WASHINGTON – Senators Tim Scott (R-SC), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) are urging the Department of Education to make important changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and website to account for disruptions
in a student’s financial situation, such as lost job or income, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Unfortunately, with the national unemployment rate at 14.7 percent and with fewer students applying for federal financial aid than last year, it is critical that the Department take additional steps to ensure that shifts in financial circumstances receive due consideration and that students have the information they need to continue to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
The Senators continued, “Students and families who have recently become unemployed or suffered a significant drop in income may fail to qualify for the support they need to afford college. To that end, we believe the Department plays an integral role in ensuring that students and financial aid administrators have the information and resources necessary to respond to the unique challenges that this global pandemic has created and exacerbated.”
In the letter, the Senators ask the Department of Education to ensure that that financial aid administrators have the tools that they need to adjust an impacted student’s financial family income on their submitted FAFSA form, and also ask the Department to make additions to the FAFSA form so that students can mark whether their family’s income has dropped or their parents have been laid off as a result of the pandemic.
Read the Senators’ letter here or below.
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