FAFSA Success: Innovative Strategies Drive Leading Completion Rates

Financial access is the primary barrier to students pursuing higher education, especially those from historically marginalized communities1. The cost of college and credential programs can make obtaining a degree or certification unattainable for far too many students, which makes lessening the barriers to financial aid an imperative.

We know that students in Connecticut experience these challenges. RISE surveys juniors and seniors in our network annually and consistently finds that most students select “finances” as the top challenge to achieving their postsecondary plan. That is why schools in the RISE Network began focusing on FAFSA completion many years ago.

The FAFSA is critical in unlocking the financial resources students need to access postsecondary education. Historically, completing the FAFSA has been a complex process requiring multiple household members to complete archaic forms and provide varied evidence about their financial status that may not be easily available. It was most challenging for those with nuanced family or employment situations, and the language complexity of the form was difficult to navigate for families where English was not their primary language. This complexity is likely why, over the last seven years, an average of only 52 percent of seniors nationally completed the form even though it could unlock thousands of dollars in aid for each student.

The U.S. Department of Education launched a new FAFSA process this year in response to a 2020 law that sought to make it easier to access federal and other financial aid by increasing eligibility and creating a more streamlined user experience. Unfortunately, in addition to the almost three-month delay in the availability of the application, the new application presented considerable challenges, including intermittent availability early in the release, use of outdated inflation data, technical glitches, and delayed transmissions to higher education institutions – all of which resulted in delayed or incorrect financial aid packages being sent to students.

Educators across our network continue to identify innovative ways to address the ever-changing needs of our students, like FAFSA completion:

• Core Network schools piloted and scaled FAFSA Task Forces, led by a coordinator and FAFSA coaches who work with a caseload of students to provide guidance and resources for completing the FAFSA.

• The RISE Data Hub integrates FAFSA submissions and completion data updates into a centralized management system.

• RISE partnered with the CT State Department of Education and 54 schools for another year of the CT FAFSA Challenge.

• A Postsecondary Symposium and network, modeled on our Grade 9 Symposium and network, is launching next fall to scale proven postsecondary practices to more schools.

Tackling the complex FAFSA process is one of many examples of our community sorting through data, identifying a systemic barrier to access, researching solutions, and designing responsive supports they believe will lead to equitable access for all students. In the case of the FAFSA, those efforts resulted in impressive outcomes for our students – even in an especially difficult year that saw a nine percent year-over-year decline in submitted FAFSA applications among first-time applicants nationally. Students in the RISE Core Network outperformed their peers nationwide in their FAFSA completion rates (see opposite page) and gained access to the resources needed to make their postsecondary goals a reality.

1. NASFAA article on the 2024 Gallup-Lumina Foundation Report The State of Higher Education 2024 (https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/34147/Report_The_Biggest_Barriers_to_Higher_Ed_Enrollment_Are_Cost_and_Lack_of_Financial_Aid)