By Eliza Haverstock | NerdWallet
Attention mother and father: If your child might be in school in the course of the 2024-25 tutorial yr, you’ll have to fill out a redesigned Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The new FAFSA will launch by Dec. 31, a delay from its typical Oct. 1 launch. It marks the shape’s largest overhaul in 40 years. The kind could have fewer questions, some completely different processes and a brand new formulation to calculate federal assist packages.
“With everything that’s new, there’s a little bit of learning that has to happen … but at the end of the day, a shorter form is less of a burden on you, and it’s going to be a great opportunity for your student to have access to funding that can be impactful for the rest of their life,” says Kierstan Dufour, director of exterior coaching and partnerships at Get2College, a Mississippi school entry group of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation.
It’s essential to submit the FAFSA in case your child might be in school subsequent yr. Otherwise, your pupil might be ineligible for federal pupil assist — together with federal pupil loans, work examine, some scholarships and as much as $7,395 per yr in need-based Pell Grants.
If you don’t declare your youngster as a dependent, you don’t need to fill out the FAFSA. Some FAFSA modifications might be common for all mother and father, whereas different updates will solely impression mother and father in sure conditions.
Here are the important thing updates mother and father have to know in regards to the new 2024-25 FAFSA.
General FAFSA modifications for fogeys
Tax data might be imported instantly from the IRS
The new FAFSA will pull in your revenue and tax data instantly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), via a direct knowledge trade. Unlike in earlier years, this step is just not non-compulsory. Parents should consent to the IRS switch when filling out the FAFSA to ensure that their pupil to be eligible for federal monetary assist.
“You won’t need to dig up an old tax return or other information, and the process is going to be more straightforward,” says James Kvaal, the U.S. undersecretary of training.
The timeline is delayed
In current years, the FAFSA opened on Oct. 1 for the upcoming tutorial yr. But the overhaul will delay the 2024-25 kind launch till as late as Dec. 31.
Families of potential college students ought to nonetheless submit the FAFSA as quickly as potential after its launch.
The earlier they submit the shape, the sooner they’ll obtain monetary assist provide letters, which they will use to match school choices earlier than the May 1 determination deadline, says Maria Hernandez, director of curriculum and engagement at 10,000 Degrees, a school entry nonprofit group within the Bay Area.
And some assist is first-come, first-served — so the earlier you apply, the bigger the pool of assist you’ll have entry to.
Parents are ‘contributors’
“Contributor” is a brand new time period on the 2024-25 FAFSA that describes anybody who should present their monetary data on the shape. It doesn’t imply you’re financially accountable for your pupil’s training. At least one mother or father might be thought of a contributor, together with the scholar. A stepparent can be a contributor.
Each contributor will want a singular username and password mixture known as a Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID to entry the FAFSA. You might have to attend as much as three days between requesting your FSA ID and receiving it. Submit your FSA ID request on studentaid.gov now so that you’re able to go as quickly because the FAFSA opens later this month.
Parents will fill out the FAFSA individually from college students
Previously, college students needed to sit down with their mother and father to fill out the shape collectively. Now, mother and father and college students will submit their parts of the FAFSA individually, with their distinctive FSA IDs.
Still, it’s essential for fogeys to fill out their portion of the FAFSA across the identical time their youngster does. If a mother or father doesn’t submit the mother or father portion inside 45 days of the scholar, the saved kind will expire and the household should begin it yet again, Dufour says.
It’s simpler to your child to get free cash
The “student aid index” (SAI) is changing “expected family contribution” (EFC) as a measure of a pupil’s monetary want. As a consequence, it’ll be simpler for college students to qualify for the need-based Pell Grant, which they gained’t have to repay after leaving school.
“The new FAFSA will mean more students are eligible [for the Pell Grant],” Kvaal says. “Students who are eligible will get larger grants.”
610,000 further college students from low-income backgrounds will get Pell Grants below the brand new FAFSA, and 1.5 million further college students will qualify for the utmost $7,395 annual award.
Circumstantial FAFSA modifications for fogeys
If you’re married
If you’re married however you file your tax return as Married Filed Jointly, just one mother or father must register as a contributor and fill out the FAFSA. This mother or father will report data for each mother and father.
If you’re married however you file your taxes individually out of your partner, each mother and father might want to register as contributors and fill out the FAFSA independently.
If you’re divorced or separated
If you’re divorced or legally separated, the mother or father who offered probably the most monetary help for the scholar during the last 12 months would be the FAFSA contributor. If this mother or father is remarried and didn’t file their taxes collectively, their partner may even be a contributor.
In previous years, the FAFSA used the monetary data of the mother or father whom the scholar lived with nearly all of the time, no matter whether or not they offered probably the most monetary help.
If you’re undocumented
If you don’t have a Social Security quantity, there might be a distinct course of for requesting an FSA ID; that course of is just not but accessible. The Education Department says it’s going to launch alongside the FAFSA, by Dec. 31.
The new FAFSA may even be accessible in 11 languages, as a substitute of solely English and Spanish.
If you personal a small enterprise or farm
On the brand new FAFSA, mother and father might be required to report the worth of any small enterprise or household farm they personal. This may impression pupil assist packages.
If you have got a number of children in school
The “sibling discount” will disappear beginning within the 2024-25 faculty yr.
The new FAFSA will nonetheless embody a query about what number of dependent youngsters you have got in school on the identical time, but it surely gained’t determine in to federal monetary assist packages, together with the Pell Grant. But schools should use the query to find out their very own assist packages.
“Students have the option to appeal to the college that they’re attending, and ask if that second sibling does impact what the school wants to offer them,” Hernandez says.
The article New FAFSA: What Parents of College Students Need to Know initially appeared on NerdWallet.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”