It’s the end of the school year and lots of high school graduates are looking forward to college next year and figuring out how they’re going to pay for it.
One important step in doing that is filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. But, it’s been a long uphill battle to get more high school graduates to fill it out.
Well, there’s some good news on that front this year: FAFSA completion rates are going up — way up — in Arizona, by almost 20%. And they could get even higher.
There are a lot of reasons why — and Bill DeBaun, senior director of data and strategic initiatives at the National College Attainment Network, joined The Show to talk more.
Full conversation
BILL DEBAUN: Good morning. It's good to be with you.
LAUREN GILGER: Thanks for coming on. So, Arizona's FAFSA completion rates are are way up, like I said, 20%-ish. Talk about that context though, how do we stack up still to the rest of the country?
BILL DEBAUN: So, Arizona has had one of the strongest bounce-back performances in terms of the number of FAFSAs completed statewide for the class of 2026. That's really encouraging. In terms of the overall percent of seniors completing though, still have some room to grow. Around 41.5% of seniors have completed a FAFSA for the class of 2026, that's running about 14 percentage points behind the national average. So, still some room to make up there.
LAUREN GILGER: OK. All right. I want to back up for a moment, Bill, and just talk about why it's hard to get people to complete the FAFSA. Like, it it seems simple enough, like this is a way to get the federal government to maybe help you pay for college. Why don't all the students fill it out?
BILL DEBAUN: Well, there's all kinds of of reasons. I would say that filing the FAFSA has gotten a lot easier over the past year or two. We have a speedier, smoother, simpler process. But, you know, students don't always have a clear vision for what they want to do after crossing the high school graduation stage. Sometimes they're worried about affordability. And, in some cases, they, you know, are nervous about filling out what they see as a complicated form and could just benefit from a little bit of assistance doing so.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. I know there's also some reporting out there about some students who are from ... mixed-immigration status families who are basically afraid to fill it out. Like, afraid to give the federal government their information. How does the federal government use students' information here? Should they be concerned?
BILL DEBAUN: Well, data submitted through the FAFSA is only supposed to be used to determine and award federal financial aid. But, you know, NCAN cannot assure, cannot guarantee mixed status students and families that data submitted as part of the FAFSA process will continue to be protected.
And so, what we've been advising students, families, the field, in terms of advising students whose parents may not have a Social Security number, is to advise them on a case-by-case basis about the risks and benefits of submitting a FAFSA. It is true ... there is a little bit of risk if the data aren't used and protected properly. On the other hand, completing the FAFSA is the the only way to get access to federal financial aid, which is really important for college affordability.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, tricky situation. OK, so the last time I think we talked about the FAFSA on The Show was a few years ago when the federal government had rolled out a sort of overhauled, supposedly simplified new FAFSA form, right? And it was kind of a mess. It was delayed. There were glitches. People were very frustrated. Has the process gotten better? Is that part of why we're seeing these rates go up a lot right now?
BILL DEBAUN: It sure has, yeah. The class of 2024 rollout was a mess, I think would still be a generous way of describing it. But, now for the class of of 2026, right, we have seen record-high high school senior FAFSA completion rates nationwide. We ... are setting a new record basically every week now.
LAUREN GILGER: Wow.
BILL DEBAUN: And, that's good not just for the for FAFSA completion sake, but also because it represents students getting connected with financial aid that can help them pay for education and training after high school.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. I know that here in Arizona, the Arizona Board of Regents, the Department of Education, have have really pushed to try to get these completion rates up. Do you know what's working here and around the country?
BILL DEBAUN: So, yeah, Arizona has a really great FAFSA completion ecosystem. You know, you've got the Board of Regents, Department of Education, you know, non-profits like Education Forward Arizona pulling together. And so, you know, there's a couple of different things we can point to.
They had a 50-by-Fall initiative, which was challenging high schools to uh either reach a 50% FAFSA completion rate by by New Year's or to increase their FAFSA completion rate. They revitalized the College Goal Sunday campaign, so there were statewide FAFSA Saturday events and and kind of coordinated workshop dates. And so, the idea here is that when students and families want or need assistance, either completing the FAFSA or exploring pathways after high school, that there are events, experts, programming out there that they can reach out to and and get some support from.
LAUREN GILGER: There are some states, Bill, where there are policies, basically laws about this, right? What do those states look like? How many students will complete this form there?
BILL DEBAUN: So, yeah, we call these, these policies universal FAFSA policies where completing the FAFSA becomes either requirement for students or the district, you know, as as part of high school graduation. And there are nine states nationwide now that require this in some form or fashion. We see states with universal FAFSA policies getting a big boost up the FAFSA completion leaderboard, something like four out of the top five states, six out of the top 10, and eight of the top 15, all have some kind of FAFSA completion requirement.
LAUREN GILGER: Wow, OK. Last 30 seconds for a very important question here, Bill. What's the impact of this? Like, as we see these completion rates go up, will we see more kids go to college? Will we see more kids from low-income families go to college?
BILL DEBAUN: Historically, there's been a very tight association between FAFSA completion and immediate college enrollment. And when I say college here, I mean both education and training, a wide variety of pathways after high school graduation. And so, yeah, when we see more students complete the FAFSA, especially for students from low-income backgrounds, that means that they are unlocking federal financial aid that makes these pathways more affordable and hopefully helps these students pursue the, the, you know, the pathways, the careers that they are most interested in.
LAUREN GILGER: All right. Bill DeBaun, senior director of data and strategic initiatives at the National College Attainment Network, joining us. Bill, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.
BILL DEBAUN: ... Thanks very much. Appreciate your time.
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