency had been using a system that involved schools logging in to a portal, uploading their own student list, and creating a report. Our No. 1 priority was to streamline, simplify, and automate this process to make it easier for school counselors to get the information they needed without having to do extra work.

As part of the old system, each individual school was required to sign a data-sharing agreement with Iowa College Aid to be able to receive the student-level data provided by the report. As we knew this was a logistical deterrent for some schools to sign up, we began to look into what existing data-sharing infrastructure could be leveraged to avoid schools signing multiple agreements.

After a few months of working with our legal team and the U.S. Department of Education, we were able to determine that student-level data-sharing agreements with our agency only needed to be signed by our regional AEA’s, who, in turn, have data-sharing agreements with each of the schools in their region. This narrowed the number of agreements from 343 to 9 AEA-level agreements.

Nevertheless, we continue to have the responsibility to inform schools about what type of data they are receiving, what their responsibilities are with these data, and how to utilize the data. From our data-sharing agreement, we pulled the most important and relevant information for those accessing these data to know and developed a video to include in an online authorization form that school users would be required to electronically sign in order to receive their report. We placed the responsibility on each AEA to identify a school-level “local access manager,” the person assigned at each school to receive the report, usually a school counselor.

As of Jan. 25, all public high schools in Iowa have completed their authorization form and are now automatically receiving their weekly FAFSA report. The reports are sent once a week and stored in a Google folder, where the local access manager is able to access all past reports. The report lets each local access manager know which students are considered “Not Complete” – meaning they are missing something to complete their FAFSA, such as a signature – and “Not Filed” – meaning they have not submitted a FAFSA. School counselors are then able to notify students of what’s missing from their FAFSA or check-in with them about starting a FAFSA. We also provide a spreadsheet that shows more detail for each student, including whether they were selected for verification or not.

As exciting as it is to get these data to all of our 343 public high schools, there is more work to be done! We are now working to train all of our local access managers on how to best utilize these data. This student-level report has started a statewide conversation around FAFSA completion, and we hope to see an increase in Iowa’s FAFSA completion rate in the years to come, now that school counselors are better equipped to assist their students!