FAFSA4 castr Burden hour calculation memo

FAFAA4caster Burden Hour Calculation

2007-2008 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Background:

In September 2005, the Secretary of Education formed a bi-partisan Commission on the Future of Higher Education to launch a national dialogue on the vital issues of accessibility, affordability, and accountability in higher education. One of the needs identified in the Commission’s final report was to notify students of their Federal student financial aid eligibility earlier in order to help families plan better. Federal Student Aid has developed a new tool, FAFSA4caster, to address this need. FAFSA4caster is a part of FAFSA on the Web (www.fafsa.ed.gov) and will assist high school juniors and their families by instantly calculating an estimated EFC; informing the student of potential Federal Pell Grant eligibility; and reducing the time needed to complete the FAFSA when the student later applies as a high school senior. As a component of FAFSA on the Web, FAFSA4caster conforms to the same IT security protocols and performance standards as FAFSA on the Web and provides a very similar user experience. No new questions or data fields are included in the FAFSA4caster. During the initial deployment of the tool, Federal Student Aid and its postsecondary education community partners will be exclusively marketing FAFSA4caster to high school juniors. Following a period of performance assessment and analysis of market adoption rates, Federal Student Aid anticipates rolling the tool out to a broader audience, including prospective non-traditional adult students who face numerous barriers to applying for federal student assistance. Because the 2007-2008 FAFSA PRA burden hour estimate (approved Dec 2006) does not include the burden associated with FAFSA4caster, we are submitting a Change Worksheet to OMB (approved by you in your 3/7/07 email to Michele Brown) that includes the increase in burden hours demonstrated below.

Number of High School Juniors nationwide (2007-2008)	Percentage of High School Juniors that we anticipate will submit a FAFSA4caster during 2007-2008	Estimated number of High School Juniors that submit a FAFSA4caster	Time To Complete FAFSA4caster	Time-to-complete multiplied by the number of FAFSA4caster submissions	Revised burden hour estimate for the 2007-2008 FAFSA with FAFSA4caster included.
3,339,000 330,000 (private) 3,008,000 (public) Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute for Education Statistics	25%	834,750 3,339,000 multiplied by 25%	25 Minutes FAFSA4caster asks 70 of the 102 FAFSA questions. This count does not include Worksheets A, B, and C.	350,595 hours 834,750 multiplied by .42 (25 minutes is .42 of one hour)	8,016,947 hours 7,666,352 (original estimate for 2007-2008 FAFSA) plus 350,595 (estimate for FAFSA4caster)

Burden Calculation for FAFSA4caster:

FAFSA4caster Burden Hour Calculation

2007-2008 Free Application for Federal Student Aid