Illinois — The new year has brought new paperwork for current and prospective college students seeking financial aid, and the rollout has been a bit bumpy.

The new free application for Federal Student Aid form, better known as FAFSA, was supposed to debut Dec. 1 before being pushed back to Dec. 31.

Usually, the forms are made available in October, but the debut was delayed as the system was reconfigured to include a new login system for students and parents, new formulas for calculating student aid, and additional language options.

However, even though the forms were made available in a “soft rollout,” there have been setbacks, including forms only being available for short periods of time due to glitches.

As problems were reported, access to the programs was removed, making system availability unpredictable for students and parents.

“When the forms first went online, they were only staying up for 30 minutes to an hour at a time,” said Janeen Decharinte, director of financial aid services at Lewis University in Romeoville. “Now the problems seem to be being addressed faster, and the forms are available for more like eight hours at a time.”

The exact times when forms will be accessible still is unpredictable, and students are advised to check in periodically.

Additionally, changes were made to the login process under the new rules that require parents and students to have unique login credentials linked to their Social Security numbers.

“That is probably the most confusing part for a lot of people,” Decharinte said. “Most parents used to complete it for their students, [and] now each individual needs to provide consent in order to transfer federal data from the IRS, so they have to have their own login.

“The student completes their part first, then an email is sent to the parents to complete their part separately.”

Aside from the confusion of not being able to have one person complete all the forms, this system has created issues for families of immigrants, said Eric Ruiz, vice president of admission and enrollment services at the University of St. Francis in Joliet.

“Some students can’t get past a certain portion of the process,” Ruiz said. “It just stops. Instead of just getting a parent signature, the student and parent both need IDs for the form, but some parents don’t have a Social Security number and can’t get through. The students have Social Security numbers and are eligible for FAFSA, but they just can’t finish the form.”

“Everyone is anxious to find out what school is going to cost them, and we usually tried to get that information to them as quickly as possible, but now everything has been delayed. It is causing a lot of frustration.”

—  Eric Ruiz, University of St. Francis vice president of admission and enrollment services

Information from the Department of Education on the glitches has been limited.

Last fall, Governors State University in University Park posted guidelines for the new rules on its website with a disclaimer stating, “Caution! Our information is limited, but we will continue to update this page as more details become available,” and advising students to check back regularly for updates.

“I wish we had some kind of live chat line for help, but that’s not available,” Ruiz said. “Parents and students are taking time off to meet with us, and we can’t do anything because the site isn’t always working. They’re waiting on answers, and we’re waiting on someone else, but all they see is the school.”

Financial answers delayed

Although more students have been able to fill out the forms since the first day of the rollout, some of them still do not know if their forms were fully submitted or if they will need additional documentation.

The new rollout means that colleges will not receive confirmation of student submissions until the end of January, even though the old form would report back to schools within three to four days.

“Everyone is anxious to find out what school is going to cost them, and we usually tried to get that information to them as quickly as possible, but now everything has been delayed,” Ruiz said. “It is causing a lot of frustration.”

Although students at many schools can submit their FAFSA forms through the spring, there are a limited number of federal grants available, which places an emphasis on applying quickly.

Notably, one of the new benefits of the revised FAFSA is that more Pell grants have been created for students. The Department of Education has said about 610,000 new students will be eligible for Pell grants, with 1.5 million more students eligible for the maximum grant amount, which is about $7,400.

Although this means that more low- and middle-income students will receive aid, there are some students who are worried about losing assistance because of the new calculation method.

The new formula does not take the number of college students in a family into consideration when determining family contributions and financial aid eligibility, which could result in students who previously received grants losing that aid.

“A lot of institutions are concerned about some students who might get less aid next year than they’re currently receiving because of the new measurements,” said Cesar Flores, assistant vice president for enrollment management at Governors State. “There is some talk amongst the state schools to put aside some extra funds to assist those students next year.”

All three schools said they are encouraging families to fill out forms as soon as possible in case there are delays in their applications and to ask questions if they are uncertain about anything in the new system.

Help is available

“The schools are trying to help,” Ruiz said. “If people have questions, they shouldn’t assume or try to figure it out themselves. Ask your college admissions or financial aid office, or your high school counselor for graduating seniors, and they’ll try to get you through it.”

Decharinte said that Lewis had made a number of video tutorials available to students and parents about how to complete the new FAFSA, while Flores said Governors State has set up a number of FAFSA workshops for students that will take place throughout the semester, starting with seven in January.

“My advice is to seek help from financial aid office,” Flores said. “It’s good to ask questions. Every school is going through this now and is facing delays, so it should not impact your decision about where you want to go.”

Flores said the old FAFSA form still is available for students who need to request financial assistance for the spring semester or summer courses; the new form only applies starting next academic year in the fall.

The new system, once fully functional, is reportedly easier to navigate, with detailed instructions and fewer questions to answer. It also is available in the 11 most-spoken languages in the U.S.

The previous form only was available in English and Spanish, although there is no readily accessible list of which languages the new form is usable in.

Illinois students who are deemed ineligible for FAFSA still can apply for state aid with the Alternative Application for Illinois Financial Aid.