The Education Department announced an update to its FAFSA calculations to make more students eligible for financial aid without impacting the rollout.
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President Joe Biden's Education Department is continuing its rollout of a key financial aid form — and its latest update is set to make more students eligible.
On Tuesday, the Education Department is set to announce an update to the way it calculates the rewards for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form.
Specifically, according to the press release obtained exclusively by Business Insider, the update ensures the FAFSA formula is "in full alignment" with the FAFSA Simplification Act. The Act requires the department to expand Pell Grants to more students and link eligibility to the student's family size and federal poverty level, beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.
The department estimates that its latest update to the formula will result in 7.3 million students becoming eligible for Pell Grants. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal told BI that the update addresses how much students can afford to contribute to their educations based on earnings, and it will not impact the department's timeline to send completed applications to schools in the first half of March.
"We are putting all hands on deck and using every lever we have to make sure we can achieve the transformational potential of the Better FAFSA to make higher education possible for many more of our nation's students," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
"The technical updates we are making today will not impact our implementation timelines, and, combined with other implementation efforts, the Department's Better FAFSA will result in more students eligible to access more Pell Grants in the 2024-25 award year," he said.
The department is set to work with schools in the coming days to implement the latest update. Along with the formula change, Kvaal also said that this is the first week that Federal Student Aid staff will begin going to schools across the country to ensure they are prepared to process student aid packages efficiently.
This latest update comes on the heels of a rocky FAFSA rollout over the past few months. In January, the Education Department announced that its timeline to send FAFSA forms to schools was two months delayed as it worked to overhaul the application and make it easier for families to access.
The delays have sparked concern among advocates and lawmakers. Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement at the time that "these continued delays, communicated at the last minute, threaten to harm the very students and families that federal student aid is intended to help."
Some Republican lawmakers have also called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the rollout of the FAFSA form. Still, some colleges have started adjusting their commitment deadlines to allow more time for students to review their financial aid packages. The University of Pittsburgh, for example, recently extended its deadline from May 1 to May 15, with Marc Harding, vice provost for enrollment, saying in a statement that it "ensures that students and families have ample time to review their options and make an informed decision when choosing Pitt."
Kvaal said that he appreciates schools' efforts to give students more flexibility and encouraged others to evaluate their financial aid deadlines to work in the best interest of students.
