In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act – a bill aimed at simplifying the process of applying for federal college financial aid. But the Biden administration botched implementation. When the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid form was released last year, it was 90 days late and riddled with technical problems, leaving many students struggling to complete it and colleges unable to provide financial aid.

In a year when college enrollment was expected to increase, 9 percent fewer high school graduates and first-time applicants filled out the FAFSA for the 2024-2025 academic year compared to the previous year, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The largest decline is among low-income students to be recorded. According to the GAO, 14.338 million students filed FAFSA applications, a decrease of 432,000, or 3 percent, compared to the previous year. Another 1.6 million people started a form but never completed it.

Two GAO reports released last week reveal the federal government’s incompetence in implementing the simplified FAFSA. The reports found that the government was unable to properly manage the project and ensure that technical requirements were met, as well as failing to communicate with students and colleges.

As the next FAFSA cycle begins, the U.S. Department of Education has already announced that it will release Form 2025-2026 in December rather than the traditional October 1st. The Government must use this additional time to draw on the lessons of last year and ensure that the form is fully completed – fully functional, with plans to resolve any remaining issues and contribute to communication with students and schools Requirement.

The biggest need is improving technology, for which taxpayers are paying up to $141.7 million. One of the GAO reports, which focused on the technical aspects of the 2024-2025 launch, found that the original contract included 25 technological capabilities required to allow students to complete the form, calculate eligibility, and submit it of the results at universities. Eighteen features were delayed beyond the project’s start date.

According to the GAO, education officials also failed to provide a cost estimate for the project or a reliable timeline.

Inadequate testing led officials to discover 55 deficiencies only after the FAFSA was launched. For example, the agency initially overestimated some students’ eligibility for funding because the software incorrectly excluded their family assets.

If a student made an error on their FAFSA, the opportunity to correct the error was not created until April 15th.

The form had problems capturing families where a student’s parent or spouse did not have a Social Security number – for example, if they did not have legal immigration status or lived in another country. For several months, these family members had no access to the form at all. After access was opened, family members should have been able to have their identity verified electronically using documents. But the electronic process rarely worked and the education department didn’t have enough staff to manually verify their identities, so the verification took an average of 22 days.

When problems arose, the Ministry of Education failed to help students address these problems. The department operated a call center, but of 5.4 million calls between January and May, 4 million went unanswered due to staffing shortages. If a student had a technical problem, they were generally told to “try again later,” even if the problems were due to errors that would take the department months to fix.

There were 34,000 students who submitted FAFSAs using paper forms. The department delayed processing these forms until August 2024 — potentially too late for students to make decisions about September start dates — without informing students of the delay.

About 3 million students who submitted their FAFSA in the first month received an inaccurate initial estimate of eligibility because the department did not correctly account for inflation and students were not told their estimate was incorrect.

A likely cause of the problems was a lack of leadership. The Ministry of Education has had six Chief Information Officers since the project began in February 2021.

Going forward, the Department of Education must implement the GAO’s recommendations. It needs to find staff and money to fix remaining technical problems, run a call center, and inform students and colleges when the application will be available and if any technical problems arise. There needs to be appropriate technical processes for testing and verification to ensure that the software works properly, and leadership to provide oversight. The process must remove barriers for families where someone does not have a Social Security number or the form needs to be translated.

Kate O’Hara, vice president of student services and enrollment management at Bristol Community College, said the college has had to shift its schedules for financial aid awards, advising and enrollment events over the past year. Staff found it difficult to help students deal with the technical problems, and financial aid staff faced even more work because the government had failed to develop the ability to allow colleges to correct forms in bulk to enable. “It would be nice if these things were resolved so it would be less frustrating for students,” O’Hara said.

It would be more than beautiful. It is what the law says and what the students need.

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