Quick Federal Student Aid Resources:

Be sure to reference the materials below for helping students in completing the FAFSA:

  • Call in support: 1-800-4FED-AID – very helpful, speak with a real person!
  • Student Aid Resources Page
  • Counselor's Toolkit
  • Federal Student Aid Resources for the FAFSA

    • What is the difference in the FAFSA Years? What changes are associated with the October 1 opening?

    Click here.

    What is the FAFSA Completion Collective Impact Initiative?
    Building on the success of the U.S. Department of Education’s FAFSA Completion Initiative, the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) received support from the Kresge Foundation for the FAFSA Collective Impact Initiative: Utilizing the Colorado Model. This initiative hopes to connect at least 30 states together to create a collective impact to assist low-income, first generation, and under-represented students to education beyond high school through the FAFSA. This project scales the Colorado model of the FAFSA Completion project to the partnering states. Specifically, Colorado has developed and is providing the necessary technical tools for the partnering states to implement and sustain the FAFSA Completion project within their own states upon the end of the grant period (February 2019). 

    What is the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    The FAFSA Completion Initiative is an initiative through which the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is partnering with state student grant agencies to allow these agencies to provide secondary schools, school districts, and certain designated entities with limited, yet important, information on student progress in completing the FAFSA form. This limited information is referred to as FAFSA Filing Status Information.
    To participate, a state student grant agency must sign a SAIG agreement with the Department and enter into a data sharing agreement with a secondary school, school district, or a specific designated entity. The agency can then share only the specified FAFSA Filing Status Information with the secondary school, school district, or designated entity.

    The FAFSA Completion Initiative builds and expands on the success of the Department’s FAFSA Completion Pilot Project, in which the Department partnered directly with selected secondary schools and school districts to share this limited information.

    Why did the U.S. Department of Education launch the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    Because the timely completion of a FAFSA form is an essential step for many families in obtaining financial aid to pursue a postsecondary education, the FAFSA Completion Initiative will enable state student grant agencies and their school and district partners to identify those students who have not filed a FAFSA form and better target counseling, filing help, and other resources to those students. Because FAFSA completion is essential for receiving Federal financial aid, identifying such students can promote college access and success by ensuring students, particularly low-income students, have access to financial aid to fund their education.

    Are state student grant agencies, secondary schools, school districts, and designated entities required to participate in the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    No. Participation is voluntary for state student grant agencies, schools, districts, and designated entities.

    How can state student grant agencies participate in the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    As of 2014, all state student grant agencies are able to execute a revised Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) Agreement with the Department. The revised SAIG agreement includes the requirements for the FAFSA Completion Initiative and, once executed, will provide the state student grant agency with the authority to share FAFSA Filing Status Information (in accordance with applicable laws and regulations) with secondary schools, districts, and designated entities under the SAIG parameters. Thus, to participate, state student grant agencies will execute a revised SAIG agreement with the Department. Nonparticipating state student grant agencies will execute the same SAIG but will have no obligation to share the FAFSA Filing Status Information. Secondary schools, school districts, and designated entities may participate only under data agreement with state student grant agencies.

    What FAFSA Filing Status Information can a state student grant agency share with secondary schools, school districts, and designated entities under the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    Only defined FAFSA Filing Status Information may be shared under the FAFSA Completion Initiative and only under certain conditions, as identified in a question below. Specifically, the state student grant agency may only disclose: (1) the student’s last name; (2) the student’s first name and middle initial; (3) the student’s date of birth; (4) the student’s zip code (not full address); (5) if filed, the date the FAFSA form was submitted to the Department; (6) the date the Department processed the FAFSA form, if applicable; (7) a flag indicating the need for the FAFSA applicant to provide additional information, if applicable; and (8) a FAFSA completion status flag, as determined by the state student grant agency (i.e., FAFSA not submitted, FAFSA complete, or FAFSA incomplete).

    What “designated entities” can receive FAFSA Completion Information from state student grant agencies?*
    A designated entity that can receive FAFSA Completion Information from a state student grant agency is a public or nonprofit entity that the Department has designated as eligible to receive FAFSA Filing Status Information. In order to be designated as eligible to receive FAFSA Filing Status Information, an entity must have an “established relationship” with the student, as defined in the SAIG. An established relationship exists for a designated entity when the student is enrolled in or has registered with or is receiving services from the designated entity in pursuit of postsecondary education.

    Under the FAFSA Completion Initiative, can state student grant agencies share FAFSA Filing Status Information with any entity they choose?*
    No. State student grant agencies may only provide FAFSA Filing Status Information to participating schools, districts, and designated entities, and only when certain conditions are met. A state student grant agency may not provide FAFSA Filing Status Information to any other entity. In all instances, before sharing any FAFSA Filing Status Information, the state student grant agency must have a written data sharing agreement with a secondary school, school district, or designated entity.

    Can state student grant agencies share students’ social security numbers (SSNs), student and parent financial information, or any other information from a student’s FAFSA form, under the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    No. The only information that may be shared under the FAFSA Completion Initiative is the limited FAFSA Filing Status Information as described above. State agencies cannot share students’ SSNs, student and parent financial information, or any other information from the FAFSA form.

    What requirements must be met before a state student grant agency may share FAFSA Filing Status Information with secondary schools, school districts, and designated entities under the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    A state student grant agency with a revised SAIG Agreement may not begin sharing FAFSA Filing Status Information until the agency has a written data sharing agreement with the school, district, or designated entity. The written agreement must include procedures for oversight by the state student grant agency; appropriate privacy and data security provisions; and assurances from the secondary school, school district, or designated entity that it will appropriately safeguard the information, that it will not redisclose the information, and that it will comply with applicable privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

    What participating secondary school, school district or designated entity staff may have access to FAFSA Filing Status Information?*
    The revised SAIG agreement limits the use of FAFSA Filing Status Information to “authorized personnel.” In general, the SAIG agreement defines “authorized personnel” to include employees, volunteers, and authorized agents, such as contractors or other parties to whom the LEA, secondary school, or designated entity has outsourced any of its services or functions and who are under the “direct control” of the participating secondary school, school district, or designated entity with respect to the use and maintenance of the information. Any disclosure of FAFSA Filing Status Information to “authorized personnel” must comply with all applicable privacy laws, such as FERPA.

    May a participating secondary school, school district, or designated entity redisclose or otherwise share FAFSA Filing Status Information received from a state student grant agency under the FAFSA Completion Initiative?*
    FAFSA Filing Status Information received by a participating secondary school, school district, or designated entity may not be redisclosed or otherwise shared with any other entity or individual other than the FAFSA applicant and, if the FAFSA applicant is under the age of 18, with his or her parents. However, the FAFSA Filing Status Information may be shared with another party with the FAFSA applicant’s consent or the consent of the FAFSA applicant’s parents if the FAFSA applicant is under the age of 18, or if such sharing is required by law and such use is consistent with all applicable privacy laws, including the privacy provisions of section 483(a)(3)(E) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 1090(a)(3)(E) and FERPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232g.

    *Question adopted from U.S. Department of Education
    For more information on FAFSA, trending questions, and resources please visit https://fafsa.ed.gov/help.htm.