Paper Summary of Enhancements

Summary of Enhancements to the

2018-2019 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®)

Section 1: In this section, we’ve described changes to the 2018-2019 PDF FAFSA resulting from public comments. Some of these changes also impact fafsa.gov

Page 1

Column 1

• Under the Filling Out the FAFSA section, we added text to the first sentence so that it now reads, “If you or your family experienced significant changes to your financial situation (such as loss of employment), or other unusual circumstances (such as tuition expenses at an elementary or secondary school or high unreimbursed medical or dental expenses), complete this form to the extent you can and submit it as instructed.”

Column 2

• We updated state deadline information.

Page 2

Column 1

• In the first sentence of the “Why all the questions?” section, we changed the start of the sentence so that it now reads “Most of the questions on the FAFSA are required to calculate your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).”

• We also changed the last sentence in the “Where can I receive more information about student financial aid?” section to replace “tuition payment plans” with “tuition assistance plans,” so that it now reads “ Check with your parents’ employers or unions to see if they award scholarships or have tuition assistance plans.”

Page 3

We updated question 22 from “Are you male or female?” to “Were you born male or female?”

In addition, we updated question 23 text so that it now reads “If female, skip to question 23. Most male students must register with the Selective Service System to receive federal aid. If you were born male, are age 18-25, and have not registered, fill in the circle and we will register you.”

Page 5

We updated the text in Question 44d so that it now reads “Taxable college grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS as income. Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships.”

Page 7

We updated the text in Question 93d so that it now reads “Your parents’ taxable college grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS as income. Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships.”

Page 8

We removed “student” from references to state student grant agencies and added a hyperlink to a resource page with information about how state grant agencies award aid so that the text reads as follows:

“Enter the six-digit federal school code and your housing plans for each college or school you want to receive your FAFSA information. You can find the school codes at fafsa.gov or by calling 1-800-433-3243. If you cannot obtain a code, write in the complete name, address, city and state of the college. If you want more schools to receive your FAFSA information, read What is the FAFSA? on page 2. All of the information you included on your FAFSA, with the exception of the list of colleges, will be sent to each of the colleges you listed. In addition, all of your FAFSA information, including the list of colleges, will be sent to your state grant agency. For federal student aid purposes, it does not matter in what order you list your selected schools. However, the order in which you list schools may affect your eligibility for state aid. Consult your state agency or StudentAid.gov/order for details.”

Section 2: 2018-2019 Enhancements to the PDF FAFSA communicated in the Federal Register posted April 17, 2017

Global Changes: We’ve updated date and year references.

URLs have been updated to remove www. to comply with an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) federal memorandum (OMB Memorandum M-15-13) that requires all publicly-accessible federal Web sites to provide service only through a secure internet connection.

Page 1

We’ve removed “view and” from the first paragraph, last sentence of the “Using Your Tax Return” section so it reads, “In a few simple steps….can transfer their tax return…”

We’ve updated the year references in Column 2. However, deadline dates in this draft of the FAFSA are not final. Dates will be finalized in consultation with the states, and included in the draft of the FAFSA posted for the 30-day public comment period. (See update in Section 1)

Page 6

• We removed “legal” from Question 59 so it now reads: “As of today, what is the marital status of your parents?”.

• We added “legal” to the second response for Question 59 so it now reads: “Unmarried and both legal parents living together”.

• We added “legal” to the note before Question 80 to match the revised response option for Question 59.

Page 8

• We’ve updated the text in the Step Six instructions to read:

“Enter the six-digit federal school code and your housing plans for each college or school you want to receive your FAFSA information. You can find the school codes at fafsa.gov or by calling 1-800-433-3243. If you cannot obtain a code, write in the complete name, address, city and state of the college. If you want more schools to receive your FAFSA information, read What is the FAFSA? on page 2. All of the information you included on your FAFSA, with the exception of the list of colleges, will be sent to each of the colleges you listed. In addition, all of your FAFSA information, including the list of colleges, will be sent to your state student grant agency. For federal student aid purposes, it does not matter in what order you list your selected schools. However, the order in which you list schools may affect your eligibility for state aid. Check with your state grant agency for more information.” (See update in Section 1)

• We updated the second paragraph of the Certification Statement in Step Seven to remove references to “PIN.” The new sentence reads:

“If you electronically sign any document related to the federal student aid programs using an FSA ID (username and password) and/or any other credential, you certify that you are the person identified by that username and password and/or other credential, and have not disclosed that username and password and/or other credential to anyone else.”

Page 9

We updated the exemption amount in the “Notes for questions 38 (page 4) and 87 (page 7)” section from $4,000 to $4,050.

Page 10

In the “Notes for questions 56–58 (page 5)” section, we made the following changes:

• We removed the “Youth” definition bullet.

• We deleted “under 24 years of age and are” in the second sentence of the second paragraph so it now reads: “However, even if you answer “No” to each of questions 56, 57, and 58, you should contact the financial aid administrator at the college you plan to attend if you are either (1) homeless and unaccompanied or (2) at risk of being homeless, unaccompanied, and providing for your own living expenses - as your college financial aid office can determine that you are “homeless” and are not required to provide parental information.”

• We updated the second and third bullets in the “Notes for Step Four, question 59-94 (pages 6 and 7)” section by adding “legal” to “Unmarried and both parents living together”.

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