What’s New With the FAFSA?

An Update for High School Counselors and College Access Mentors

December 9, 2014Cindy Forbes Cameron, Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education

• Instructions clarified• Affects Selective Service question

Gender = gender at birth

• Citizenship question• Neither citizen nor

eligible noncitizen

DACA-specific Text

• New question re foster care

Foster Care Students

• Link to info re benefits for foster care students

Foster Care Students

• Don’t list a school if you don’t want other schools to see it

School Selection

• For state aid, may want to list state school first• For federal purposes, doesn’t matter

Order of Schools Listed

• Filtering modified• Clarification of what an amended return is

IRS DRT Eligibility Determination

If you, the parent(s), filed a Form 1040X Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for 2014, select Yes; otherwise, select No. The Form 1040X is used to correct your original filed tax return. You are not eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool if you amended your 2014 federal tax return.

• Link to info on timing of availability of IRS DRT (depends on how you file and whether you owe taxes)

IRS DRT Eligibility/Timing

• Specific wording re spouse of active duty member of armed forces

Dislocated Worker Definition

• Wording added to expand beyond biological or adoptive

“Legal Parent” Definition

Definition of “Separated”

• Separated =• Considered legally separated by a state• Married but has chosen to live separate lives, including living

in separate households, as though not married

• If separated but living together, answer “married”• Married but separated by distance/separate households =

married

• xxx

Resident of Foreign Country

• Even if diploma not called diploma, answer “diploma”

High School in Foreign Country

• New link to guidance re what to do if no SSN• First time: same as always• Subsequent FAFSAs: use assigned pseudo-SSN

Pacific Islanders (Citizens of the Freely Associated States)

• Important to make note of pseudo-SSN

Pacific Islanders

• Username & password to replace Federal Student Aid PIN• Watch this space (on FinancialAidToolkit.ed.gov):

Coming Next Spring: FSA ID

• For everyone (students and counselors):• FAFSA: www.fafsa.gov• Completing the FAFSA: StudentAid.gov/complete• StudentAid.gov/resources#fafsa• www.Twitter.com/fafsa (handle: @FAFSA)• 1-800-4-FED-AID• studentaid@ed.gov

• For counselors: • FinancialAidToolkit.ed.gov/fafsa• Counselors and Mentors Handbook on Federal Student Aid:

FinancialAidToolkit.ed.gov/handbook• FSAConferences.ed.gov (sessions GS2 and 57)

Resources for FAFSA Info

Questions?