Watchdog group decries FAFSA snafus, demands stronger leadership

Native resiliency and ingenuity have shown strength again – this time in the world of academia.

Even as colleges across the nation deal with yet another Free Application for Federal Student Aid deadline of Dec. 1, tribal colleges still struggle with miscommunications from the U.S. Department of Education – and delays in software updates, which, in turn, delay processing of applications.

Yet tribal college leaders find solutions that fill the financial gaps for their students.

On Tuesday, a governmental watchdog group chastised the current administration and education department for poorly serving vast swaths of students since the disastrous first roll-out of a new FAFSA application and website starting in late 2023.

After detailing several missteps, the U.S. Government Accountability Office called for stronger leadership after what it called a failure to improve FAFSA.

Most tribal college staff, however, seem to have adapted to the chaotic changes while doing their utmost for their mostly Native students. It’s resiliency at its best.

A trio of tribal college financial aid directors spoke with ICT prior to today’s public testimony.

“Since Tribal Colleges are open door, we usually don’t have hard early deadlines or low-acceptance rates that are going to keep students out,” said Scott Skaro, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and financial aid director at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota.

FAFSA has been the go-to source for Native students and all students applying for federal student loans, work-study and Pell grants for low-income students.

“What is happening to us is that all these delays means vital processing and behind-the-scenes software set-ups are not getting to schools on time and it is putting every school in the nation behind,” Skaro added. “This is leading to uncertainty for students knowing that all their processing has been taken care of.”

Skaro worries that questions on the revamped FAFSA form – such as “unique circumstance” or “homelessness” status of some Native students – may cause some large state or private institutions as potentially “too difficult to deal with.”

Skaro said the ongoing chaos surrounding the extended federal U.S. Department of Education reboot of the application could negatively affect enrollment.

He worries that Native students will tire of the hassles the repeated changes and delays have caused.

“I think you are going to see a big downturn in minority students being enrolled in 2024-25 as well as a downturn in low-income students being enrolled,” said Skaro. “The U.S. Department of Education has put schools in a horrible position to be able to deal with processing and file reconciliation.

Normal deadlines once led to on-time processing. But many tribal college financial aid counselors wear many hats, so deadlines with ongoing software snafus frustrates some.

“We didn’t even get guidance on how to do FAFSA corrections until the end of June 2024,” said Skaro, adding:

“This would normally have been available on Oct.1 2023. And then once we did get access … all our offices are still dealing with little bugs and glitches. Again, these things should have been figured out in early 2023 not one month before school starts!”

Two other tribal college financial aid leaders agreed that their staff has been resourceful and diligent in helping students fill out the FAFSA and find other forms of financial aid to fill tuition gaps.

Jackie Swain, Salish and Gros Ventre and financial aid director at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana, said her students “are really not affected by the delay” because her office works steadily to file FAFSAs, and apply for any other tribal higher education scholarships available.

In other words, Swain and her staff resourcefully find other ways for their students to pay for school.

Among the support systems for Salish Kootenai College students are TRIO, which encompasses three federal support services that benefit disadvantaged students located in most colleges: Upward Bound, Talent Search and Student Support Services.

Others are SKC’s Department of Academic Success, Financial Aid, Career Services and Upward Bound.

“At SKC we do not pre-package student awards to determine if this will make the final decision for them to come to our school,” said Swain.

Yolanda Garcia, Oglala Sioux and financial aid director at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota, said her staff has adapted, despite the technical and logistical challenges the FAFSA changes have generated.

“The only way this has affected our institution is all the updates that were needed to do internally, and work through updating comment codes, software updates, and communicating all the changes to students, policy updates, etc.,” Garcia said.

Previously – like all colleges – Oglala Lakota College financial staff dealt with FAFSA website revamp.

“We have so far been able to move quickly in getting all these updates done quickly and still work diligently on getting other new updates and requirements completed,” added Garcia. “But definitely, the internal changes and procedures have impacted us in working with our students in the beginning.”

Initially, the entire point of the revamp was to make the form easier to fill out and expand access to federal student aid for students most in need.

Now, with the new Dec. 1 deadline, the Department of Education will not send a new cycle of FAFSA information to colleges until early March, 2025 – instead of during late January next year.

So if you want to attend college during the 2024-2025 academic year, a full launch of the next FAFSA cycle resets for Dec. 1 this year with a “smaller” rollout set to start in October, according to NPR in its coverage of the watchdog testimony.

Meanwhile, a group of financial aid directors appears ready and willing to do whatever it takes to secure funding for their students at the tribal college level.

For some tips on applying for FAFSA, Delphina Thomas, also known as “Auntie FAFSA,” debunks myths and provides other information on a video. Thomas is a college success coach with the American Indian College Fund.