FAFSA form for college financial aid launches Dec. 31, has many changes
Many changes are coming for the millions of American families who file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as their students go to college. The reinvention of FAFSA is being branded as the #betterFAFSA and will provide funding for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The new FAFSA has fewer questions, new terminology, is rolebased, and will now require that users have an FSA ID to access the FAFSA form. These changes will come into effect when the FAFSA launches on Dec. 31.
It is expected that students will experience technical difficulties as they work on completing the FAFSA. Every contributor will also now be required to utilize the Direct Data Exchange (DDX) from the Internal Revenue Service even if they didn’t file taxes. The impact of the #betterFAFSA isn’t entirely unknown, and there are certainly going to be challenges along the way.
New terminology
The #betterFAFSA will contain several new terms that aim to provide a more accurate description of the named tool or report.
The Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the number produced after the submission of the FAFSA, will now be known as the SAI (Student Aid Index).
To transfer data from the IRS, families used to use the IRS DRT (Data Retrieval Tool) which is now being referred to as the DDX (Direct Data Exchange).
Previously the two roles on the FAFSA were either “Student” or “Parent.” With the #betterFAFSA, anyone who is required to provide information for the FAFSA will now be referred to as a “contributor.”
Lastly, “family size” has replaced the previously used term of “household size” when referring to the number of exemptions claimed on federal tax returns.
Info for returning users
Your current FSA ID will remain the same. For some dependent students, their contributor (formerly called parent) may differ from previous years. There are online tools available to check who the contributors should be. All contributors will need to get accustomed to the newly named features of the #betterFAFSA to understand where to find the information that they are accustomed to utilizing. Additionally, due to the role-based nature of the form, users will need to grant access to their FAFSA by sending an invitation to contribute using the first name, last name, email address, and social security number of their contributor.
Info for new users
If you or your future college student have not yet created your FSA ID, there are a few things to know. You will head over to www.studentaid.gov to create your account. You will need a personal email address and mobile phone number in addition to your personal information exactly as shown on your Social Security information, including first name, last name, and social security number. (For those who do not have a social security number, there is a slightly different process, but you will still be able to get an FSA
ID.) This can take three days to process, so please do not delay.
Impacts
The #betterFAFSA will impact various groups of individuals in our state. The new formula no longer accounts for the number of siblings in college, meaning families with multiple college students can expect their SAI to increase.
For more information, please contact Montgomery County Educational Service Center College Access Coordinator, Ashley Overman at ashley.overman@ mcesc.org.
— Montgomery County Educational Service Center