Guest Post from NCAN: Class of 2025’s FAFSA Will Open December 1; 2024 FAFSAs Still Down 10%

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the high school class of 2025 will open December 1, according to an announcement from Federal Student Aid (FSA) made in July. This is the second consecutive year that the FAFSA will open later than October 1, and district leaders should be prepared to help their teams prepare for this change to minimize disruptions to students’ receipt of federal financial aid for college.

Disruptions to the FAFSA have been prevalent this decade with the classes of 2020 and 2021 experiencing COVID-related FAFSA completion declines and the class of 2024 seeing steeper decreases related to the delayed opening of a revamped FAFSA last year. Through August 9, FAFSA completions for the class of 2024 are down nearly 10% year-over-year. Given the association between FAFSA completion and immediate college enrollment, policymakers and practitioners across the country are concerned about what postsecondary enrollment will look like this fall.

Here are the key details to know:

• FSA decided to push the FAFSA opening to December 1 after it became clear a return to October 1 this year was infeasible. FSA has committed to a FAFSA that is ready with full, end-to-end functionality from day one, including timely processing of FAFSAs and delivery of that data to colleges and universities, avoiding the lag that caused delays in financial aid award delivery this spring.
• Having not found yet a long-term solution for retrieving financial information from the IRS for those contributors without a Social Security number, those contributors will continue to be able to manually enter their data into the FAFSA. Continuing to waive the identity verification process and allowing immediate access into the FAFSA will carry over into the 2025-26 cycle. These contributors are encouraged to submit the required form and documentation so that their identity can be verified prior to identifying a long-term solution that would require a verified FSA ID to access the FAFSA.
• District and school FAFSA completion activities like financial aid nights can still occur before the FAFSA opens and should focus on setting up FSA IDs for students and parents/guardians who will be “contributors” for completing their FAFSA. Students and contributors need separate FSA IDs. A flowchart of who contributes to a student’s FAFSA offers more information.
• If possible, make it clear in FAFSA-related communications that students from the class of 2024 can return for assistance if they need it. There may be college-aspiring graduates who did not successfully navigate last year’s process.
• For previous high school graduates, It is not too late to complete a FAFSA and get federal financial aid for the 2024-25 academic year. The 2024-25 academic year FAFSA is open until June 30, 2025.

As noted above, the class of 2024’s FAFSA completion experience was difficult. Every state saw a year-over-year decline in completed FAFSAs, and just 46% of the class of 2024 completed a FAFSA by June 30 (compared to 53.4% of the class of 2023). These data come from NCAN’s FAFSA Tracker, a publicly-available dashboard of FAFSA completion at the national, state, and local levels that will return for the class of 2025 cycle.

This summer, states, districts, schools, and community partners provided more FAFSA completion support than ever to try to connect students with financial aid. The U.S. Department of Education awarded $50 million in grants through the ECMC Foundation.

Beyond that, NCAN has led a nationwide paid social media campaign to 17-20 year-olds under the #DotheFAFSA hash tag. Materials from this campaign are free to use and incorporate into FAFSA completion efforts!

Superintendents can rally their teams (who are probably more than a little burned out from the FAFSA last year) to make sure that students and families in the class of 2025 get the critical support they need. Given students’ affordability concerns related to higher education, getting connected with financial aid can make or break a student’s pathway following graduation next spring. AASA and NCAN are here to help, and we’ll continue to publish resources and strategies to lighten this lift.