The U.S. Department of Education announced additional steps to help students and colleges process their financial aid forms efficiently in an email on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
The Department of Education unveiled measures to streamline student financial aid processing, prioritizing maximum accessibility for students pursuing higher education.
“The steps we’re announcing today build on the Better FAFSA College Support Strategy by making it easier for colleges and universities to get financial aid packages to students and families as quickly as possible,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in the email.
The new FAFSA form, first scheduled to come out in October, was not available for prospective first-year college students until the beginning of December. The new form was then released to current college students in mid-January.
With nearly 4 million 2024–25 FAFSA forms submitted since Dec. 30, according to the email, the new steps aim to ease record processing for schools, reduce verification requirements and enhance flexibility in federal aid programs.
The department plans to significantly reduce verification requirements for FAFSA applicants by implementing direct data exchange with the IRS, according to the email.
“This year’s significant reduction in verifications will reduce the burden for colleges and students while continuing to protect against fraud,” the email said.
The Federal Student Aid office is mobilizing federal experts to better assist under-resourced schools and selecting colleges based on the “percentage of Pell students, resource constraints, and other indications of need,” the email said.
Due to the amount of technical assistance and support that students have needed during this FAFSA season, the department is allocating $50 million in federal funding to non-profit groups specializing in financial aid support and services.
The department announced it will begin “leasing test versions of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs)” by Feb. 16.
The Institutional Student Information Records test version will help “enable colleges and their critical partners to prepare their own systems and processes to efficiently assemble aid packages,” the email said.
