Watchdog Releases Findings on ‘Nightmare’ FAFSA Launch

Poor planning, lack of communication, absent leadership, and estimation errors contributed to what one congressional lawmaker called a “nightmare” FAFSA rollout.

Representatives from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce lambasted the Department of Education (ED) during a Sept. 24 hearing that dug into the bungled launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in late 2023.

Witnesses from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shared takeaways from the watchdog’s investigation into the first five months of the FAFSA launch, which was released prior to the hearing.

Millions of students must complete a FAFSA to access federal financial aid each year.

Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020, giving ED a clear mandate to truncate FAFSA for current and prospective college students. But the rollout of the so-called “Simplified FAFSA” has been anything but “simple.”

Melissa Emrey-Arras, director of GAO’s higher education work, put the rollout into sharp perspective by highlighting delays:

“Students and their families deserve a FAFSA process that works,” Emery-Arras said in her opening remarks. “[ED] needs to move quickly to address these issues and rebuild trust in the FAFSA process.”

A bipartisan cadre of congressional lawmakers expressed concerns over ED’s and Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) management of the rollout.

Republican Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah said the process was a “headache and nightmare” for families, while Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida emphasized that issues led many students to forgo college altogether.

“They have just given up,” Wilson said.

Emrey-Arras said delays led to 432,000 fewer FAFSA submissions than the previous cycle. That was a 3% decrease from the prior year, including a 9% decrease in the number of high school seniors filing a FAFSA.

Low-income students were hit hardest.

She said the sharpest year-over-year decrease for dependent students came from families making between $30,000 and $48,000 annually. The decline among independent students was most significant for those making less than $30,000 annually.

Delays meant many institutions couldn’t send financial aid award letters before the standard May 1 Decision Day, Emrey-Arras added. This meant students had to commit to a college without knowing how much aid to expect.

“It’s like buying a house but not knowing how much aid you’re going to get and having to make a commitment right then and there,” she said.

Emrey-Arras’ testimony also outlined many of the department’s missteps in the leadup to the FAFSA launch.

A common theme was ED underestimating the vast resources needed to support students.

GAO’s report found that ED expected it would need to manually verify information for approximately 3,500 students and families. Those estimates were off by 98%, as some 219,000 applications needed manual verification — primarily from families where one parent lacked a Social Security number — and ED didn’t have the staffing to keep up with demand. ED ultimately suspended verification altogether.

A similar problem arose at call centers.

Call centers received 5.5 million calls in the first five months after the FAFSA launch, and 4 million of those calls went unanswered. Call volume more than doubled the previous FAFSA cycle, yet ED told call center operators to expect only 2 million calls.

“The Department of Education vastly underestimated the need for call center staff and, as a result, they vastly understaffed the call centers,” Emrey-Arras said

Looking ahead, some lawmakers shared optimism that ED could avoid many of the same pitfalls when it rolls out the 2025-26 FAFSA this fall. However, GAO witnesses stressed that the department must be more proactive in testing its systems and stop underestimating volume if improvements are to be made.

“This administration has a lot of explaining to do to regain the trust of American families before the next FAFSA hopefully is released with a full and accurate functionality in December,” Owens said.