The Department of Education announced Tuesday a delay in sending data that schools need to produce student aid packages, forcing some to defer or forgo college plans.
Buried in a press release touting the number of Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, forms successfully submitted using an updated application, the Education Department said it would begin transferring Institutional Student Information Record data to academic institutions in the “first half of March.”
The ISIR data is necessary for schools to determine how much money they can give out to prospective students, meaning the delay renders them incapable of accurately quoting offers.
“I recently met with several leaders of Louisiana colleges who all independently told me they are concerned about FAFSA. This roll out has been a disaster,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in reaction to the announcement. “The Department of Education had three years to prepare the rollout of the updated FAFSA. Their inability to do their job is having real consequences for students and families.”
The Biden administration was supposed to start transmitting the data by the end of January.
Republicans have been concerned that the rollout of the new FAFSA forms, which was already “botched,” as the Washington Examiner reported, makes the prospect of college unclear for many, particularly low-income students for whom financial aid could make or break their ability to attend school.
“These unacceptable delays from the Biden administration creates the real likelihood that many students will forgo college because they cannot choose a school without knowing their eligibility for student aid,” Cassidy continued.
The delay could effectively bar school financial aid officers and counselors from guiding students and families through a system for which they have little information. It will also stand in the way of students choosing where they will go to school, the decisions for which are typically required right around the time the Biden administration claims it will be providing the ISIR data.
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According to the Department of Education, more than 3.1 million FAFSA forms were successfully submitted using the new, streamlined formula for determining who gets aid.
Last week, Cassidy joined with Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, and numerous colleagues from both congressional chambers to call for a Government Accountability Office investigation into the Biden administration’s FAFSA rollout troubles.