New Law May Simplify College Financial Aid Form

Published 05 August 08 05:55 PM | Student Loan Girl

Students and parents could spend less time filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid under a new provision of The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, according to an article in The Austin American-Statesman, (“New Law to Trim College Financial Aid Form,” August 2, 2008). The legislation was approved by Congress last week but has yet to be signed into law by the president.

Currently, in order to qualify for federal financial aid, families are required to complete the lengthy 11-page FAFSA separately from their yearly tax forms even though the 100-question federal financial aid form is based on tax information families are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service each year. The proposed legislation would allow the IRS to share these figures with the Department of Education, eliminating the need for families to report the information twice.

Requiring the agencies to share data could eliminate the need for as many as 31 questions from the FAFSA, according to a 2007 study by the Institute for College Access and Success.

The current FAFSA, which is used by federal and state governments and most colleges to determine eligibility for financial aid, is so cumbersome to fill out that it represents a roadblock for many students who otherwise might be college bound, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last year, (“Congress and the Education Department Move to Simplify the Student-Aid Process,” March 30, 2007).

At that time, Rep. George Miller, who is the chief sponsor of the U.S House of Representative’s version of the bill to simplify the FAFSA, told the Chronicle the FAFSA needed to be changed because “It’s long and complicated. It’s over 100 questions. We now see the situation that the form itself can impact the decision about whether students go to college.”

Legislators have not laid out a specific time frame for when the shortened FAFSA would be introduced, leaving the agencies involved to decide when to implement the new FAFSA and the other proposed revisions to the financial aid process: