"A new and improved Free Application for Federal Student Aid expected late this year should provide opportunities for more students and their families to access money to pay for college. Yet the transition to this new form presents unprecedented challenges for those who work to help students complete it," Strada Education Foundation writes.

... "'You could ask our schools, 'What is the one thing that’s keeping them up at night?'' said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, a member-based organization that serves 3,000 colleges, trade schools, and universities. 'It’s the rollout of the FAFSA.'"

"A $322,500 Strada Education Foundation grant to NASFAA is designed to help ease the transition for the thousands of individuals across the country who are part of the financial aid infrastructure, charged with helping students and their families complete the FAFSA and understand how the dollars it can qualify them for will help make college accessible."

"The grant allows NASFAA to develop reference guides for financial aid administrators, update its most valuable existing instruments, and revise its Student Aid Index Modeling Tool, which provides financial aid administrators the ability to give students immediate feedback on how much aid they might expect. The grant also creates a new online community for financial aid  professionals and provides one-on-one consultation sessions with financial aid staff at under-resourced institutions."'"

"Information traditionally available only to NASFAA members, such as U.S. Department of Education sessions at the NASFAA conference and the AskRegs Knowledgebase for questions on FAFSA simplification, are also made available to all through this grant. Strada’s support 'really opens the doors to all schools, which sometimes can’t afford to be part of all these organizations,' Draeger said."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 9/12/2023