(NewsNation) — Months after glitches in the federal college aid system delayed prospective students’ applications, reports are pinpointing who the tech troubles hurt most.
Students from immigrant families may have lost out on state grant money because of problems with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid earlier this year, The Texas Tribune reports.
FAFSA’s summer issues — which included preventing parents without a Social Security number from filling out their financial information — left students scrambling for a solution. It wouldn’t come for months.
Andrea Harper of college access group Breakthrough Central Texas told the publication that flub, among others, disproportionately impacted the children of immigrant families, especially in Texas, where colleges dole out financial aid on a first-come, first-serve basis.
“These are students who are eligible to complete the FAFSA. They’re U.S. citizens. When they were placed in the back of the line because of these glitches, they lost out… That’s going to impact this group of students for many years, maybe for their whole lives,” Harper said.
At the end of August 2024, the number of high school seniors who’d completed their FAFSA was down 9% compared to 2023, according to the National College Attainment Network.
The plunge in FAFSA completion rates was especially sharp for students who already face hurdles to enrolling in postsecondary education, including low-income students and students of color.
Advocates worry the delays — on top of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down affirmative action in higher education — will affect where and whether many go to college.
Theoretically, said Katharine Meyer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, “We’re going to see a less racially diverse college enrollment cohort, a less socioeconomically diverse college enrollment cohort.”
Areas with a high percentage of people living in poverty and places with a larger share of Black and Latino residents saw a 20% larger decline in FAFSA completions compared with higher-income areas, according to the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
Its analysis also found students in those areas were twice as likely to have submitted an incomplete FAFSA.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.