If You've Got Kids in US College/ University..

MORE MIDDLE-CLASS & SMALL BIZ CRUSHING BIDENFLATION IS SERVED (BONUS DIVORCE PENALTY TOO!)

The FAFSA Gets an Overhaul

The US Department of Education is calling it the “most ambitious and significant redesign of the federal student aid application in decades.” 

If you've got kids in US college, or a highschool junior headed there, you may need to budget more, or get more aggressive with seeking private scholarships.

Here are some highlights of the new FAFSA, which will generally be favorable for lower-income students and bad news for families with multiple children in college, small businesses and households with divorce.

Parents will have to wait longer this year to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Traditionally, the FAFSA, which millions of families complete each year, is released Oct. 1. The U.S. Department of Education, however, recently announced that the FAFSA for the 2024–2025 school year won’t be available until sometime in December.

The FAFSA overhaul will be a financial hardship for families with more than one child in college. Traditionally, parents captured a 50% break on their EFC with two children in college and the discount increased to 66% with three.

The new FAFSA didn’t do any favors for small-business owners and family farms. In the past, these folks enjoyed the ability to exclude their business and farm assets from the FAFSA as long as they did not employ more than 100 full-time or full-time equivalent workers. That exemption will no longer exist. 

How those assets would impact a household’s Student Aid Index will depend on a family’s adjusted gross income as well as the value of the business or farm. 

Details:

https://www.wealthmanagement.com/college-planning/fafsa-gets-overhaul?

Submit a comment:

in March, the department released a draft version of the new FAFSA and is soliciting comments on it. After the comment period ends on May 23, it will finalize the new version.To submit comments, go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal and select the Docket ID number ED-2023-SCC-0053.

The release of this form for public comment provides the first opportunity to see the new FAFSA form. A 2nd comment period will occur when the form is close to final. At NCAN, we will share our comments with you as we get closer to the deadline.

https://www.regulations.gov/