Section 483 of the Higher Education
Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), mandates that the Secretary of
Education "…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 “prior-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)