Dive Brief:
- The National Association of Financial Aid Administrators has an idea for FAFSA that would require different information from applicants based on responses to just a few questions.
- The neediest students would be identified with a single question: Did anyone in the applicant’s household receive SNAP and/or Supplemental Security Income?
- Applicants whose families did not bring in enough income to file a tax return would have to provide limited financial information, those who filed basic 1040 returns could import most of their information and provide very little more, and those who had more complicated returns would have to provide “complete income and asset information.”
Dive Insight:
The NAFAA recommendations are a response to a wider conversation about how to simplify FAFSA. A bipartisan group of elected officials believe the free application for federal student aid is too complicated, though the average applicant completes it in about 20 minutes. The proposed Fast Act would reduce the form to just two questions about family size and income. That would leave colleges with very little information to make their own nuanced financial aid decisions. Changing the FAFSA must be about finding a balance. Perhaps legislators will agree that the NAFAA recommendation strikes the right one.