Cordray, who spoke on the annual convention of the Nationwide Affiliation of Pupil Monetary Assist Directors, or NASFAA, in Milwaukee, took the stage as Queen and David Bowie’s 1981 hit “Underneath Stress” performed — a becoming walk-up tune that prompted a wave of laughter by way of a packed convention-center ballroom. The division’s leaders, very similar to those that lead the nation’s financial-aid places of work, are certainly beneath strain: The autumn semester is quick approaching, some households are nonetheless ready for his or her assist provides, and the federal-aid course of stays an engine in want of restore.
Cordray, who will step down on the finish of June, was acquired warmly sufficient by his viewers, a few of whom had stated that, regardless of their many frustrations with the FAFSA, they appreciated him exhibiting as much as converse after months of criticism that federal legislators, affiliation leaders, and faculty officers have heaped on the Training Division. Nobody jeered; nobody threw tomatoes.
However nobody who’s been tuned into the FAFSA fiasco heard a lot, if something, new. Cordray, who has led FSA since Might 2021, mentioned the division’s position in a sequence of current initiatives to assist ease debtors’ burdens, together with pauses in student-loan repayments, the overhaul of loan-forgiveness packages, granting incapacity discharges, and offering debt reduction for Individuals whose “schools cheated them out of their schooling.”
Cordray referred to as the current overhaul of the FAFSA “one other generational venture that’s each big and complicated.” He acknowledged that the rollout has been “a significant problem,” sparking a spherical of derisive chuckles within the crowd. He described how the division revamped the shape and upgraded the technical infrastructure behind it for the primary time in 4 a long time. He famous that the creation of a brand new interface with the Inside Income Service, which permits federal-aid candidates to mechanically pull their tax knowledge into the FAFSA, requires strict compliance with new cybersecurity requirements: “That has been an enormous venture in itself.”
Cordray acknowledged that FAFSA completions continued to lag nicely behind final yr’s charge. “We’ve been gaining steadily, we’re working onerous to catch up,” he stated, describing the division’s efforts to unfold the message that, sometimes, college students can full the shape in lower than an hour.
Then he supplied a glancing acknowledgment of the candidates who stay caught within the FAFSA course of by way of no fault of their very own. They embrace college students from mixed-status households who’re desperately awaiting financial-aid provides on the cusp of July. “We’re additionally nicely conscious that it’s been way more difficult than that for college students in some parts of the inhabitants.”
However one factor is definite: The FAFSA schools have proper now could be the FAFSA they’ll have the following time round. Within the forthcoming financial-aid cycle, the appliance shall be “constant” with the 2024-25 mannequin, the division confirmed in an announcement on Monday. Nonetheless, Cordray stated, the division will make a number of enhancements as a way to ship a greater consumer expertise.
The 2025-26 FAFSA is not going to be made out there for public remark. But Cordray stated his colleagues would proceed to solicit suggestions that may enhance the assistance messages on the appliance and tip sheets for candidates. The division additionally plans to conduct a sequence of listening periods this summer time and ship out a request for info to collect additional enter from the sector.
And with that, Cordray moved on, describing the division’s current efforts to step up enforcement to guard pupil debtors from wrongdoing by establishments, and the brand new Monetary Worth Transparency and Gainful Employment laws that can take impact in July.
“Altogether, these in depth initiatives have made for a heavy load over the previous three years,” Cordray stated. “We haven’t all the time gotten all the pieces proper … however we’ve been onerous pressed to maintain up with our heavy load.”
Cordray’s speech got here sooner or later after information of yet one more delay within the FAFSA saga precipitated gasps and groans amongst pissed off financial-aid leaders. On Monday, the Training Division introduced that faculties wouldn’t be capable of submit corrections to college students’ FAFSA information in bulk till the primary half of August — not the top of June, because the division had beforehand stated. Additional delaying that course of, which is generally out there when the FAFSA goes reside, implies that some college students with particular circumstances — resembling a father or mother who misplaced their job — should proceed to attend for a ultimate financial-aid supply.
Although the Training Division stated in its announcement that faculties might make corrections on a student-by-student foundation, financial-aid officers stated that wouldn’t be possible for bigger establishments. “It could be unattainable,” stated one financial-aid director at a personal faculty the place lessons start in mid-August. “That is fully unacceptable — I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
The director, who stated he was not permitted to talk publicly, described how relentless FAFSA-processing delays and the ever-shifting timeline for fixes have sapped a lot of his colleagues’ religion: “We’ve been educated to not belief what we’re instructed.”
In session after session, financial-aid officers expressed their exasperation and exhaustion. They indulged in gallows humor about eight-day work weeks, sleepless nights, and canceled summer time holidays. Even so, some stated they had been as decided as ever, steeled by the duty of pushing by way of an unprecedented fiasco. A pair teared up when describing their dedication to serving to pissed off college students who’re nonetheless stranded in FAFSA limbo.
In a written assertion, Justin Draeger, NASFAA’s president and chief government, stated the newest FAFSA holdup will hurt essentially the most weak college students: “The concept some faculty college students are hoping to start lessons in a matter of weeks and are nonetheless unable to get a ultimate monetary assist supply is unacceptable. The longer we go with out the power for faculties to effectively and rapidly make corrections to pupil FAFSA information, the higher the uncertainty turns into for college students who’re nonetheless hanging within the stability.”
Even when the FAFSA goes reside on October 1, financial-aid officers fear that the federal-aid course of will endure from additional glitches and surprising delays. “This patchwork performance isn’t how the system is meant to function and is strictly the type of scenario that we hope to keep away from for subsequent yr’s FAFSA,” Draeger stated in his assertion. “We proceed to induce the division to make sure that all the FAFSA system — from the appliance itself to processing and the power to make corrections — is up and working easily by the point the appliance goes reside.”
Storey, director of coverage implementation and oversight at FSA, started by thanking financial-aid officers for his or her work — and for being gracious to her and her colleagues. “It truly is necessary for me simply to say thanks again,” she stated. “We all know. We hear you. This has been a tremendously tough yr. This isn’t how any of us wished or anticipated it to go. We’re sorry for the added angst, for all of us within the room — me, you, all of us.”
For a second, the ballroom sounded nearly festive.
Storey praised her employees, whom she stated was working onerous behind the scenes: “They care deeply, and so they’re attempting to ship a type that is sensible to college students, mother and father, and candidates, and that finally leads to a profitable software for federal assist.”
To that finish, Storey stated, FSA has been devising doable methods to easy out some acquainted snags college students have encountered with the FAFSA. Just like the query asking dependent college students in the event that they need to “apply for a direct unsubsidized mortgage solely.” FSA has indicated that an exceedingly excessive quantity of candidates clicked “Sure,” suggesting that they didn’t perceive the query.
Storey stated the 2025-26 FAFSA may embrace a pop-up message that explains the implications of that response. “We’re attempting to be very clear that if you choose this, you’ll not be eligible for another further assist,” she stated. Although the shape shall be essentially the identical within the subsequent assist cycle, she added, “that doesn’t imply we gained’t be making any adjustments … that doesn’t imply we’re not going to repair the problems which can be at present current.”
Making the FAFSA simpler for mixed-status households to finish can be a high precedence, Storey stated. From Day 1, undocumented mother and father have struggled to create a Federal Pupil Assist ID, generally known as an FSA ID, which each and every contributor must entry the appliance. And the brand new, cumbersome identity-verification course of has stymied many mother and father who lack a Social Safety quantity — and precipitated quite a lot of nervousness amongst them. “It has been, I do know, terribly irritating for college students and households,” Storey stated. She pledged that her employees meant to make sure that the shape doesn’t “develop into a barrier once more.”
And within the months forward, Storey stated, FSA would work to enhance communication with households, particularly these during which a number of mother and father are undocumented, “to each give them consolation concerning the system and belief within the system, which we all know we have to rebuild.”
Lastly, Storey stated she was assured that the FAFSA can be prepared on October 1. Hearty applause adopted.
Nonetheless, anybody listening fastidiously had purpose to wonder if all the FAFSA system can be absolutely practical at that time, and whether or not schools must wait — and wait — for the division to course of and ship FAFSAs, simply as they did this previous winter.
“We heard loud and clear,” Storey stated, “the need for all performance to return collectively as quickly as doable. I predict we are going to.”
However would that occur on October 1? November 1? Later?
Regardless of these as but unanswerable questions, Brenda D. Hicks, director of economic assist at Southwestern School, in Winfield, Kan., left the session feeling higher about the potential of the 2025-26 FAFSA changing into out there on time. She appreciated what she described as Storey’s transparency. That, she stated, “goes a good distance in serving to me belief the knowledge she shares.”
Amid the numerous FAFSA challenges which have beset her employees and college students, Hicks was inspired by the suggestions Storey had shared from candidates who had optimistic experiences with the revamped type: “It was good to listen to one other reminder that regardless of the issues, the shape is quicker and a greater expertise for the customers, which is, in spite of everything, the aim.”
However a few of her colleagues stated they weren’t fairly certain what to assume after listening to Cordray and Storey converse.
“Our career understands that the division has a posh job on so many points along with the FAFSA,” stated John Gudvangen, affiliate vice chancellor for enrollment and director of economic assist on the College of Denver. “However we’re pissed off by the persistent roadblocks and less-than-fully clear recognition of the FAFSA rollout. We’re involved concerning the lack of credibility within the course of. College students have missed alternatives due to the division. And in the present day will be the first time we heard the phrases ‘I’m sorry.’”
In the long run, there was little time for questions. However within the session’s ultimate moments, as many individuals had been submitting out, a financial-aid director from a college in California stood up and described college students from mixed-status households who had cried within the financial-aid workplace. They’d cried after encountering issues with the FAFSA, she stated, and so they had cried after lastly overcoming them: “That is extremely demanding for this group of scholars and households.”
It’s simply an software, sure. However, for some college students, it has been a lot extra.
