Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education has announced it will have to reprocess “less than 160,000” applications for federal student aid because applicants incorrectly inserted a decimal point.
- If left uncorrected, students who made the mistake in the income box on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) could be denied Pell Grants or receive lower grants than they’re eligible for, Inside Higher Ed reported.
- This is the second time this year that the department has had to reprocess the applications because of a decimal point issue.
Dive Insight:
In July, the education department reprocessed 182,155 applications where misplaced decimal points in another income box would have had students receiving too much aid. With this round of reprocessing, the department reported that it is examining applications where the student’s adjusted gross income is higher than $100,000 or a parent’s is higher than $500,000, and it advises that institutions review applications with those figure ranges to make sure they’re accurate.