Summary of Enhancement

Summary of Enhancements to the FAFSA form for 2024-2025

This section describes changes specific to the FAFSA form. The FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification Act require Federal Student Aid (FSA) to make substantial changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form for award year 2024-25 and beyond. The FUTURE Act alters how FSA interfaces and pulls data directly from the IRS, while the FAFSA Simplification Act introduces significant changes to the FAFSA application process, including changes to questions and a new eligibility calculation formula. To better understand the changes to the questions we’re asking on the FAFSA form, we recommend that you also read the Data Elements and Justification and refer to the FAFSA PDF.
Planned changes resulting from public comments
Changes that apply to both the electronic and paper version of the FAFSA form and/or FAFSA Submission Summary
General: Updated tax line references and instructions. Updated reference to “other parent” to “parent spouse or partner”. Updated Student, Spouse, Parent, and Parent Spouse or Partner Identity Information helper text to say “The [student’s, student spouse’s, parent’s, parent spouse’s or partner’s] full legal name, for example as it appears on their Social Security card.” Modified the Student, Spouse, Parent, and Parent Spouse or Partner consent/approval and signature instructions. Changed “Social Security Number” to “Social Security number”.  Page 2 – State deadlines have been updated as applicable. Page 5 – Added information on the rights of applicants and contributors to contest or amend their tax information. Page 6 – Revised Federal Tax Information Consent and Approval and Signature text based on public feedback. Page 8 – Question 4: Grade level- Modified response options to “First year undergraduate”, “Second year undergraduate”, “Other undergraduate (junior year and beyond)”, and “Master’s or doctorate program (MA, MBA, MD, JD, PhD, EdD, etc.).” Bachelor’s Degree- For additional clarity, “already” has been inserted before “have.” Question 7: “And have not been adopted” has been removed from the examples of unusual circumstances. Question 8: Updated instructional text to “If the student is approved for this option, they will not qualify to receive other types of federal student loans (including Direct Subsidized Loans), federal grants, or Federal Work-Study programs.” Page 9 – Question 9: “Now” has been inserted into the second sentence. Question 11: Removed the transgender question and modified the helper text. Questions 11 & 12: Updated text under headings of question 11 and 12 to inform applicants that the answers to these questions will not impact eligibility, be used in any calculations, or shared with schools. Question 12: Added and revised examples for the “other” option. Page 10 – Question 15: Updated the question to ask if either of the student’s parents attended or completed college, and modified and expanded the response options. Question 19: Updated helper text to "If the answer is "No" to both of the questions above, and the student is not married, questions 20-22 can be skipped; however, if the student is also required to provide parent information on the form, question 22 must be answered." Questions 19 & 27 – Changed to "Did the student [spouse] earn income in a foreign country in 2022, were they employed by an international organization but not required to report their income on any tax return, or did they file a tax return with Puerto Rico or another U.S. territory?”  Page 11 – Questions 20 & 38: For the question “Amount of college grants, scholarships, or AmeriCorps benefits reported as income to the IRS”, added the text “If the [student/parent] is married, include the amount their spouse reported.” after the last sentence in the italicized text.   Questions 20, 28, 38, & 45 – Changed "IRA rollover into a qualified plan" to "IRA rollover into another IRA or qualified plan" and changed "Pension rollover into a qualified plan" to "Pension rollover into an IRA or other qualified plan". Page 13 – Question 27: Modified helper text to "If the answer is "No" to both of the questions above, question 28 can be skipped." Page 16 – Question 34: “Now” has been inserted into the second sentence. Question 35: Updated helper text to “Do not include parent(s).” Questions 37 & 44: Changed the third bullet to "Either the parent [parent's spouse/partner] earned income in a foreign country but did not and will not file a foreign tax return, or they were an employee of an international organization but not required to report their income on any tax return.”  Page 22 – Instructions/Help text: Notes for assets (questions 22 and 40) In the paragraph that begins "investments also include . . ." added a sentence after the parenthetical phrase that says, "Parents of dependent students should not report the value of educational savings accounts for other children."  Added a sentence at the end of the paragraph that indicates that investments do not include 529 plans if the student is the beneficiary.
Changes that apply to the PDF version of the FAFSA form and/or FAFSA Submission Summary only.
Page 3 In the last sentence of the “Why all the questions?” paragraph, changed “school or state aid” to “state or school aid.” Changed the instructions for adding more schools from “follow instructions for correcting your FAFSA form” to “follow the instructions for adding or changing schools”. In the last bulleted paragraph on the left column, removed the word ‘application’ from the second sentence. In the Note section in the middle of the right column, inserted “original” before “school codes listed” for clarity. Moved “Who must provide information on the FAFSA form?”, “Who is considered a legal parent on the FAFSA form”, “Which parent should include information” and “Can I skip any questions?” to the front of the form. Page 8 – Question 5: Removed “See ‘Can I Skip These Questions?” text.  Question 7: Removed “and have not been adopted.”  Pages 10, 12, 15, 17 – Questions 24, 29, 41 & 46: Inserted the word “below” after “circle” in the third sentence of the signing statement.  Page 18 – In the Mail Your FAFSA Form section, added the text “Extra postage will be required.”  Added “Paid preparers are prohibited.” as the last sentence in the bolded, italicized section at the top.  FAFSA Submission Summary Page 2 – Added text to the last comment: "For more information on how to make corrections via your paper FAFSA Submission Summary, please see the information on page 4 titled How to Correct Your Information”.