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Friday, April 12, 2024

The FAFSA Drama Continues - Part 11 (California workaround)

There is (partial) good news for California students with FAFSA troubles. From the San Francisco Chronicle: The high school students who have been hardest hit by the federal government’s botched overhaul of its college financial aid application now have a workaround to receive state grants — but not federal money — California education officials announced Tuesday. The government’s recent effort to streamline the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, created a glitch that left tens of thousands of high school seniors in California and across the country unable to complete their applications. The students most often blocked are citizens and legal residents whose parents have no Social Security number.

Students need the FAFSA to apply for federal Pell grants. The California Student Aid Commission also uses those applications to determine students’ eligibility for state aid, known as Cal Grants. Now, first-time applicants who can’t fill out their FAFSA can apply for state aid separately, using the California Dream Act Application “as a short-term measure until they are able to access and complete a FAFSA,” the student aid commission and the state’s three public secondary school systems — the University of California, California State University and the California Community Colleges — jointly announced.

May 2 is the deadline...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/fafsa-fiasco-fix-lets-california-students-get-cal-19394119.php.

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