Once you're ready to help students and parents understand and fill out the application, use the tools and tips found on this page to assist with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) process.
We'll also keep you up to date on the latest FAFSA news, proposed changes for next year, etc.; and if you want FAFSA completion data by high school, we've got that too.
Send your students to StudentAid.gov/fillingout for an introduction to the FAFSA form and tips on how to fill it out. Note: The "Filling Out the FAFSA Form" page on StudentAid.gov references the 2023–24 FAFSA process only. The page will be updated with 2024–25 FAFSA information in December 2023.
Early Eligibility Indicator Tool: Federal Student Aid Estimator
Helping Students Learn About the FAFSA® Form
Financial Aid PowerPoint Presentations
Screenshots of fafsa.gov
FAFSA® Demonstration Site
Getting a StudentAid.gov Account
Deadlines: When To Apply
Tips on Filling Out the FAFSA® Form
2024–25 FAFSA® Form
2023–24 FAFSA® Form
After Applying: Helping Students Understand and Respond to Aid Offers
Tools for Comparing Aid Offers
Verification
Early Eligibility Indicator Tool: Federal Student Aid Estimator
The Federal Student Aid Estimator helps potential applicant understand their options for paying for college or career school by providing them an early estimate of how much federal student aid—grant, work-study, and loan funds—they may be eligible for.
Federal Student Aid Estimator(Result Type: General)
Description:
An aid calculator giving students an early estimate of federal student aid eligibility and helping them understand their options for paying for college.
Resource Type:
Web Resource or Tool
Also
Available in: Spanish(Result Type: General)
Helping Students Learn About the FAFSA® Form
Before your students dive in to filling out the FAFSA form, you might want to give them an idea of what to expect. Below are some tools that will help you introduce the application to students.
Talking point: Remind students that the FAFSA form is a free application and is found at fafsa.gov.
Financial Aid PowerPoint Presentations
You'll find a selection of presentations on the Toolkit's "Search Financial Aid Tools and Resources" page. You can edit them to include information about your state's financial aid, scholarships available in your area, and so on, and use them at financial aid information events.
Screenshots of fafsa.gov
If you'd like to incorporate a preview of the online application into your PowerPoint presentation, you may wish to use some of the "screenshots" (images of web pages) that we provide each year to show highlights of the upcoming version of the FAFSA site.
2024–25 FAFSA® Form Preview Presentation(Result Type: General)
Description:
Presentation providing screenshots of the 2024–25 FAFSA form. Feel free to use the screenshots as you compile your own presentations.
Resource Type:
Presentation
2023–24 FAFSA® Form on StudentAid.gov Preview Presentation(Result Type: General)
Description:
Presentation providing screenshots of the 2023–24 fafsa.gov application. Feel free to use the screenshots as you compile your own presentations.
Resource Type:
Presentation
FAFSA® Demonstration Site
The 2023–24 FAFSA demonstration site is available so you can increase your own understanding of fafsa.gov and show it to students before they apply. At the FAFSA demo site, you can complete a sample FAFSA form, make corrections, or check the status of the form. However, when you choose "submit," the information is not actually submitted. The site is purely a learning tool.
The demo site is typically updated in September each year to show the upcoming year's form.
Getting a StudentAid.gov Account
We encourage students and parents to get their StudentAid.gov account before filling out the FAFSA form. Starting with the 2024–25 award year, every contributor—anyone (student, the student's spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent's spouse) who's required to provide information on the FAFSA form—will need a StudentAid.gov account to access and complete their section of the online form. Contributors will access their StudentAid.gov account by using their FSA ID (account username and password)
For the 2023–24 FAFSA form, students and parents can get a StudentAid.gov account either before or while filling out the FAFSA form at fafsa.gov.
Don't ask students to share their FSA IDs with you for safekeeping, even if you are helping them to apply for aid. The FSA ID must not be shared with anyone. If a student forgets their FSA ID, they can go to StudentAid.gov/login (or to any Federal Student Aid website that requires log-in) and follow the links that give the option of retrieving the account username or password via the student's verified email address or mobile phone number, or by successfully answering their challenge questions.
Tip: If a student thinks the Social Security Administration (SSA) might have their wrong name or date of birth in its records, the student should go to ssa.gov as soon as possible to find out how to correct any errors. If the student's information isn't correct in the SSA's records, the student can create a limited StudentAid.gov account, but they won't be able to sign their FAFSA form and provide consent and approval. Without consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred into the FAFSA form, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid.
Tip: Starting December 2023, contributors without a Social Security number (SSN) can create a StudentAid.gov account to fill out their portion of the student's 2024–25 FAFSA form online.
Find resources you can use to educate students and parents about the StudentAid.gov account.
Deadlines: When To Apply
The 2024–25 FAFSA form will become available in December 2023 for the award year that runs from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. The 2023–24 FAFSA form became available on Oct. 1, 2022, for the award year that runs from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. A student can submit the application any time until the end of the award year to apply for federal student aid. However, it's important to note that state higher education agencies and many colleges and career schools use FAFSA information to determine a student's eligibility for aid from their state or school funds. Therefore, the student should check StudentAid.gov/fafsa for their state deadline and check the college's or career school's website for the school's deadline.
Note: The 2024–25 FAFSA state deadlines will be added to StudentAid.gov in December 2023.
Tips on Filling Out the FAFSA® Form
Here, we wanted to give you some additional information that might help you as you advise your students.
Meanwhile, you can find out how to host or find a FAFSA completion workshop for your students.
2024–25 FAFSA® Form
Contributors (2024–25)
On the 2024–25 FAFSA form, a contributor refers to anyone (student, the student's spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent's spouse) who's required to provide information on the FAFSA form. A student's or parent's answers on the FAFSA form will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information. Students or parents will invite a contributor to complete their portion of the FAFSA form by entering the contributor's name, date of birth, SSN, and email address.
Note: If a contributor doesn't have an SSN, they can still be invited to complete their portion of the FAFSA form. To invite a contributor who doesn't have an SSN, the student or parent will indicate that the contributor doesn't have an SSN and will instead provide the contributor's address.
To complete the contributor's portion of the FAFSA form, the contributor will
- receive an email informing them that they've been identified as a contributor;
- create a StudentAid.gov account if they don't already have one;
- review information about completing their section of the FAFSA form; and
- provide the required personal and financial information and consent and approval on the student's FAFSA form.
IMPORTANT: A parent or spouse contributor is not financially responsible for the student's education costs. However, if a required contributor refuses to provide their information and consent and approval, the FAFSA form will be incomplete, and the student will be ineligible for federal student aid.
Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange (2024–25)
The Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange, replacing the IRS Data Retrieval Tool starting with the 2024–25 award year, will transfer contributors' federal tax information from the IRS directly into the FAFSA form.
All contributors must provide consent and approval to
- disclose their personally identifiable information provided on the FAFSA form to the IRS for matching purposes;
- obtain their federal tax information from the IRS via direct data exchange;
- allow the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to use their federal tax information to determine the student's eligibility and amount of federal student aid;
- allow ED to share their federal tax information with postsecondary institutions and state higher education agencies for use in awarding and administering financial aid; and
- allow ED to reuse their federal tax information on another FAFSA applicant's form (e.g., if a parent has multiple dependent students or a parent's own FAFSA form).
NOTE: Even if contributors don't have an SSN, didn't file taxes, or filed taxes outside of the U.S., they will still need to provide consent and approval.
IMPORTANT: If a required contributor doesn't provide consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred into the FAFSA form, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid—even if they manually enter tax information into the FAFSA form. Information about how federal tax information will be used and the consequences of not providing consent and approval will be included on the FAFSA form.
To ensure the information is secure, the federal tax information won't display on the FAFSA site or the FAFSA Submission Summary. The FAFSA Submission Summary will replace the Student Aid Report (SAR) starting in the 2024–25 award year.
The direct data exchange will save time. In addition, if the student is selected for verification, they won't be asked to verify information transferred from the IRS.
Student Aid Index (2024–25)
The Student Aid Index (SAI) is a number that's used to determine eligibility for need-based aid. It is calculated using information that the student (and contributors, if required) provides on the FAFSA form. The SAI will replace the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) starting in the 2024–25 award year. A student's SAI can be a negative number down to –1500.
For additional Information, review the 2024–25 Draft Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide.
FAFSA Changes: An Overview webinar (May 2023)(Result Type: General)
Description:
Webinar informing school counselors and college access professionals about changes to FAFSA form and process starting the 2024–25 award year.
Resource Type:
Webinar or Audio File
Dependency Status (2024–25)
A student's dependency status is determined by a set of FAFSA questions (a preview of the 2024–25 FAFSA questions will be available on StudentAid.gov in September 2023). A dependent student must report information about their parent(s) on the FAFSA form.
Talking points:
- A student cannot "declare" themselves independent, even if the student is self-sufficient or does not live with their parents.
- A student's dependency status has nothing to do with whether their parents claim them on their tax returns.
- A student can't be considered independent of their parents just because the parents refuse to provide information on the FAFSA form.
Who Counts As a Parent (2024–25)
Dependent students are required to report parent information on the FAFSA® form, and in most cases, a parent will be identified as a contributor for these students. A parent means your legal (biological or adoptive) parent or a person that the state has determined to be your legal parent.
Unusual Circumstances (2024–25)
Unusual circumstances are when a student is unable to contact a parent or where contact with the parent poses a risk to the student. Examples of unusual circumstances include, but are not limited to, human trafficking, legally granted refugee or asylum status, parental abandonment or estrangement, and student or parental incarceration.
Starting in the 2024–25 award year, students who indicate on their FAFSA form that they have unusual circumstances will be granted provisional independent status. Students with this provisional independent status will receive an estimate of their federal student aid eligibility. A financial aid administrator will make the final determination of a student's unusual circumstances based on the documentation (e.g., interviews, documented phone calls and statements from various officials, court documents, utility bills, and any other documentation deemed appropriate by the school) that the student submits to the school, and on a case-by-case basis. If a school approves a student's unusual circumstances, their resulting independent status will carry forward on subsequent FAFSA forms as long as the student remains enrolled at the same school and their circumstances don't change.
Special Circumstances (2024–25)
Special circumstances are significant changes that contributors experience related to their financial situation.These may include the following:
- loss of employment or financial assets
- reduction in income
- tuition expenses at an elementary or secondary school
- unusual medical or dental expenses not covered by insurance
If the student or their contributor has a special circumstance, they should contact their college's or career school's financial aid office.
Special Student Populations and Circumstances: 2024–25 FAFSA® Form (June 2023)(Result Type: General)
Description:
Webinar providing college access professionals with information on how students can request adjustments due to special and unusual circumstances.
Resource Type:
Webinar or Audio File
Exempt From Asset Reporting
Certain FAFSA questions determine whether a student is eligible for an exemption from asset reporting. Applicants online may be able to skip asset questions if
- the student qualifies for a maximum Federal Pell Grant;
- their families adjusted gross income is less than $60,000 and they don't file an IRS Form 1040 with Schedule A, B, D, E, F, H or C or, if they do file a Schedule C, their net business income isn't more than a $10,000 loss or gain; or
- if the student or their parent or spouse received a benefit under a means-tested federal benefit program during the 2022 or 2023 calendar year.
For additional information, review the 2024–25 Draft Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide.
2023–24 FAFSA® Form
Automatic-Zero EFC and Simplified Needs Test (2023–24)
Certain FAFSA questions determine whether a student is eligible for the Automatic Zero EFC. Based on their answers to those questions, applicants online may be able to skip certain income and asset questions.
Additionally, the Simplified Needs Test allows some students to have assets excluded from consideration in calculating the EFC. Based on their answers to certain questions on the FAFSA form, applicants may be able to skip the asset questions.
You can find details on the Automatic-Zero EFC and the Simplified Needs Test (referred to as the simplified formula) in the "Expected Family Contribution" chapter of the Application and Verification Guide, a document written for financial aid administrators but appropriate for others who want a good depth of understanding of financial aid.
Note: For purposes of determining eligibility for state financial aid, some states require asset and income information. Students who are residents of such states will be asked those questions regardless of their eligibility for the federal Simplified Needs Test formula or for an Automatic-Zero EFC. Students who are not residents of such states will be asked whether they want to skip the optional questions. Some schools, too, require the student to complete those questions to determine eligibility for institutional aid, so the student should check with the schools to which they are applying before deciding to skip those questions. (Providing all income and asset information will not negate the student's eligibility for the Simplified Needs Test formula or for the Automatic-Zero EFC.)
The Automatic-Zero EFC and Simplified Needs Test apply to the 2023–24 FAFSA form only and will no longer exist starting with the 2024–25 award year.
IRS Data Retrieval Tool (2023–24)
The IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) transfers student or parent IRS tax information directly into the FAFSA form. To ensure the information is secure, it is not displayed on the FAFSA site or the Student Aid Report. Besides the time saved by using the IRS DRT, another benefit for students and parents is that in most cases if the student is selected for verification, the student won't be asked to verify the information imported by the IRS DRT.
You may find that some students or parents are not offered the opportunity to use the IRS DRT while filling out the FAFSA form. Typically, this happens for one of these reasons:
- The person indicated that they had not filed taxes.
- The person's marriage date is after the end of the year for which tax information is being reported.
- The person filed a non-U.S. or U.S. territories tax form.
- The person is married and filed as head of household or married filing separately.
- Neither married parent entered a valid SSN.
- Both married parents (or the only parent reported on the FAFSA form) entered all zeroes for the SSN.
For details and FAQs about the IRS DRT, send your students to StudentAid.gov/irsdrt.
The IRS DRT applies to the 2023–24 FAFSA form only. It will be replaced with the Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange starting with the 2024–25 award year.
Dependency Status (2023–24)
A student's dependency status is determined by a set of FAFSA questions (preview the questions at StudentAid.gov/dependency). A dependent student must report information about their parent(s) on the FAFSA form.
Talking points:
- A student cannot "declare" themselves independent, even if the student is self-sufficient or does not live with their parents.
- A student's dependency status has nothing to do with whether their parents claim them on their tax returns.
- A student can't be considered independent of their parents just because the parents refuse to provide information on the FAFSA form.
The student should contact the financial aid administrator at the college they plan to attend to discuss special circumstances that might affect their dependency status. For details about what types of circumstances might result in a dependency override, and for information about how you can support a student who has special circumstances, see Part 2 of the 2023–24 Counselors and Mentors Handbook on Federal Student Aid.
Who Counts As a Parent (2023–24)
Dependent students are required to report income and other information from the dependent student's legal parents (biological or adoptive) regardless of the parents' marital status or gender, if those parents live together.
You can find plain-language guidance for students and their families at StudentAid.gov/fafsa-parent.
Who's My Parent When I Fill Out My FAFSA® Form? graphic(Result Type: IMG)
Description:
Graphic helping dependent students determine which parent's information to include in the FAFSA form..
Resource Type:
Infographic
Also
Available in: Spanish(Result Type: IMG), Text Version(Result Type: General), Text Version - Spanish(Result Type: General)
Filling Out the FAFSA® Form Without Access to Parent Information (2023–24)
The application asks whether the student is able to provide information about their parents.
- If the student indicates that they have special circumstances such as having left home due to an abusive situation, fafsa.gov allows the student to submit the application without entering data about the parents. The student's application will not be processed, and the student must contact the financial aid administrator at the school they plan to attend. The financial aid administrator will ask for additional information to determine whether the student can be considered independent.
- If the student indicates that the parent refuses to provide information on the FAFSA form and no longer supports the student, federal law allows the student to submit the application without parent information and—after review by the financial aid administrator at the student's chosen school—potentially receive only a dependent Direct Unsubsidized Loan. The student must follow up with the financial aid administrator to find out what to do next to receive the loan.
Important details about filling out the FAFSA form without access to parent information are in Part 2 of the 2023–24 Counselors and Mentors Handbook on Federal Student Aid. Similar information, written for the student, is on the StudentAid.gov/fafsa-parent page.
This guidance applies to the 2023–24 FAFSA form only.
Helping Students and Parents With the Schedule 1 Questions (2023–24)
The Schedule 1 questions ask students and parents if they filed or will file a Schedule 1 with their 2021 tax return.
| If the student or parent is single, they should select | if they |
|---|---|
| If the student or parent is single, they should select | if they |
| "No" | didn't and won't file a Schedule 1. |
filed or will file a Schedule 1 to report only one or more of the following items:
| |
| "Yes" | filed or will file a Schedule 1 to report additional income or adjustments other than one or more of the six exceptions listed above. |
| "Don't know" | doesn't know if they filed or will file a Schedule 1. |
| If the student or parent is married and filed a joint tax return, they should select | if they |
|---|---|
| If the student or parent is married and filed a joint tax return, they should select | if they |
| "No" | didn't and won't file a Schedule 1. |
filed or will file a Schedule 1 to report only one or more of the following items:
| |
| "Yes" | filed or will file a Schedule 1 to report additional income or adjustments other than one or more of the six exceptions listed above. |
| "Don't know" | doesn't know if they filed or will file a Schedule 1. |
| If the student or parent is married and filed a separate tax return from their spouse, they should select | if |
|---|---|
| If the student or parent is married and filed a separate tax return from his or her spouse, they should select | if |
| "No" | both spouses didn't and won't file a Schedule 1. |
both spouses filed or will file a Schedule 1 to report only one or more of the following items:
| |
| one spouse didn't and won't file a Schedule 1 and the other spouse filed or will file a Schedule 1 but only to report one or more of the six additions or adjustments listed above. | |
| "Yes" | either spouse filed or will file a Schedule 1 to report additional income or adjustments other than one or more of the six exceptions listed above. |
| "Don't know" | doesn't know if either spouse filed or will file a Schedule 1. |
When students and parents use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT), the IRS DRT will transfer information about whether they filed a Schedule 1. The answer will be based on all current exceptions for filing a Schedule 1. The transferred data for the Schedule 1 fields will be masked.
Send your students and their parents to StudentAid.gov/2324/help/student-schedule-1 and StudentAid.gov/2324/help/parent-schedule-1.
This guidance applies to the 2023–24 FAFSA form only.
Unsual Financial Circumstances (2023–24)
In some circumstances, the financial aid administrator may choose to make adjustments to certain FAFSA data to account for financial difficulties. The student should contact the financial aid administrator at their college to discuss their situation if
- the family has unusually large medical bills or nursing home expenses that are not covered by insurance;
- the family is paying unusually high elementary or secondary school tuition or dependent care expenses; or
- the student or a parent has recently lost their job.
The best thing you can do to help a student who has unusual financial circumstances is to encourage the student to gather as much written evidence as possible and to provide it to the financial aid office at the school they plan to attend. Unusual financial circumstances might be demonstrated with items such as medical or childcare bills or with proof of the loss of employment of a family member.
Talking point: The financial aid administrator is not required to adjust financial elements on the FAFSA form. The school's decision is final and cannot be appealed to the U.S. Department of Education.
This guidance applies to the 2023–24 FAFSA form only.
After Applying: Helping Students Understand and Respond to Aid Offers
Once a student has filed the FAFSA form, the college will respond with an aid offer (sometimes called an award letter) by postal mail, email, or another means. You might find that students bring their aid offers to you for help in understanding them.
Talking point: A student doesn't have to accept all the aid offered; for instance, it's okay to ask the school to lower the amount of a loan if the student's budget allows for less borrowing.
Tip: To help students understand the different types of aid they're being offered, you might want to familiarize yourself with the aid available in your state and at the schools to which many of your students apply.
Tools for Comparing Aid Offers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers a tool for comparing colleges' financial aid offers. Students can enter the school's name, cost of attendance, financial aid offer, and more in order to compare the net costs of attending several schools.
Meanwhile, hundreds of schools use the College Financing Plan, a document that sets out the school's aid offer in a simple way so the student can easily understand it and compare it to offers from other schools.
Talking point: A student should not be scared off by a college's cost of attendance. Instead, they should look at the net cost of attending the school—the amount it'll cost them to attend once financial aid is taken into account. Send your students to StudentAid.gov/complete-aid-process/comparing-aid-offers to learn about aid offers and net price.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's financial path to graduation tool(Result Type: General)
Description:
Web tool helping students to determine each school's net price–their actual out-of-pocket cost.
Resource Type:
Web Resource or Tool
2023–24 Undergraduate College Financing Plan Template(Result Type: PDF)
Description:
Consumer tool that can be used to help undergraduate students understand and compare school aid offers. [78 KB]
Resource Type:
Handout
2023–24 Graduate/Professional College Financing Plan Template(Result Type: PDF)
Description:
Consumer tool that can be used to help graduate and professional students understand and compare school aid offers. [81KB]
Resource Type:
Handout
Verification
The verification process aims to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of the federal student aid programs. A student selected for verification will be asked to show that they reported certain FAFSA information correctly. Different students are asked to verify different items.
If a student is selected for verification, the college(s) will contact the student to indicate what documentation the student must submit to the school and by what date. The student should be sure to provide all documentation promptly. It is unlikely that the school will process financial aid for the student until the required documentation is received.
In most cases, due to Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange for the 2024–25 FAFSA form and the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for the 2023–24 FAFSA form, students won't have to verify income and tax information. However, if a student is selected for verification, the school may ask them to submit a tax transcript or other documentation to confirm the information you reported.