"Christine Taylor is too busy to talk on the phone. The director of financial aid at Bellevue College would love to vent about how difficult the past year has been. But it’s busy season at the largest community and technical college in Washington State, and she has student aid disbursements to oversee, following a trying year of navigating the delayed, error-riddled rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA)," Inside Higher Ed reports.

... "The crisis has been building since long before this spring’s bungled FAFSA launch. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a mass exodus of financial aid professionals left colleges facing unprecedented staff shortages. A 2022 NASFAA survey found that 80 percent of institutions’ financial aid offices were concerned about their ability to remain “administratively capable” due to staffing issues."

"'It’s been a slow rolling tide for a while,' said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association for Student Financial Aid Administrators. 'While work levels at other offices across institutions have returned to normal levels since the pandemic, they haven’t normalized in financial aid offices.'"

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: 5/31/2024