Sample Letter: Call to Action GE/FVT Reporting Deadline
Below is sample text that you may wish to use when you reach out to encourage your representatives to take action to extend the delay of the Gainful Employment and Financial Value Transparency institutional reporting requirements to July 2025.
Subject: Extend Gainful Employment and Financial Value Transparency Reporting to July 2025
Dear Senator/Representative [insert name],
My name is [insert your name] and I am the [insert title] at [insert institution]. I am writing to you as a constituent to request that you take action to require the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to delay the institutional reporting requirements for its new Gainful Employment (GE) and Financial Value Transparency (FVT) regulations to July 2025. I make this request in light of the unprecedented issues associated with ED’s rollout of the simplified 2024-25 FAFSA and the devastating impacts those issues have had on students, financial aid offices, and postsecondary education institutions.
The FAFSA Simplification Act, signed into law in December 2020, aimed to overhaul federal student aid processes significantly but instead triggered widespread operational challenges upon implementation. The rollout of the updated "Better FAFSA" for the 2024-25 academic year faced severe setbacks, including a delayed release just before the statutory January 1 deadline that led to limited access and persistent technical issues for applicants. Financial aid offices and postsecondary institutions then found themselves grappling with myriad challenges, notably receiving applicant data necessary for making financial aid offers months later than usual. Further technical errors by the Department of Education required schools to manually correct data and use burdensome workarounds to disburse aid to students.
ED has estimated it will take institutions 400 hours to prepare for reporting the GE/FVT data by October 1. With FAFSA submissions still significantly down from this time last year, financial aid offices need this time to help students navigate the 2024-25 FAFSA, or risk a drop in college enrollments come fall. Even if schools were able to devote time to GE/FVT reporting now, ED has yet to finalize the reporting requirements or to publish a complete GE/FVT user guide to help schools prepare their reporting.
It is important to note that this request to extend the reporting deadline to July 2025 doesn't require ED to delay its 2026 targets for publishing the associated accountability metrics or implementing warnings and acknowledgments when programs fail a metric. Instead, it aims to balance the timelines that both institutions and ED have to prepare their data and reporting systems, giving each about a year to do so, compared to the original timeline that provided ED with two years and institutions just a few months, practically speaking. This balanced time frame acknowledges the significant extra workload institutions face due to FAFSA issues this year.
[Insert school-specific information, including the specific impacts of the FAFSA rollout and GE/FVT reporting on your financial aid office, students, and campus as a whole.]
I urge you to work with your colleagues to pass legislation as soon as possible that requires ED to delay the GE/FVT reporting requirements to July 2025. Financial aid administrators are struggling to meet the current October 1 reporting deadline, diverting resources from other critical priorities such as avoiding disruptions to the enrollment process for the next academic year. Extending this reporting deadline will allow financial aid offices to put all their energy and focus toward supporting students through the FAFSA crisis and keeping them on track for the 2024-25 academic year.
I am happy to discuss this issue further and answer any questions you might have. Thank you again for your support of higher education and [insert state] students and institutions.
Sincerely,
[Insert your name and contact information]