Arizona Board of Regents' increased efforts to drive up FAFSA completion rates prove successful

This year, the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) stepped up its efforts to incentivize high school seniors to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and those efforts have yielded positive results.

Arizona historically ranks among the lowest in the country when it comes to FAFSA completion rates. That was made worse last year by glitches and delays on the federal government’s part.

Between getting students early access to the form through beta testing and building new partnerships, ABOR’s Julie Sainz said those numbers are rising.

“Right now, we’re at 35.5% of our high school seniors have completed a FAFSA," Sainz said. "Last year, if we look at the same point in time, we were at about 26%.”

ABOR also expanded its FAFSA Peer Coaching program, in which schools have a team of seniors who encourage their classmates to fill out the form.

“That program has gone really well," Sainz said. "All of our schools that participate in that FAFSA peer coach program have a 5-7% higher FAFSA completion rate than our state average.”

ABOR is trying to get that number up to 40% through a new partnership with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Students who complete the form between now and June 30 and meet all promotion guidelines will get two free tickets to a regular season game.

According to the National College Attainment Network, completion of the FAFSA is one of the best predictors of whether a high school senior will go on to college. Seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to immediately enroll in postsecondary education. For students in the lowest socioeconomic quintile, FAFSA completion is associated with a 127% increase in immediate college enrollment.