]"We're literally at cap and gown pickup day, and we can't give kids their cap and gown because you're not going to get your cap and gown until you do this," says Shannon Hattier, a career coach atEast Ascension High School in Louisiana. "We're still working on getting people to do it earlier."
So far, she's guided two graduating classes through the new requirement, which will also be new for high school graduates in Illinois starting in the 2020-2021 academic year and in Texas starting with the 2021-2022 academic year.
Completing the FAFSA can help students make more informed decisions about whether and where they will attend college. According to the National College Access Network, the current FAFSA completion rate nationwide for high school graduates is 61%. Students who complete the FAFSA are more likely to attend college, a fact that is particularly true for students in the lowest socioeconomic quintile, in which FAFSA completion is associated with a 127% increase in immediate college enrollment.
At first, the transition to the new graduation requirement in Louisiana was difficult for many families and parents, Hattier says. Some expressed privacy concerns, and others simply did not want to participate. She says for those individuals, and particularly for undocumented students, those who plan to join the military and students who already have jobs lined up after graduation, there is a waiver to opt out.
For students who will be completing the FAFSA form as a graduation requirement for the first time in Texas, Illinois and possibly other states, the first year will be the hardest, Hattier says. Families should understand the importance of this requirement, she says. In her eight years as a career coach, Hattier says she has been surprised each year at how little parents of seniors know about financial aid for college, and this requirement, she hopes, will change that.
]Matt Newlin, a project manager at the College Advising Corps, says he hopes this requirement will encourage more students to see past the sticker price of college and get comfortable with the financial aid process. As tuition costs have risen rapidly in recent years, families may be unaware that the tuition price they see on a college's website is rarely the amount an average student pays.
"It's going to enlighten them and educate them about the true cost of college, after grants, after institutional scholarships," he says. Plus, filling out the FAFSA once creates a "domino effect" for families who are intimidated by the application, he says, because "once you get the FAFSA done the first time and realize that while it is challenging, it is manageable, it is so much easier to overcome that stigma in the future."
The FAFSA may soon be required in states beyond Louisiana, Texas and Illinois. The District of Columbia, California and Indiana have all considered legislation to mandate the FAFSA, and Newlin says the issue has the potential to receive bipartisan support in state governments.
"More and more states are realizing that if they don't have an educated workforce, there's going to be a severe worker shortage," Newlin says. "Missouri is facing that: Before 2030, we need something like 60,000 more trained workers. Even though, like a lot of things, this could be partisan, the reality of needing more educated workers would mitigate any of those concerns."
