Updated December 5, 2023
Each year The Education Trust–New York updates The Financial Aid for College: High School Toolkit, a resource for high school staff that highlights 10 evidence-based strategies schools can use to help students with financial aid application completion, tips for tracking progress, and materials in English and Spanish that can be used to communicate with students and families.
While we await more information on the new FAFSA application anticipated to launch in December 2023, here are a few things high school staff can help students prepare in the meantime:
- Help students create a Federal Student Aid ID on the Federal Student Aid website, which can take up to three days to approve, so they are ready to go once the application launches.
- New York State aid applications, like the Tuition Assistance Program, will not be connected to the FAFSA application this year. Students can apply to TAP now while waiting for the release of FAFSA.
- Encourage students to ask their contributors to create their own Federal Student Aid ID. They will need their own Federal Student Aid ID to access and complete their portion of the application.
- FAFSA contributors will need to provide a verified email address to create one. School staff should be aware of this as there may be contributors who need to create an email account before creating an FSA ID.
- Federal Student Aid will use TransUnion to verify the identities of anyone who does not have an SSN, eliminating the by-mail requirement of previous years. Individuals without SSNs will create FSA IDs this year. An Individual Tax Payer Identification Number will not be needed to attain the FSA ID in place of an SSN, and data collected about all individuals is protected by federal law that prohibits the use of the data for anything beyond calculating financial aid.
- Sign up for updates on the new FAFSA application’s progress.
- Review a list with students of steps to take and resources for scholarships and financial aid from our partners at uAspire.
- Share GetSchooled resources for scholarships, including common questions and answers about how to apply for scholarships with students.
We’ll also be hosting trainings with uAspire in January, as well as releasing an updated toolkit, and kicking off the New York FASFA Challenge, which recognizes high schools for high FAFSA completion rates and for improvements in FAFSA completion rates since 2019 in multiple categories based on region of the state and school size.
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