Lawmakers in Washington meet to discuss ongoing issues with federal student aid system

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers met on Tuesday at Capitol Hill to discuss ongoing issues with a program meant to help students pay for college.

Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Nicole D’Antonio was on the hill to explain how an effort to make the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) easier to use ended up making things more complicated.

Melissa Emery-Arras, director of the Government Accountability Office, testified before lawmakers, telling them about how 430,000 fewer students submitted their FAFSA forms than the previous year.

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That’s because of ongoing delays and technical issues with the updated FAFSA form that was rolled out last year.

The majority of students impacted have been high school seniors and other first-time applicants.

The GAO’s investigation of the issues found that the U.S. Department of Education did not consistently communicate with students to share timely information and support.

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Delays were so long in 2023 that many universities ended up postponing their enrollment deadlines to give families more time to apply for aid.

Even so, many students still had to decide where they would enroll before they knew how much aid they had actually received.

“Nearly three-quarters of calls to the Education Department call center went unanswered during the first five months of the rollout due to understaffing,” Emery-Arras said. “The Department of Education had underestimated call center demand.”

The GAO is now making multiple recommendations to make sure the Dept. of Education is prepared for the start of the next FAFSA cycle, which starts soon. The recommendations include creating a strategy to connect with students who were impacted last year.

As for the new 2025-2026 forms, a select group of students will start testing those forms starting next week, before a gradual rollout, then widespread availability for all students in December.

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