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 30-day public comments
Changes that apply to both the electronic and paper version of the FAFSA form and/or FAFSA Submission Summary
General: Updated state deadlines Provided additional help for non-U.S. tax return filers or those who earned income in a foreign country Updated and clarified instructions and help for assets Updated tax line references for IRS Form 1040-NR filers Updated Privacy Act Statement paragraph title related to contesting tax information Updated references to Earned Income Tax Credit to Earned Income Credit (EIC) Removed the word “optional” for the college grants, scholarships or AmeriCorps benefits questions Provided additional guidance on the FAFSA Submission Summary relating to potential impact of verification on the Student Aid Index Page 8 Clarified the fourth response option for the Student College or Career School Plans field in question 4 Page 10 Provided additional guidance in question 16 that students may be eligible for additional Federal Pell Grant funds once their eligibility is confirmed by their college or career school, and changed “armed forces” to “U.S. armed forces”
Changes that apply to the PDF version of the FAFSA form and/or FAFSA Submission Summary only.
General Updated “Dec. XX, 2023” to “December 2023.” Page 1 At the end of the Apply by the Deadlines section, added “It’s the fastest and easiest way to apply for aid” In the Fill Out the FAFSA Form section, updated the URL for FAFSA help and provided URL for requesting FAFSA help in another language Removed the “?” from the Special Circumstances section header Page 3 In the Completing the FAFSA form section, changed “below” to “on page 4” in the top right-hand side paragraph Page 4 In the Completing the FAFSA form section, under “Which parent should include information?,” clarified instructions for divorced or separated parents and reordered the bullets Updated the “Can I skip any questions?” section Page 6 Updated the Federal Tax Information (FTI) Consent and Approval and Signatures sections to begin each section with “I consent.” Pages 7, 13, 15 and 18 Provided additional helper text for questions 1, 25, 30 and 42 for the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number field, as well as for the Social Security number (SSN) field (questions 25, 30 and 42 only) Page 8 Question 8 was modified to add “such as those listed in question 7” to provide additional guidance Pages 11 and 17 Questions 20 and 38 were modified to add the tax line reference to EIC Questions 21, 22, 39 and 40 instructions were modified to provide guidance if the answer is zero or the question is not applicable. Page 18 Added “Do not complete this section if you are not the student’s legal parent or stepparent” at the beginning of the Parent Spouse or Partner section Page 20 Added language in the preparer’s section to reference the signatures section on page 6 Page 21 Updated the instructions for Question 1 for students who do not have a social security number Added language to provide information for students who lack a permanent address Updated the date in the Veteran paragraph Page 22 Notes for questions 20, 28, 38, and 45 were updated to provide instruction for applicants and contributors who filed a joint tax return but are now not married to that person
Change that applies to online FAFSA form only
In the family size views, added text to provide clarity about the calculated family size values