Dive Temporary:
- The U.S. Division of Schooling did not oversee distributors, comply with its personal procedures, and correctly talk with college students and faculties when launching the brand new Free Software for Federal Pupil Help type. That is in keeping with a pair of scathing reviews issued Tuesday by the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace.
- The GAO discovered, for instance, that 4 million calls to the Schooling Division’s name facilities — 74% of the whole acquired — went unanswered from January to Might, the primary 5 months of the FAFSA utility cycle.
- GAO officers expressed concern that the division may danger repeating the identical sorts of errors in future utility cycles when testifying Tuesday earlier than the Home Larger Schooling and Workforce Improvement Subcommittee. An Schooling Division spokesperson, nonetheless, stated the company has already made enhancements for the 2025-26 type.
Dive Perception:
The reviews are the fruits of GAO’s months-long investigation into the extensively panned launch of the brand new FAFSA. The rollout suffered from frequent delays and technical glitches, leading to restricted availability, frustration for college kids and their households, and a decline within the FAFSA completion charge.
As of Sept. 13, 52% of the highschool class of 2024 had submitted the brand new FAFSA type, down from 58.4% for the 2023 graduating class on the similar time final yr, in keeping with the Nationwide Faculty Attainment Community.
Final month, the Schooling Division introduced that the 2025-26 FAFSA can be totally obtainable by Dec. 1 — earlier than its authorized deadline of Jan. 1. however nonetheless two months later than the standard launch date.
The GAO opened its investigation into the rollout earlier this yr on the request of over two dozen lawmakers. However Republicans accused the Schooling Division of stonewalling the congressional watchdog, and Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the Home schooling committee, subpoenaed the company to show over FAFSA-related paperwork and communications.
An Schooling Division official on the time instructed Larger Ed Dive that the company would comply, however stated the subpoena “looks as if an pointless political stunt” given the company’s ongoing efforts to offer a whole bunch of data to the GAO and maintain Foxx and her workers within the loop.
Nevertheless, the GAO confronted “uniquely difficult” entry points when making an attempt to get the requested data, in keeping with Melissa Emrey-Arras, the workplace’s director of schooling, workforce and earnings safety
Senior GAO management needed to transition from month-to-month to weekly conferences with the Schooling Division, and it nonetheless took the company 5 months to show over all of the requested paperwork, she instructed lawmakers at Tuesday’s listening to.
As soon as the GAO gained entry to the data, it discovered patterns of poor communication, oversight and management that contributed to the FAFSA’s chaotic launch.
For instance, the Schooling Division knew it wouldn’t publish the 2023-24 FAFSA by its conventional October launch date in August 2022, in keeping with the watchdog. But it surely didn’t inform the general public till March 2023 — seven months later.
The botched rollout disproportionately damage low- and middle-income households, Emrey-Arras stated.
“Households which have wealth — that don’t want federal support — may care much less concerning the FAFSA. It did not have an effect on them, they might decide no matter school they needed to,” she stated. “However for everybody else, which is most People, it was extraordinarily troublesome.”
The Schooling Division initially attributed most of the delays to contractor error. However the GAO report discovered systemic points in vendor oversight that fed into the issues, too.
For instance, the contract to develop the FAFSA’s new processing system was set at a set value and didn’t embody incentives for the seller to finish work promptly, the GAO stated.
Within the case of the decision facilities, Emrey-Arras stated the division is liable for giving the distributors a forecast for what number of calls to count on.
“Schooling botched that. They dramatically underestimated what number of calls can be coming in, and consequently, the decision heart distributors had been unable to workers the middle appropriately,” she stated.
Upon the FAFSA’s preliminary launch, the division recognized over 40 technical points, and the shape was obtainable for lower than an hour a day, GAO officers stated. And when the company discovered workarounds for a few of the glitches, it did not correctly talk these choices to candidates.
Marisol Cruz Cain, director of the GAO’s data expertise and cybersecurity staff, instructed lawmakers that future FAFSA rollouts are additionally in danger if division management would not change their working procedures.
“In the event that they maintain managing it the way in which they’re, I haven’t got confidence that they’re going to have the ability to ship the performance,” she stated.
An Schooling Division spokesperson stated Tuesday that the company has already taken motion to enhance the FAFSA course of.
“We acknowledge the challenges and nervousness that households, colleges, and our companions within the discipline have confronted with the delays and errors within the 2024–25 monetary support course of,” the spokesperson stated.
The division launched a report Monday containing a path ahead for the 2025-26 cycle and detailing the helps which have already been up to date. The company has “strengthened our management staff, expanded name heart capability, and begun rigorously testing subsequent yr’s FAFSA” forward of the Dec. 1 launch date, the spokesperson stated.
The division additionally held 46 listening classes with 293 of its accomplice organizations between June and August.
“We’ve listened and we’re taking motion,” the spokesperson stated.
In the meantime, at Tuesday’s listening to, Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, chair of the Republican-controlled subcommittee, pushed the GAO officers to establish who within the Schooling Division was liable for the failed FAFSA debut.
Emrey-Arras declined to attribute the chaos to any particular people, as an alternative referencing a excessive diploma of senior turnover within the Schooling Division.
The GAO famous that the division has had six chief data officers since February 2021.
The Federal Pupil Help workplace’s chief working officer, Wealthy Cordray, additionally stepped down in June. U.S. Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona introduced a “full-scale overview” of the workplace, together with new COO reporting protocols to extend accountability and transparency.
In June, the division introduced in Jeremy Singer to function the company’s FAFSA government advisor for the 2025-26 type. Throughout his tenure, Singer is taking a brief go away of absence from his position as president of the Faculty Board.
