Magaziner Urges Department of Education to Address FAFSA Rollout Issues Impacting Millions of Students

Washington, D.C. — Representative Seth Magaziner (RI-02)  sent a letter along with colleagues in Congress urging U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to address operational issues with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which may cause students to wait longer for financial aid awards and have less time to weigh offers from colleges and make a key life decision.

The rollout of the new FAFSA form has been inundated with glitches and delays, leaving millions of students across the United States uncertain about how they will pay for college and dissuading prospective students from even seeking a higher education. An analysis showed only 676,493 seniors successfully completed the FAFSA by late January, compared to 1.5 million who had done so at the same time last year.

“For many families across the country, achieving a higher education can be a ticket to the middle class and economic mobility, but delays in the new FAFSA rollout may be denying countless students of this opportunity,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner (RI-02). “Recent changes to the FAFSA were made in large part to help low-income and first-generation students, but these operational glitches are hurting them the most. The Department of Education must provide clear guidance and resources to ensure prospective students are able to make informed decisions about their future.”

Every year, about 17 million students fill out the FAFSA form as a first step to access the financial aid needed to cover the skyrocketing costs of higher education. In 2020, Congress passed the bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act to make the federal student financial aid process more efficient and straightforward.

The FAFSA Simplification Act directed the Department to streamline the application form and make long overdue updates to the formulas that assess a student’s financial need. According to the Department, as a result of this law, the 2024-2025 FAFSA form will ensure 610,000 more students from low-income backgrounds will be eligible to receive a federal Pell Grant, and 1.5 million more students will be eligible to receive a maximum Pell award.

The revamped FAFSA form did not launch until December 30, 2023, months after the traditional October FAFSA launch. With numerous technical glitches and delays in the new FAFSA rollout, many schools are unlikely to send financial aid offers until April – leaving students with insufficient time to select which college they plan on committing to.

The letter was led by Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), Ranking Member House Committee on Education & the Workforce, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

Read the full text of the letter here.