Governors Association Responds to Federal Student Aid Outage

— from The National Governors Association —

The National Governors Association released a statement Wednesday urging a quick resolution of an outage that impacts students’ ability to file for financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

In Washington state, more than 461,000 students successfully completed the FAFSA process in anticipation of attendance at colleges and universities for the 2016-2017 school year.

Students planning on attending college in the 2017-2018 school year can find more information on how to file their FAFSA paperwork without the online tool at Ready Set Grad.org.

The Washington Student Achievement Council has FAFSA filing data at the state and district level.

More information for students, parents and educators can be found at the College Goal Washington page.

EARLIER RELEASE:

GOVERNORS URGE QUICK RESOLUTION OF FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID TOOL OUTAGE

Millions of college applicants potentially affected by service interruption between now and Fall 2017

WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) today released a statement on the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the IRS estimate will be offline through the fall:

“Governors agree it is critical to secure taxpayer information and understand the challenge of maintaining strong data systems. The nation’s governors call on the IRS and ED to leverage all available resources and bring the DRT back online before the fall. In addition, all possible options should be explored to provide students and institutions with a short-term solution until this issue is permanently resolved.

As governors work to make college more affordable and expand access to higher education, the FAFSA DRT outage creates a significant barrier for millions of students and their families. Those burdens and the institutional verifications triggered by the absence of the DRT could delay or hinder the federal student aid process at colleges and universities across the country. Delays could also complicate state-based financial aid awards because of states’ reliance on federal student aid data to make determinations.

No matter how quickly the issues with the DRT are addressed, NGA asks the ED specifically to take the following actions to mitigate the effects of this outage on students and institutions:

• Provide clear step-by-step guidance for students completing FAFSA applications and institutions that will be asked to verify student FAFSA applications to assist each with the application process until the DRT is restored;
• Take additional steps to prepare the Federal Student Aid Call Center for an increased volume of student and institution inquiries and ensure operators are equipped to walk applicants through DRT alternatives; and
• Increase institutional flexibility for student income verification requirements while colleges and universities experience a likely increased volume of verifications during the DRT outage.”

The National Governors Association (NGA), founded in 1908, is the collective voice of the nation’s governors and one of Washington, D.C.’s most respected public policy organizations. Its members are the governors of the states, territories and commonwealths. NGA provides governors and their senior staff members with services that range from representing states on Capitol Hill and before the Administration on key federal issues to developing and implementing innovative solutions to public policy challenges through the NGA Center for Best Practices. For more information, visit www.nga.org.