Section 483 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), mandates that the Secretary of Education "â¦shall produce, distribute, and process free of charge common financial reporting forms as described in this subsection to be used for application and reapplication to determine the need and eligibility of a student for financial assistance...".
The determination of need and eligibility are for the following title IV, HEA, federal student financial assistance programs: the Federal Pell Grant Program; the Campus-Based programs (Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Federal Work-Study (FWS), and the Federal Perkins Loan Program); the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program; the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant; and the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant.
Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education (hereafter "the Department"), subsequently developed an application process to collect and process the data necessary to determine a student's eligibility to receive title IV, HEA program assistance. The application process involves an applicant's submission of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®). After submission of the FAFSA, an applicant receives a Student Aid Report (SAR), which is a summary of the data they submitted on the FAFSA. The applicant reviews the SAR, and, if necessary, will make corrections or updates to their submitted FAFSA data. Institutions of higher education listed by the applicant on the FAFSA also receive a summary of processed data submitted on the FAFSA which is called the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR).
The Department seeks OMB approval of all application components as a single ''collection of information". The aggregate burden will be accounted for under OMB Control Number 1845-0001. The specific application components, descriptions and submission methods for each are listed in Table one.
Two basic changes for the 2017-2018 FAFSA are generating reductions in responses and burden hours: The first change is to the 2017-2018 financial aid application cycle. The FAFSA will be available on October 1st of the year prior to the upcoming award year, better coinciding with the college admissions application and decision cycle. The more significant change from a burden reduction standpoint is: Beginning with the 2017-2018 cycle, FAFSA income information will be collected from one tax year earlier (referred to as âprior-prior"). This means that the 2017-2018 FAFSA will collect 2015 tax year income information - allowing most students to complete their FAFSA using tax information from an already completed tax return. This will provide most applicants with the ability to electronically transfer their income tax return information directly from the IRS into the FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT). This is a major improvement over the current process where many applicants submit their FAFSA before tax returns have been completed, resulting in the need to estimate income and tax information that subsequently needs to be corrected once the tax return is filed, or waiting to complete their FAFSA until after the tax return has been filed.
As a result of these changes, the Department is projecting an overall reduction in responses of 1,465,883 and an overall decrease of 524,469 burden hours for the 2017-2018 FAFSA. The decreases are primarily being driven by a reduction in preparation time, corrections submissions and SAR reviews attributed to the change to "prior-prior" for income information reporting.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
2017-2018 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
1845-0001 FINAL (post) 2017-2018 30 Day Comment Period Summary.docx
2017-2018 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)