FAFSA completion down 6-12% in South Dakota

Completion rates for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has dropped more than 12% in South Dakota from the year prior.

As many as 4,595 students completed it through May 24, 2023, compared with 4,027 completing it through May 24, 2024, according to new data compiled by USA Today .

In the Sioux Falls School District alone, only 30-34% of students had completed it at that time compared with 45-49% at this time last year, according to the data , revealing a decline in processed applications where student information was reviewed and sent to colleges for financial aid consideration.

The South Dakota Board of Regents has its own dataset on FAFSA completion that shows 6% fewer students have filled it out this year compared with last year.

The drop is likely because of the U.S. Department of Education’s bungling of the rollout of the new federal financial aid form by way of delays and technical problems with the form, according to the USA Today analysis .

FAFSA usually opens Oct. 1, but it became available to students Dec. 30, 2023. Reports of outages and delays soon emerged, meaning students had three fewer months to fill it out. FAFSA issues were worse in March, and schools serving low-income students experienced a larger decrease in the number of applications completed, according to USA Today.

Students had until Sunday to complete their FAFSA to see what kind of financial assistance they’ll qualify for in the 2023-2024 school year.

The Sioux Falls School District doesn’t have any district-wide initiatives or communication regarding FAFSA completion, and since school counselors aren’t working full-time in the summer, any problems students may have encountered were handled on a student-by-student basis, district multimedia specialist Tory Stolen said last week.

“Had there been an influx of calls from students/parents seeking assistance with FAFSA completion we would have addressed the issue in kind, but no such abundance of communication ever materialized,” Stolen said.

The SDBOR ran a “pretty robust” FAFSA completion campaign from January to May through its Our Dakota Dreams initiative with digital ads, sponsored articles and social media ads targeted at students and parents, communications director Shuree Mortenson said on Monday.

The SDBOR and South Dakota Department of Education partnered with Mapping Your Future on Our Dakota Dreams, too, so high school students would have the information they need to navigate the financial aid process for college, DOE public information specialist Nancy Van Der Weide said June 24.

Through the partnership, the DOE sends FAFSA updates and information to high school counselors to share with college-bound students.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: FAFSA completion down 6-12% in South Dakota