A growing body of research shows that student persistence and college completion are strongly tied to and determined by whether students’ basic needs are met. However, university administrators are hamstrung by a lack of funding to fully address basic needs insecurity on campus and support students in a comprehensive manner.
A new policy brief from the nonpartisan research organizations Higher Education Advocates (HLA) and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) finds that although state and federal higher education funding alone is not sufficient to meet these needs, , states that “millions of funds are required.” “College students” who qualify but don’t even know what they qualify for or how to apply for benefits could take better advantage of existing government aid programs.
“One solution is to ensure that students have access to all available financial aid, including means-tested public benefits such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), subsidized health insurance, broadband assistance, and tax credits. This is to ensure that they are able to receive the necessary treatment,” the document states.
The brief, released earlier this month, allows university administrators to leverage existing data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which millions of students complete each year, to help students qualify for a variety of benefits. They argue that we should inform them and support them in their applications.
This overview is based on an analysis of how universities use FAFSA data to alert students to potential eligibility for benefits.
For example, data from the U.S. General Accounting Office shows that of the approximately 3.3 million students eligible for SNAP benefits, approximately 2 million do not participate; That’s $3 billion.
“What’s really beneficial about using FAFSA data is that it makes it more targeted,” said Amy Ellen Duke Benfield, HLA’s managing director of policy and research. “Having a sign in your school that says, ‘You may be eligible for SNAP’ is not as effective as emailing or texting students to let them know they are likely eligible.” .”
HLA is not the first organization to make this claim. In a Dear Colleague letter released by the U.S. Department of Education in January 2022, the Biden administration urges colleges to make the most of FAFSA data to help students access public social welfare benefits. provided initial guidance for
HLA’s brief argues that the guidance is only effective if universities actually implement the recommendations. A March 2023 survey of 359 college financial aid officers shows that’s not necessarily the case.
Just over a quarter (27%) of financial aid offices surveyed reached out directly to students about some type of public benefit program, either through targeted FAFSA-based notifications to individual students or broader advocacy campaigns. was going on. 18% of survey respondents said they plan to undertake such support activities in the future. Almost half of respondents (43%) said they would not flag students eligible for public benefits.
Bryce McKibben, senior director of policy at the Hope Center for Colleges, Communities, and Justice, Temple University’s student equity research center, said, There is much work to be done to achieve this.”
Some aid programs, such as SNAP and the Affordable Connections Program, which provides broadband access, had high rates of direct aid to students based on FAFSA data (85 percent and 64 percent, respectively). But fewer than one-fifth of colleges informed students about other benefits, he said, including those provided through the Affordable Care Act and the Child Tax Credit.
McKibben attributes this, in part, to the “surprisingly” small number of institutions using FAFSA data to assist with capacity issues.
“This is because financial aid offices are incredibly overwhelmed,” he said. “We know that they are now facing complex and more rapid deployment periods and facing significant staffing shortages.”
About half of the nation’s financial aid departments are understaffed, according to NASFAA data.
Gilles Dejean, senior policy analyst at NASFAA, said resource constraints were a major challenge for many of the survey respondents.
“Since the pandemic, we have never returned to full staffing,” she said. “It’s obviously very difficult to take on additional efforts when the office is already working overtime to do the bare minimum that they have to do. Financial aid officers need to know that it’s valuable to students. I highly value it.”
He said the recent announcement that the release of this year’s FAFSA data will be further delayed further complicates the situation.
“While these resource constraints have been real in the past, the constraints of recent months have been exceptional,” she said.
However, HLA’s Duke Benfield noted that conversations with financial aid administrators have shown that analyzing FAFSA data does not take much time and is worth the time investment.
“Investing in connections upfront will ensure that you qualify for aid without having to go back and re-enroll after dropping out, or help make satisfactory academic corrections,” she says.
He also said financial aid departments should be able to pass data to social services and student support staff to actually implement support efforts. However, some respondents expressed concerns about violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which limits access to students’ financial and educational records.
The policy brief calls on the Department of Education to allow colleges to request students’ permission to share their FAFSA data as soon as possible, clarify guidelines for data sharing, and provide comprehensive training on best practices for welfare assistance. is requested to provide.
McKibben believes these policy adjustments will allow the financial aid department to spread the workload among other departments and staff and establish clear support protocols for the state’s higher education institutions.
He said some states, including California, already have policies in place to notify students who may be eligible for benefits, but many others are hesitant to take action. It pointed out.
“We have thousands of agencies across the country, and asking each one to reinvent the way they do outreach is a tall order,” McKibben said. But the most effective way to deal with this is through the state. “It is therefore important that the Department of Education clarifies and updates its guidance.”
