Myrna Aguilar and her son, David Thornton, at their house in Southern California. Thornton obtained a federal Pell Grant for his first yr at Cal Poly Pomona, however is not positive why the FAFSA says he would not qualify for one subsequent yr.

Gabriella Angotti-Jones for NPR

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Gabriella Angotti-Jones for NPR

Myrna Aguilar and her son, David Thornton, at their house in Southern California. Thornton obtained a federal Pell Grant for his first yr at Cal Poly Pomona, however is not positive why the FAFSA says he would not qualify for one subsequent yr.

Gabriella Angotti-Jones for NPR

Families have a variety of questions proper now, about how a lot assist they will get paying for school – questions that college monetary help workplaces cannot but reply.

That’s as a result of this yr’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is months delayed. And, to make issues actually sophisticated, it features a mistake that may have value college students $1.8 billion in federal pupil help.

We covered the mistake in detail here. In a nutshell: The U.S. Education Department’s FAFSA math, for deciding how a lot help a pupil ought to get, is unsuitable.

In follow, this error would make some college students and households seem to have extra revenue than they actually do, and meaning they’d get much less help than they need to. And not simply federal monetary help but in addition all kinds of state and school-based help.

On Tuesday, a division spokesperson confirmed to NPR that the division will repair this error in time for the 2024-25 award yr, although they may not present particulars on how or how shortly the repair can be made. For the primary time, the division additionally gave a way of simply how a lot federal pupil help is at stake: $1.8 billion.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to making higher education possible for more students, including through ensuring students qualify for as much financial aid as possible,” the spokesperson stated.

The FAFSA mistake had faculty monetary help workplaces frightened

“The polite way to say it is, Wow. I mean, I was shocked.”

That’s how Brad Barnett, monetary help director at James Madison University in Virginia, describes studying concerning the mistake.

“I get that there’s complexities in building and programming a new system. OK. But forgetting to put the right numbers into a table that now has created all this consternation and delays, really surprised me.”

The FAFSA is new this yr as a result of Congress handed a regulation ordering the Education Department to make sweeping adjustments. The thought was to make it simpler to fill out and to present extra lower-income households entry to federal help. Families like Myrna Aguilar’s.

“I am a single parent. In addition to my son, my mom lives with us, so we’re a multi-generational family, which is awesome,” Myrna tells NPR.

Myrna’s son, David Thornton, is finding out mechanical engineering at Cal Poly Pomona, in Southern California, the place he simply completed his first semester.

“It was fun,” David says, carrying a hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with Cal Poly College of Engineering. “There were a lot of events that I really enjoyed. My classes were very interesting. Stressful, but interesting.”

Myrna Aguilar says dropping her son’s federal Pell Grant subsequent yr “is equivalent to an extra mortgage payment.” Though she insists it will not hold David from returning to Cal Poly, which he loves. She’ll save and fill the hole, if that is what it takes.

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Gabriella Angotti-Jones for NPR

David bought plenty of assist paying for varsity, together with a $1,500 greenback Pell Grant from the U.S. authorities. Pell Grants are for lower-income college students and do not have to be paid again. That’s necessary as a result of, after David stuffed out the brand new FAFSA a pair weeks in the past, the Education Department despatched him an e mail with a shock:

Next yr, it says, he will lose that $1,500 Pell Grant, although it isn’t clear why.

“That actually is equivalent to an extra mortgage payment,” Myrna says. “That’s, you know, inconvenient.”

She insists this may not hold her son from returning to Cal Poly, which he loves. She’ll save and fill the hole, if that is what it takes. But she desires to know: Why did this occur?

It might be due to the division’s FAFSA mistake. Financial help specialists inform NPR it is troublesome at this level to know for sure.

“We’re in a situation where we really can’t help students or their families,” says Charles Conn, a prime help administrator at David’s college, Cal Poly Pomona. “They’re getting some information from the Department of Ed. We’re not.”

Because of this yr’s large FAFSA overhaul, Conn says, the Education Department’s actually behind, and it is telling faculties they will not be getting any monetary help information for college students like David till the tip of this month, on the earliest.

“[That] really cripples our office and our ability to fulfill our role, which is to help students and their families make sense of all of this,” Conn says. That consists of serving to David and Myrna perceive what occurred to his Pell Grant.

With no particulars on the repair, monetary help timelines are nonetheless within the air

The Education Department says it is going to repair the FAFSA mistake this yr, nevertheless it didn’t make clear how or when. And it is unclear what influence any repair would have on faculties’ monetary help timelines.

Before the division shared its determination, NPR spoke with a dozen monetary help specialists and directors throughout the nation — at faculties large and small, private and non-private — to listen to how they assume the company ought to handle a possible repair.

“I don’t know what the best option is. None of them are good,” says Karen Krause, the manager director of economic help for the University of Texas, Arlington.

Option One: The Education Department can attempt to repair this shortly, earlier than it sends any pupil FAFSA information on to colleges.

The drawback with that choice is, even a fast repair will take time, additional delaying the scholar information faculties want. Without that information, faculties cannot even start to give you monetary help provides to ship to households.

“It’s nausea-inducing,” says Christina Tangalakis, who manages pupil help for Glendale Community College, in Glendale, Calif.

There’s additionally an Option Two, she says, the place the repair takes lengthy sufficient that the division has to go forward and ship faculties information it is aware of is unsuitable, with a promise to replace the info as quickly as it may. That method faculties can no less than give households one thing, a form of start line. But Tangalakis worries, for a lot of lower-income college students, these preliminary award letters can be too low.

“How many students will be discouraged by what they see on paper and not even attend,” Tangalakis says.

We heard this concern loads.

“Our students absolutely are relying on this,” says Scott Skaro, the monetary help director at United Tribes Technical College, in North Dakota.

He says tribal faculties might be hit particularly exhausting by this uncertainty, as a result of greater than 80-percent of their college students qualify for a federal Pell Grant.

“[Students] may just go find some low-paying job that’s gonna pay the bills now and they’ll just give up on school,” Skaro worries.

Robert Muhammad, director of economic help at Howard University, shares that concern.

“Some students may truly feel defeated and decide not to pursue their education at this time.”

Most of the monetary help specialists informed NPR they need the division to rush up and make this repair now, earlier than any award letters exit.

Is that reasonable? Tangalakis, at Glendale Community College, says that should not matter.

“When we were headed to space, Kennedy said we do things because they’re hard. This is something hard, but it’s necessary.”

Many college students have simply over three months left earlier than they’re anticipated to commit to a school. But faculties say, best-case, it is going to nonetheless be weeks earlier than they will start sending out monetary help provides.

At this level, for households, faculties and the Education Department, the clock is not simply ticking. It’s roaring.