Julie Shields Rutyna: [00:00:00] Good morning, everyone. My name is Julie Shields Rutina, and I am the Senior Director of College Planning, Education and Training at MEFA. And I’d like to welcome you to, uh, the webinar this morning, A Deep Dive into the FAFSA. And we’re so lucky to have with us Jillian Glaze, who is the Senior Director of Student Financial Services at Bunker Hill Community College.

So let’s just talk about a couple of logistics, and then we’ll, we’ll jump right in. So, uh, you have control of the audio if you need to, if, if your office is busy and you need to put us on mute for a moment, something like that. Um, we have disabled the chat, but we have left open the Q&A for questions. Um, I will say I will be behind the scenes, um, managing that, and then I can bring questions to Jillian.

But please note Jillian has a lot [00:01:00] of, uh, slides to get through, so… And she’s gonna cover a lot. So let’s, let’s let the webinar get going and then, um, of course, by, by… If you have any questions that come up, something was confusing or something, put that right in there, and at some point we’ll make sure to answer all of your questions.

If you would like closed captioning, you can use the Live Transcript button on your screen. And if you need to leave the webinar for any, uh, reason, please know that we will be emailing you a link to both the webinar recording and the slides

And I’ll just say a couple of words about MEFA. I think you know MEFA. We have been around since 1982 helping families plan, save, and pay for college, and one of our important roles is to help you as school counselors. We know how busy your jobs are, and we want to be able to help you with, um, [00:02:00] anything around helping your students and families plan, pay, and save for college.

So, um, please know that you can visit our MEFA Institute for other webinars like this and receive professional development points. And please know we have a whole suite of resources for your families, whether that be, uh, webinars on many topics, one-on-one appointments. Uh, people can email us with quick questions.

Uh, we have a podcast. All, all of this. So if we can help you help your families, please be in touch. Let us know how, and I’ll give you some contact information at the end. And with that, I think I’m gonna turn it right over to you, Jill. Yes.

Jillian Glaze: Thanks, Julie.

Julie Shields Rutyna: All right. Great.

Jillian Glaze: So good morning, everyone. I’m glad that you’re here.

Um, welcome to the 2027-2028 FAFSA cycle. Um, we’re gonna do a walkthrough of the FAFSA today, and I’m really excited to [00:03:00] get started. For anyone that is new to the process, the FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and the form can be found at fafsa.gov. Um, it can also be accessed through studentaid.gov, and it is the universal gateway to federal and in Massachusetts state aid opportunities, uh, for students.

So it’s important to know that this is a process that students will go through each year, and that each child in a family that is attending college or plans to attend college should complete their own FAFSA. Um, also keep in mind that every institution is different, and while all institutions are going to want to take a peek at your FAFSA if you’re applying for aid, um, other…

Some institutions will have other applications that you’d like y- they’d like you to complete, which might be their own institutional form or a form like the CSS Profile [00:04:00] Just to get started, everyone always asks, how long does it take to do the FAFSA? I think it’s good to give an estimate of 30 to 40 minutes because almost everyone will finish in that time, but we know it depends a little bit on tech savvy, how quickly someone reads, how quickly someone types.

Our average that we’ve seen at Bunker Hill is that the vast majority of families are through the process in 15 to 20 minutes, and that almost everyone is done by the 35-minute mark. So 40 minutes is a safe put aside to get everything coordinated and through the process, and most people will be pleasantly surprised how quickly the process goes.

What’s new for twenty-seven/twenty-eight? So first, instant verification for new studentaid.gov accounts, the FSA ID. This will speed up the process. Um, for those of you who are back from previous years, you’ll know that, that [00:05:00] this is a welcome change and something we’ve been waiting for, that there have been some…

had been some delays i- previously in studentaid.gov accounts being, um, verified, and that we’re seeing less of that, and those are happening instantaneously. Returning FAFSA file- filers will find that their information is being prefilled, which will save typing and again, be a time saver for those who are renewing FAFSAs.

Um, of course, with every year, uh, all contributors, the, the student and parent, will need to consent again for tax data to be transferred from one, um, from the IRS into their FAFSA form. And parents with multiple children will only have to enter their information once, will be very exciting for those folks.

Uh, their information will then be attached to their multiple children. Um, fraud prevention. So there’s real-time identity verification, [00:06:00] and for those of you who have previous FAFSA experience, you probably have seen some of that happening in the past, uh, twenty-six/twenty-seven cycle. S- this is starting fresh with twenty-seven/twenty-eight, so we will have this for the whole cycle.

Um, you may have a student or a contributor that’s asked for some additional identity verification process. Uh, and this generally is uploading a document or showing a document on a screen and happens fairly quickly and efficiently, um, through a long-standing process. Real-time processing. Important to know here, uh, this is great for students because it’s giving them their information right away.

They are going to get their SAI, and it also allows for immediate corrections for those uh-oh moments where you’re helping a family, they get to the end and they’re like, “Oh, no, we forgot to add this information,” or, “We’ve spotted a typo. As we were hitting submit, we realized we didn’t include this information.”[00:07:00]

Students and contributors, parents will be able to go back in and make those updates quickly. It’s important to note, though, that just because they are getting real-time information doesn’t mean the school is getting real-time information. There’s still a bit of a delay for us at the institution to receive information.

So just be aware, um, as you’re working with students and families, just because it’s popped up on the screen for the student doesn’t mean that the school is going to see that information in their system yet. So you’re still gonna have to give it twenty-four to forty-eight hours, uh, before the school has the information to share with you or, or to look over on their end.

Um- Students only need to enter a parent’s email address to invite them into the FAFSA now, which will speed up the process for students. And you may see an alert shown at the end of the FAFSA process if the graduates of a college that the student has entered in, [00:08:00] um, have college graduates that are earning less than high school graduates in the same cohort.

So this is new for the ’27, ’28 cycle. Um, something that families may have questions about, uh, but won’t impact FAFSA processing or, or information being shared with the school

When you’re completing the FAFSA, the language that you’re going to see, uh, contributor, is anyone that needs to provide information to complete the FAFSA. Every contributor will have their own section to complete. Students are contributors, of course, and then we are going to have parents and possibly stepparents, depending on the situ- the family situation, who could all be contributors.

Uh, if you happen to have an independent student, you may have a student spouse that’s a contributor as well. Um, all income questions will pull answers from the [00:09:00] federal tax return with the contributor’s consent. Uh, this is gonna save time and cut down on data errors for the student and the contributors.

Um, the contributor is going to com- provide consent to pull their tax data, uh, to receive federal aid. We, we really want that data coming straight from the IRS. Online skip logic. This isn’t new, but has been enhanced. Um, skip logic is the process where the FAFSA has gotten smarter and is only asking the student or contributor questions that res- that, um, apply to them.

So if the student says that they don’t have any children, they are not going to ask additional questions on that topic. Um, it will cut down on the number of questions that students and parents are presented with as they move through the process. It’s important to [00:10:00] answer all the questions in order. Uh, this is, again, due to skip logic.

If you don’t respond to something, you may not see pertinent questions which may give you skewed results. Or you might fi- you might find that you’ve hit a wall if you haven’t answered a question that is needed to move on in the process. Um, important to know that if this, if a financial item doesn’t apply to you or doesn’t apply to a student or a parent, they can always enter zero to move through the process.

And also be aware that incomplete FAFSAs are deleted after forty-five days. Um, this means a student or a parent contributor goes in, starts a FAFSA, doesn’t make it through all the steps. Uh, it will sit out, and the student will get reminders every seven days that it’s out there and waiting to be completed.

At the end of forty-five days, it will be deleted. Does that mean the student can’t start a new [00:11:00] FAFSA? Nope. They absolutely can. It just means that the information that was previously saved is not going to be there for them, so they’ll have to start fresh

What should students and parents have on hand to complete the FAFSA? Very important for the student, Social Security number, date of birth, current bank statements, current investment records, and some families may want to have their 2025 federal income tax returns on hand, um, to help fill out some of the additional data questions, or if for some reason there is an issue with the pull-in from the IRS

How can you get help with a FAFSA that is stuck for some reason? You’re getting an error message that doesn’t make sense. A student or family has a question that you just can’t find the answer. [00:12:00] Um, there’s a lot of options to reach out to FAFSA customer service. This is especially helpful, too, as students are creating accounts where they may have some issues, um, getting authenticated.

The phone number for FAFSA customer service is 1-800-4FEDAID. The email form is at helpcenter\contact. Same for the chat option if it’s available. Um, the hours for these services are Monday eight to nine… eight AM to nine PM, Tuesday to Wednesday eight to eight, Thursday to Friday eight to six. Saturday and Sunday they are closed, so you can still send an email, but don’t expect a response until the next business day.

And then there is a chat with Aiden, which is the AI virtual assistant, um, kind of embedded into the studentaid.gov website. There’s also help center searches [00:13:00] and, of course, lots of opportunity. And hopefully you’ll be able to come back to this recording too if you have a question on FAFSA completion or how a student should be answering a question So let’s dive into what the FAFSA actually looks like.

You are going to go to the FAFSA homepage, fafsa.gov or studentaid.gov, and we are going to start a FAFSA. Um, to do that, you’re gonna start a new form

Here’s where some folks get tripped up because this is our first question, and it is an important one. So for the vast majority of students who are planning to start classes in the fall, they are gonna complete the ’27-’28 FAFSA, which is now the highlighted, um, FAFSA. For those of you who may be supporting students who graduate in December and are looking to start classes this January or who are supporting [00:14:00] students who may be just out of high school, uh, and are looking to jump into January classes, now is the time of year when we start advising students to complete both FAFSAs, starting with ’26-’27, because January is still in our ’26-’27 academic and award year.

Um, so now’s a great time to get those students in the habit of completing both, and then they’ll be done with the FAFSA for a good long while and can take a break

So to get started, we are going to create an account, and everyone’s gonna need an account whose information is going to be provided. So if the student already has a login, they’re gonna start by logging in here. If the student does not have a login, they are going to click on Create an Account

students and parents who are contributing. Um, if the parents are married and file taxes jointly, [00:15:00] only one parent will need to complete the information, so only one parent will need an account. Though my advice is to always have both parents go through the process so that there’s a backup. Uh, you never know when someone else might need to jump in and, and update something or complete a FAFSA.

And it’s good practice for everyone to be able to log in and, and view information

How is an account created? The account is going to require an email address. A secure code is going to be sent to email. We’ll need name, date of birth, and Social Security number. For parents without a Social Security number, they’re gonna be asked a series of questions based on their credit history, and this is very similar to the process if you were logging into, um, the IRS or, uh, a credit report.

Um, it’s gonna ask questions that you’ve probably seen before when you’ve logged [00:16:00] into a secure website, like previous addresses, um, accounts that have been opened, just to verify that the person is who they say they are. And then a phone number for account recovery and two-step verification. I cannot emphasize this enough.

While it says this, this is optional, this is so important because you think at the moment that students and families are filling this out, that they will remember it when they come back a year later, and we have so many folks that come back to us in year two, um, who are like, “I have no idea. I can’t remember.

I thought I wrote it down. I can’t find it.” The phone number for account recovery is incredibly helpful, uh, so we encourage everyone to do that. Secure code will be sent to the phone to verify again that it… that the phone is in possession of the person that’s creating the account, and then a mailing address, and a username and password will, will be created.

Um, again, great, great opportunity to encourage folks to write that [00:17:00] down or save it somewhere secure so that they will have it the next time they need to log in, ’cause they will need to log in again

And our login process looks very similar to logging into just about everything. It’s gonna start with either s- either the username or the student’s, uh, email address that they used to create the account and a password, and there are prompts in case either are forgotten. Um, and there is a step-by-step help for both items if the student or the contributor struggles with remembering any of the information attached.

Um, so those are pretty helpful, and people are usually able to retrieve their account information if they have one set up and get logged in

So here we’re gonna start to make some decisions, and, um, we are going to start our example with the student contributor. FSA, [00:18:00] Federal Student Aid, really encourages that the student start the FAFSA process. And I will tell you from a technological standpoint, they’re gonna h- the family will have a much smoother process, um, if they follow that logic.

It can get a little bit tricky when we start with parent information that we’re going back and then adding student information, too. Um, it’s just the way the workflow was built. Uh, so we do encourage the student to start off. And once, once the parent is ready to contribute their information, they are going to be receiving a code that they can choose that they’re starting the form as a parent, enter the code, and it will attach to the correct student.

So we are going to get started with the student section. And we are going to look at some stuff that’s being pulled over from the account creation. Julie, do you have a question?

Julie Shields Rutyna: Well, yeah, I just, I have a, just a couple of questions that are all related that maybe you can just say a few things to [00:19:00] clarify this even more.

Sure. Um, the great thing that, um, parents can just have their one FSA ID- Mm-hmm … and, um, that will help when they’re filling out the FAFSA from multiple children.

Jillian Glaze: Yes.

Julie Shields Rutyna: And, um, so, you know, y- you talked about how that the data will be, will be there when they go in to do the, the FAFSA for the second child. Is that true even, um, if that will be three years later?

Jillian Glaze: So certain information gets retained. S- things like the address, Social Security number, date of birth, those things are retained from year to year, but tax information is gonna be different every year. So the parent contributor would still have a little bit of work to do. They’d have to go in a- and approve that tax transfer every time it’s needed.

Julie Shields Rutyna: That’s great. Thank you.

Jillian Glaze: [00:20:00] Student, um, the student info will come over from studentaid.gov. So it’s gonna be important that the student are, is entering their accurate Social Security number. Encourage students to use their legal name. I will give a shout-out for encouraging students to use their legal name on their admissions application as well.

Um, we often have embedded into the admissions process, the student can also share a chosen name with us. Um, but if we have the legal name somewhere, it makes it much easier for us to match data on the back end once we’re receiving the information from the FAFSA. Um, but on the FAFSA itself, we wanna make sure we’re using legal name, the accurate date of birth, and the Social Security number.

The Social Security number is huge because it can be a showstopper if it gets misentered and the student can end up having to make some phone calls to FSA to get the Social Security number squared away. It’s also going to pull over the [00:21:00] mailing address, um, and any changes that the student, to the student demographic info on the account needs to be made at studentaid.gov and might require some follow-up with FSA to get that squared away

The student’s gonna be asked for their state of residence. This is important because this is going to determine where the application, once it’s done, the information is routed for state grant consideration. So students who indicate that they’re Massachusetts residents, um, are going to be sent to our own Massachusetts Office of Student Financial Assistance to be considered for things like the Mass Grant and any other state, um, funds they might qualify for.

It also indicates to the school that we should be looking for state grant eligibility as well

And just want to call out, every time you see that little I in the circle, [00:22:00] um, that means there’s more information and prompting. So if you’re ever helping a student or a family through the process and you aren’t sure, you want a little more context around the question, that I is there to give you a little bit of help

Providing consent. Consent is incredibly important. Um, without it, the FAFSA is kind of stopped in its tracks. So everyone’s going to be asked, everyone that is a contributor is going to be asked for consent to share information between the FAFSA and the IRS to get tax data or cor- confirmation of non-filing.

Um, so this is gonna be one of the first steps that, that folks see. It can be a little bit scary for, um, families, but I think it’s important to just assure them that this is, you know, this is a normal process. We’re just pulling over your tax numbers, um, and you’re just giving [00:23:00] consent for that information to be shared between the two agencies.

It is not consent for much more than that. All of the technical language is there for families to review for those who are, you know, interested in what exactly the agreement is. Um, but we do, uh, need the approval and consent to move forward in the process. Once the family and student have had a chance to look through, they’re gonna select Approve and move forward in the process.

A screen’s gonna pop up, um, and it’s … the family will get, student will get notification that the tax information is being securely imported. Now, when I say that this is secure, it’s incredibly secure. Even within the institution, we have really strict protocols about who can, who can see this information once it’s imported, who has access to it, and it’s pretty much the Financial Aid Office and that’s it.

Um, [00:24:00] so this is very secure data and is protected. If you call a school, they’re not gonna be able to share it, and we’re not gonna be able to share it over the phone. Um, it is lockdown tight

For students, contributors, parents that did not file taxes, they will get correctly an information screen that indicates that they were unable to retrieve tax data. This is perfectly okay. Um, we have lots of folks that didn’t file taxes for a variety of reasons, and we’re able to continue on through the process.

And the student will have an opportunity to enter some information if it’s pertinent to them, if they had some income or some other asset information, um, that just didn’t require a tax to be, uh, taxes to be filed[00:25:00]

We are also going to delve into, um, the student background now. So first set of questions is going to help determine whether the student is considered a dependent student and needs to report parent information on the FAFSA, or if they’re independent, in which case they will be able to bypass the parent information on the form and continue with just their information through the process

The first question is the student’s marital status as of today. So married students are independent and aren’t required to put, uh, parent data on the form regardless of their age. And students who are separated or who were married and who are separated are not considered independent. So if they are under the age of 24, those students who are separated are now going to be asked to contribute their parent information through the process[00:26:00]

Julie

Julie Shields Rutyna: Well, I was trying to find the perfect time, but w- I think we can address this now. Sure. Um, so there is a question, you know, a very good one. I have a, I have families who are worried about sharing consent or taxes because they’re in the process of establishing legal status in the country.

Jillian Glaze: Mm-hmm.

Julie Shields Rutyna: How can we reassure them that this should not affect their case or mark them as, quote-unquote, “Being a burden to the government?”

Jillian Glaze: Sure, absolutely. That’s a great question, and it does come up regularly. I think it’s really important to assure them that this is only used for the purpose of determining need for financial aid purposes.

We have lots of data-sharing agreements that prohibit this information going anywhere else at this time. And of course, as with everything else, schools watch this closely. Were there ever to be a [00:27:00] change to this, which we do not anticipate, we would share that broadly, and we would make sure families knew.

At this time, this is just to apply for financial aid, so it is important to make sure that folks know this isn’t, this information isn’t, isn’t being shared anywhere else, and we wanna encourage those folks to feel confident that they are able to provide that information to us, um, at this time, and we would absolutely let it be known far and wide if, if any anticipated changes to that were coming.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Thanks, Julie.

Jillian Glaze: So college plans. We are gonna get a little information on what year in school, um, the student anticipates that they’ll be. First year freshmen are going to be our students who haven’t attended school before. We have second year sophomore, um, third or higher, and then graduate level. Graduate students, so students who already have a [00:28:00] bachelor’s degree and are going on to a master’s program, they are independent students.

Um, students should make sure they select no when they’re asked if they have a bachelor’s degree if they have not earned a four-year college degree from somewhere. Uh, this trips up some folks, especially folks who may not be, um, speakers of, native speakers of English, um, because that bachelor word, that baccalaureate can, can trip some folks up.

So important to just double-check with, with folks as you’re having that conversation. Uh, if they do not have a four-year degree, they’re wanting to answer no to that question

Other factors that qualify a student as independent. If they are older than 23, so 24 and up, they are automatically independent, and that will be determined when they enter their date of birth. If they have dependents who [00:29:00] receive support from them. So if we have a student who is 22 years old and they are supporting a child, they are independent.

Active duty military or a student who has veteran status, and veteran status can be even one day of service. Um, so anyone who has those statuses is encouraged to check that box and become independent. Um, if since the student turned 13, they are an orphan, they’ve been in foster care or are a ward of the court, uh, those students are independent and don’t need to include parent information on the FAFSA.

Emancipated minor, um, that is another category that we see that less frequently in Massachusetts. And then those students who are in a legal guardianship through the court. Um, it’s important to kind of notate that the legal guardianship needs to be on file in the court. Um, we’ve- we see sometimes [00:30:00] some unofficial legal guardianship, and we know there’s a lot of folks who might be in the care of a relative in an unofficial capacity.

Uh, the legal guardianship here requires, um, that this be through the court, established through the court

The student will also be presented a question on homelessness. Students who are homeless, um, or self-sus- self-supporting or at risk of being homeless are considered independent. They do not need to enter parent information. Uh, if you have someone at your schools or through your agencies who works with homeless youth or s-students who are at risk of homelessness, um, great to encourage them to use this status and to connect with your college campuses because we all have a single point of contact on our campuses that can help the student transition into the college years.

So the earlier we’re able to make those connections, [00:31:00] the, the more stable that transition can be for the student. So great to answer, um, if you’re supporting a student that’s in that situation. Otherwise, you’re going to indicate that these don’t apply

The student’s going to be asked about unusual circumstances, and unusual circumstances would be situations that prevent the student from contacting their parent. Um, so this isn’t for a student who has just chosen to get their own apartment, uh, or who has a job full-time and is going to school. Uh, it has to be a situation where contacting the parent would cause harm to the student.

We encourage if a student is in that situation to answer yes. Uh, we’re going to follow up with the student. They’ll be marked as provisional independent student. That means [00:32:00] that they’ll be able to move through the FAFSA without including parent information, but they’re going to need to make contact with the school to provide a little bit of more context around their situation so that we can document it on file.

Every school has a process for that, and a student who indicates that they’re a provisional independent by indicating that they have unusual circumstances will be contacted directly by the school. Um, so the student doesn’t necessarily need to take any action. Uh, just by filing in this manner, the school will follow up with the student

At this point, we’ve made it through the dependency status questions, and the FAFSA will make a determination. If the student has answered yes to age 24, married, has children that they support, they’re already through the process, and they’re filling out their independent FAFSA. For our student, we’ve now made the [00:33:00] determination that they are dependent.

So we’re gonna provide some parent information here. Um, the first question that the student will see once their, their dependency status is set is the option to apply for federal unsubsidized loan only if the parents are unwilling to provide information. This is a great option for the student who is clearly dependent.

They’re living with parents. They have contact with parents, but the parent just refuses to give information on the FAFSA or participate. Uh, it will allow the student to finish up the FAFSA without that parent contribution. But the downside is the student is only eligible for unsubsidized loans, um, which isn’t ideal for most of our students.

And generally speaking, uh, uh, most of the institutions will do some follow-up with the student. And I know we do a lot of outreach when we get a FAFSA, uh, in this situation to see if there’s some information that we can provide to the parent that might change their [00:34:00] mind. Um, you know, some support, additional information, some assurances about the security, uh, around their data that might nudge them in the direction of contributing so the student can be considered for the other types of aid, like the Pell Grant, SEOG, um, and the subsidized loan, all of which are a little more beneficial to the student than the unsub loan

The student’s gonna be asked their sex. This does not if- impact aid eligibility at all, and we don’t ever see it on the college side. So demographic information here, um, doesn’t come to us, so it isn’t used for anything other than the, uh, Federal Student Aid agency being able to collect some statistics on students.

The same is true with the race and ethnicity questions. We don’t see that information. It’s data gathering, um, for Federal Student [00:35:00] Aid. Um, moving into citizenship status, this is a question that we see, and there are several options. The first is US citizen or national, and if the student, um, if the student chooses US citizen or national, their information is sent out to Social Security Administration for a verification check.

Um, if the student indicates that they are an eligible non-citizen, and those would be permanent residents, um, folks who have an I-94 arrival or departure record, uh, uh, T visas, battered immigrants or VAWA as we frequently call, um, that category of folks, um, citizens of Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau, those folks are going to have an A number, um, and that will be verified through the process.[00:36:00]

But the citizens of Federated States will not. They’re US citizens or nationals that fall under that category. Our eligible non-citizens, we’re gonna grab that A number, um, and verify it through the Department of Homeland Security. And, um, once that information is in and the FAFSA is complete, that gets sent off.

You may find that a school has to do a bit of follow-up work, um, to get a copy of, of some paperwork for students. But that, uh, piece is kind of happening on the back end

Julie Shields Rutyna: And someone’s asking, um, a specific question about how about temporary guardianship by the court, like when CPS or DCF is involved but the child isn’t necessarily removed from the home?

Jillian Glaze: Mm-hmm. So If the, the child is not currently removed from the [00:37:00] home, it depends on the dates of the court order. Uh, if the student is currently n- not in the home, they may qualify under the legal guardianship clause.

Um, but more likely you’re gonna wanna work with the school on that. Um There’s that one’s a tough one, and I would say, you know, err on the side of can the student provide the parent information? If so, move, move through that way. Um, if it is going to be detrimental and the student doesn’t have enough documentation to show that they have a court-ordered legal guardianship, um, I would, I would do the special circumstances route and work with the college to document that

Okay, so now we are moving into the parent [00:38:00] questions, and the parent education status is, um, is going to pop up. And this is, again, just data collection. It does not impact, um, it does not impact the student’s aid eligibility at all

Has there been a parent or guardian killed in the line of duty while serving on active duty, uh, in the US Armed Forces or after the events of 9/11 or performing official duties as public safety officers? Um, this question ties back specifically s- to some additional grant funding that’s available for students who are in this situation.

Uh, so it, it seems kind of out of left field and a very specific question, but, um, helpful for those who may have lost a parent in the line of duty or, um, through 9/11 or as a public safety officer. Those students qualify for grant, a grant similar [00:39:00] to the Pell Grant

And the student high school completion status. This one’s really important. Will the student be done with high school by the time they start classes for ’27, ’28? Um, a lot of our students get really nervous about saying yes, high school diploma while they’re still in high school. But we, if we anticipate that the student’s gonna graduate in June, we wanna make sure we flag that yes, high school diploma, um, option because otherwise the school’s gonna kinda have to put things on hold if the student says no, none of the above, to get more information, to collect more information on where the student’s in high school, and a FAFSA correction will need to be made.

So it is safe to assure students and families that if they anticipate graduation in June, that they wanna choose yes, high school diploma, even if they’re filling out the FAFSA in October or November, and it will [00:40:00] save some follow-up work for the student and for the, the college For students that have a GED or HiSET, uh, they’re gonna flag that and they will move through the process.

And then anyone who has a homeschooling agreement, they can choose that option and we’ll know, uh, if we need to follow up to grab some paperwork from the students who might be graduating through homeschooling

Students who choose high school diploma, they’re gonna report their high school here, and there’s great search features, um, to be able to find their high school and get that listed

The student tax filing status, the student is going to indicate whether or not they filed in 2025, uh, yes or no. And did the student, um, file a tax return in Puerto [00:41:00] Rico or another US territory? So follow-up question for most of our Massachusetts students, that answer is gonna be no

Student tax return information. Um, the student, if their, if their information isn’t imported, uh, questions on the ’25 tax return might be their status filing, um, single, head of household, married filing joint. In those cases, we’d be talking about an independent student. For the ja- vast majority of our high school graduates, they’re going to enter, enter single here.

Um- The student is going to, um, report their tax information as it appears on their tax form if they’ve got one. Uh, if they’ve got a W-2 and they’re just filling in their earned income, this is where they’d start to enter [00:42:00] that information. The vast majority of tax return data is going to be pulled in automatically for most of our students.

So good news here is this is simplified

Okay. Student assets. This is really important because it is one of the few questions that’s not looking back to 2025. All of our tax data is going back a couple years and, and looking at what was happening in 2025. The asset questions for both the student and the parent are gonna be based on what’s true today.

And we want the student to enter their current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts, and the net value of any investment accounts, and then any businesses or farms that the student might own. Um, important caveat on the businesses is that, you know, we’re looking … We’re not looking [00:43:00] at a single-person venture.

Uh, we’re looking at the, uh, a larger business with, um, significant full-time employees. So for the vast majority of students, the business and farms is gonna be zero, and investments, again, does not incl- does not include any retirement accounts that might be opened

Now we get to the fun part, selecting colleges. We encourage students and families to put as many colleges as they are thinking of attending, up to 20, onto the FAFSA, uh, so that the information is shared as broadly as possible. It’s always better to, if, if a student is on the fence about a school, add them to the list so that they have the information.

Then if the student decides to cross them off the list further into their college search process, there’s no harm there. Um, but [00:44:00] it’s much easier to say, “You know what? I’m no longer interested in that school. I’m just gonna leave that data out there,” uh, than it is to try to at the last minute add it and, and, you know, possibly miss a deadline or a date, or need to do some follow-up paperwork at the last minute.

If you don’t know of an official name of a college or a code, it can always be searched, um, and a little search box will open up for you asking the state, city, and the school name to help you narrow down and get the right school

So, and this is, this is important in Massachusetts, especially if you have students who are applying to state institutions. Um, the first school is the school that the Massachusetts Office of Student Financial Aid will flag to receive the student’s information. So if you have a student that’s pretty sure that [00:45:00] they are first choice is a UMass public or a Massachusetts public institution, whether it be a UMass school or one of the four-year universities, um, it’s always great to put them in the first position because then they are attached on the back end in the OSFA system, uh, and that school is receiving their state aid eligibility.

That can always be changed in the future, but if the student is aware and they’re, they’re preferring that institution, it’s always great to get them in the number one position. It’s important to know that s- that colleges and universities do not know what position they’re in on the FAFSA. Um, so nobody’s using that on the back end to say, “Oh, the student chose, this is their number one.”

Um, that does not happen for us. So, um, this is really a help as far as if the student’s strongly preferring one of our public institutions, getting that in the number one position[00:46:00]

At this point, we’re ready to invite a parent contributor. And to do that, the student is going to enter the email address of the parent, um, to send them an invite to the FAFSA. The, uh, email doesn’t necessarily have to ma- match the parent account on the FSA ID. That’s okay. Um, they are going to get a code in their email that will allow them to pop into the student’s information and attach it.

So those emails don’t necessarily have to match. Um, the student can click who should I invite as a parent on the FAFSA form if the student is unclear on who should be their parent contributor

Who are parents on the FAFSA? This is always a contentious question, [00:47:00] um, because there are so many family situations, and everyone’s a little bit unclear. Unless you have two biological parents who are married and living in the same household, uh, this is a question that comes up pretty frequently, and I, I’m sure that you’re already getting some questions around this.

Um, who are parents on the FAFSA? Biological or adoptive parents. If the parents are married, um, and either live together or are married and not living together, for most situations, those are… they’re both going to be on the FAFSA. Um, married parents include same-sex couples, so those folks are going to file.

Um, if they are separated and living together, they’re going to select married. In the case of divorce or separation, the parent for the FAFSA is going to be the parent that provided [00:48:00] more financial support in the last 12 months. And if that parent is remarried, the step-parent in that household If financial support was completely equal, the instructions on the FAFSA indicate you’re going to select the parent with the higher income and assets to complete the FAFSA.

If there was no financial support at all for the student from the parents in the last 12 months, the student will need to kind of go back in memory, the family will need to go back in memory and select the parent who provided the most support, uh, most recently to complete the FAFSA. So I know there is a lot of nuance here, and what constitutes a family looks different, uh, for so many of our folks.

But that is a high-level overview of what parents are on the FAFSA. Um, also know that this might be different for institutional, uh, scholarship consideration or the CSS Profile. But for FAFSA [00:49:00] purposes, it’s going to be this list. Julie?

Julie Shields Rutyna: Yeah. Someone asked if you can just say a little more about separated but living together-

Jillian Glaze: Sure

Julie Shields Rutyna: um, equals married. Yep.

Jillian Glaze: Sure. So folks who are, indicate that they’re separated, but they are still living in the same household because of financial considerations, they’re still considered married. Um, unless they can provide documentation that, that, that they are living in separate locations, we have to continue to consider them married.

Um, you know, this is a case where if you have … If there’s court paperwork that indicates there’s a reason that they’re required to be living together, but they’ve filed a separation agreement, I would work with the school on that in a professional judgment capacity. Um, but for the initial FAFSA filing, those folks are considered married.

Julie Shields Rutyna: And then I have a couple more just while, [00:50:00] while we’re asking some questions. Um, what if the parent who provided the most financial sup- provided the most financial support is not the legal guardian and is not otherwise involved?

Jillian Glaze: Okay. So that’s, that’s where it can get a little bit, um, a little bit tricky.

And so my que- the question becomes do… If there’s some kind of court order on who has guardianship or custody of, of the child, then, um, that answer might change. That is especially true if this is a case where a parent is not allowed to be in a household. Um, so I think, you know, looking first at who has custody of the student is important.

Um, and then the financial piece kind of comes second in those cases. So [00:51:00] generally speaking, when we’re looking at who’s the parent on the FAFSA, if there’s a reason that the parent has been removed from the household situation, um, we’re gonna consider that first and the financial second. The financial comes into play where you have a joint custody agreement of two students and the student is interacting with both parents.

Um, and then we’re, we’re just testing the finances to move forward. But if there’s, you know, a custody, if a parent has full custody, um, and is just receiving support from a parent, a, you know, parental support, student support, um, that parent, the parent that is providing the child with home, the home and has custody would be the parent on the FAFSA.

Julie Shields Rutyna: All right. I’ll, um… We might have a couple at the end, but we’re good for now.

Jillian Glaze: Yeah, I know this is one that, that always there’s a lot of, uh, particular situations that come up

We’re gonna invite the parent to the [00:52:00] FAFSA. Uh, they are going to see… The student will see a confirmation that the, uh, parent has been sent an invitation to their FAFSA. The parent can access the FAFSA by accepting the email invitation, and the student can also copy the invitation link and share the code directly with the parent.

Uh, always good to grab a screenshot here if the parent is not immediately on the scene to get started with this, just so that you’ve got it. Um, we always encourage students to just take a quick picture with their phone so that they’ve got all that information available if they need it

The student’s gonna see a review page that they can expand to review all of their information. We always encourage students to take one last look before they hit submit, um, and edit any responses that they may need to go back and change or update. And then, um, the data transferred on the IRS [00:53:00] is not gonna show for security reasons.

That information will show that it’s been transferred, but the student will not see the actual numbers. Um, so that is not unusual. It’s an expected response of the system And once the student feels everything is good, we are gonna move on to the student signature. They will see view- they will see terms and conditions to review, and then the student will check off the sign and submit your FAFSA form, um Th- at this point, the student is finished with their sec- their section, but the FAFSA is not considered complete.

Because we have a dependent student, we’re gonna need to capture that parent info here. Uh, for an independent student, we would be at the point where the student would be ready to submit. All of their data would be in. But for our dependent students, we’re gonna move on to the parent info. So now that we’ve hit that s- that Complete Student Section [00:54:00] button, we have a complete student section.

The student will get information that the contributors need to come in and do their part. Um, it will also list next steps and how to track the FAFSA status, and it will continue to show anytime the student logs in, uh, the contributor section status so that they can keep an eye on that and watch for their parent info to be updated Parents should at that time receive an invitation.

The invitation will go to the email that the student entered. Um, the student can click, uh, the parent can click on accept my invite. The text, uh, is going to stress that completing the FAFSA does not make the parent financially responsible. We know that lots of parents have concerns about that. Uh, hopefully that language puts them a little bit at ease.

And parents can start the FAFSA before the student. Um, we’ll look at that process at the end, but again, we really encourage the student [00:55:00] to do their section first.

Parents are going to click Log in to accept invite

And they are going to see their own login page. At this point, hopefully the parent has their username and password set up. If not, they can click on create an account and go through the process to create their own account, um, and that will be, uh, about a three-minute process for them to get their information to log in The parent is going to fill in the invitation code from the email and click on the Accept Invite box.

If the parent doesn’t have the email invitation or code, the student can log back into their section and retrieve the code. Hopefully, they’ve got it saved on their phone so that they can just pop in that invitation code number there and click on Accept Invite[00:56:00]

Again, the system’s going to bring over based on the login, uh, the information attached to the FSA ID. That includes name, date of birth, Social Security number if the parent has one, the email address on file for the account, and the mobile number on file for the account

The parent is now going to be provided with the consent information, and this is basically the same information that the student was presented with. Um, again, everyone has to, everyone that’s a contributor has to provide consent in order to move the FAFSA forward. And once the parent has had the opportunity to review the language, they are going to select Approve to provide their consent and move forward They will get the screen that shows that information is being securely imported from the IRS.

This is similar to the student process[00:57:00]

The parent marri- marital status will be selected, um Again, here, hopefully the parent knows their status. If not, a quick peek at the taxes will help them out

And the parent state of residence. So this is where the parent is going to enter their current state of residence and the residency date that they became a state resident. Um, this again can be used for state aid eligibility consideration

Parents also going to be, uh, provided with the opportunity to share any federal benefits that they’ve received in the household, um, and this could be for anyone in the household. So this is a great help, uh, for students if they are in a household that’s receiving federal means tested benefits. [00:58:00] This could be SNAP, WIC, um, any of the listed benefits, uh, that might make the, the household qualified for some additional financial aid.

So we want to encourage folks who are receiving those kind of benefits to share that as part of their information on the FAFSA

Parent tax filing status, um, the student is, or the parent is going to be asked the, uh, federal income tax return information. Um

This is, again, is gonna be based on their 2025 income tax return. Uh, again, a good opportunity to highlight if something has changed, there’s an opportunity to work with the schools on this. Um, but they are going to enter their tax filing status, get that information to us. Um, and if for any reason they’re unable to use the tax [00:59:00] retrieval, they’ll be able to enter that information manually for us to take a peek at and use in the calculation

Family size. So the FAFSA is going to make some assumptions on the family size based on the information that’s already been entered on the FAFSA. Um, if the parent believes the family size is different, then they can make an update to that. Um, based on the information in the tax filing status, that, uh, the household size might be off.

So if a, if a family is supporting folks that aren’t dependents on their tax return, this is a place where they may want to provide additional information. Um, this is especially true if a household size has changed. Maybe a family has, has [01:00:00] taken in a niece or nephew. Um, somebody else has come into the family that is now residing there and receiving support from the parent on the FAFSA.

Um, we might need to update that here. And this is going to look at anyone that’s receiving more than half of their financial support from this parent from 7/21, uh, 7/1/2027 through 6/30/2028. Um, you do not want to include the student in this count, but, um, anyone else that’s been added to the household since the taxes were filed can be added here

The number in college, you’re gonna report how many people will be in college between July 1st, 2027, and June 30th, 2028. But do not include parents that might be in college in this number. Um, so it’s always good to have a quick conversation with the student and parent, uh, and just verify that [01:01:00] they’re only looking at any dependents in the household that will be in college during the year.

This does not… This is no longer included in the calculation for federal aid. And colleges might choose to look at this, um, so we do wanna make sure it’s accurate, uh, for institutional funding, but it is not used for federal or state aid purposes The parent tax return information, um, we are going to look at any information that might need to be manually input from the 2025 tax return.

That includes any foreign income that may have been earned, rollovers, um, s- any grant scholarship funds that have been received by the parents, AmeriCorps benefits that might be on the IRS tax form. Most information is going to come over automatically. If for some reason it doesn’t, you may have the opportunity to assist the parent with [01:02:00] manually entering that information And again, we’re gonna ask about parent assets now.

This is, again, a current day question. Unlike the 2025 tax return, we’re going to look at what is true and currently in these accounts now. Uh, child support received, the current balance of cash and savings and checking accounts, any net value of investments, real estate, mutual funds, stocks, 529 college saving accounts, um, only for the student, the student.

And you want to make sure that parents are not including the home that they live in, any life insurance or retirement accounts. Those are not considered investments for the FAFSA. Um, and then the net value of any business or farms, except for small family-owned businesses with 100 or less employees, farms where the family resides, or family-owned commercial fishing, fishing [01:03:00] businesses.

If the parent income is less than $60,000, the parent will not be presented with these asset questions And the parent provides the information about other parents, uh, that, or current spouse that might be living in the household

And then the parent is going to go through the review and sign process, which is very similar to the student process. Everything can be expanded for review and a last check. Things can be edited here if someone finds a typo or something that needs to be updated. Um, again, the IRS data that was transferred won’t display here, and the parent is going to agree to the terms and conditions.

And until that final Submit button is hit, the FAFSA is not considered complete. So it’s important to know that even though this looks like it’s kind of a [01:04:00] overview or a wrap-up screen, that we still need that blue button in the bottom right to be hit in order for the FAFSA to be completed. So we’re gonna move through that, and at this point, we get the big congratulations.

The FAFSA is now complete, um, and will be submitted for processing. The page is gonna give information on next steps in tracking, and the student will also get an email, um, with, with detailed information and confirmation of everything that’s been submitted

So just to quickly over- overview, if the parent’s starting the FAFSA first, again, always preferable to have the student start first, but if they are, um, the parent can go in, click start a new FAFSA form, log in using their FSA account. They’re going to provide the student name, info, date of birth, Social Security number, um, and email address.

The parent is gonna be asked the [01:05:00] questions about the student’s dependency status. The parent will answer all of the questions that we just reviewed that are part of the parent section, and then the student will receive an email notification that a FAFSA’s been started, and they will enter a code to log in, um, and provide IRS data transfer consent and do their FAFSA signature page.

So kind of a backwards, uh, process of what we’ve just looked at

Once the FAFSA’s submitted, the student can always go back in and make changes and also review their information. Um, they’re going to see a summary of the FAFSA information, w- when it was received and processed by the federal processor. Uh, they’re gonna see links to be able to look at their aid summary.

And then four tabs, the eligibility overview, all of the answers to the FAFSA [01:06:00] questions, the school information, and next steps

FSS eligibility overview is going to list any federal aid the student might be eligible to receive, including Pell and direct loans. It’s important to keep in mind and to emphasize with students and families that these are estimates. Um, you know, students might need to do some additional paperwork to have a complete financial aid file at the school.

Uh, so this is to give them an estimate to move forward as they move through the next steps so that they have a sense of what’s coming. It’s also going to list their Student Aid Index, or SAI. Uh, that is what helps us calculate eligibility on the school side

The student’s gonna see the answers contributed by everyone, so student and parent section. The student can make a [01:07:00] correction. They can start a correction here. Um, again, that data transferred from the IRS is gonna be kind of blocked out so that numbers aren’t visible, and that’s for data protection

In the school information, the s- the student is going to see some information about each individual school that they’ve selected. That includes graduation and retention rates, transfer rates, default rates, um, median debt upon completion for graduates from those institutions, and the average annual cost that will give them some information to start to think about college cost for the schools they’re considering, and success rates This is where you may see some school with low earnings messages.

Um, this is new for this year, and it’s good information for families to have as they’re considering their path forward for college. But by no means should necessarily exclude a school from a search if you see these pop up. [01:08:00] Um, but good to know to ask questions as you move forward about, you know, how this calculation may have been impacted at that individual school as you start to ask questions of admissions counselors, uh, folks in financial aid, and go through the accepted students process.

Um, so good information to have as students and families are starting to make some decisions.

And next steps. This is where all of our comments from the FAFSA processing are gonna be displayed based on the data that was, that was entered. Um, students might ne- need to go back and make a correction. This comes up a lot, especially for students who didn’t indicate that they were going to be graduated from high school, um, students who may have missed a question, uh, and it was caught, a citizenship issue popped up, um, that needs to be addressed.

Any information that needs follow-up is going to appear here [01:09:00] And what happens after families submit the FAFSA? Colleges and the state will receive that information electronically. Again, the student will see it automatically as soon as it happens instantaneously. It does take a little bit for us to get that information from the processor.

Um, it usually happens at night, overnight, once the FAFSA is processed. Um, and at this point, we’re gonna evaluate all the information on the FAFSA and determine what the next steps at each institution are for the student. And that’s when you’ll find that students and families will be receiving, um, contact from those schools to say, “Hey, we got your information.

Here are your follow-up steps.” Most commonly, um, verification, where we’re asking for some additional information about tax or assets from students and families or citizenship status, um, that may need some follow-up, uh, are things that are very common for [01:10:00] us to reach out to Colleges are generally going to start processing looking at file review, getting those infor- that information out, and start to send out aid offers to students between March and April.

Depending on institution type, that can be a little bit later, um, or earlier depending on admission statuses and the individual institution. And important to know too that information for students who indicate they’re Mass residents will automatically go to the Massachusetts Office of Student Financial Assistance for review.

Um, so that is why that state residency is so important. Um, also the FSS, I don’t think we saw it on the screen, there’s a DRN number. That is great if for some reason an institution indicates they may not have gotten the FAFSA, um, and they need to … We need to do a little back-end research, uh, that [01:11:00] is a great number to have available to assist financial aid offices if there is some kind of a glitch in the matrix and we’re doing a little bit of research.

Um- And just a quick note on verification. Uh, not everyone’s selected for verification everywhere. It’s not a process everyone goes through, but it’s not unusual, and it doesn’t mean that the, the student or the family has done anything wrong. 30% of applications are selected standard, and some institutions select everyone as part of their process.

So it doesn’t mean anything’s wrong, it just means that this is part of the process that we need to go through to get the student eligible for aid

Okay. I think that’s it for the FAFSA, so I’m gonna pass it back over to Julie to do a wrap-up.

Julie Shields Rutyna: That’s great. So I have just a couple questions, but before so, I’ll just say these are all the ways that you can connect with MEFA, [01:12:00] um, you know, through Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and our podcast, uh, videos on YouTube.

So just wanted to give you all of those. And is there one more slide there, I think, um, Jillian? Yes. And if you have questions, you or your families, please call us at our 1-800 number or at collegeplanning.org, uh, @mefa.org. And as I mentioned, we will take one-on-one appointments with families, uh, all of that.

Uh, with that, I know we’re at 9:42, but let me just ask, uh, just two quick remaining questions ’cause I think they’re longer answers, but Jillian, you can point us in the right direction. Sure. There’s a couple of questions about students whose parents are veterans, um, or who are serving in the armed services.

Um- Okay … MEFA is actually hoping to have a webinar about that, uh, very soon. Uh, but I wonder if you can point someone in the right direction toward that. [01:13:00]

Jillian Glaze: So as, as far as filling out the FAFSA, um, I don’t think that’s gonna change the process too much. Uh, if this, the parent is out of contact due to military service, um, I would, I would, if there’s another parent that can, can be the contributor, obviously if it’s a, a situation where they’re married, filing jointly, that is the easiest way to go.

Um, but I would say that if there’s extenuating circumstances, um, or the student’s qualifying for some veterans benefit as a dependent, the school certifying official at each of the schools is a great contact for that process. Um, you know-

Veteran, you know, a veteran status, then hopefully the, the parent is here and filling out the FAFSA. Um, if they’re active duty and there’s extenuating circumstances, I would get in touch with the s- the school to [01:14:00] work through that.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Thank you. If

Jillian Glaze: that makes sense. And one more question- I’m not sure if that answers the question.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Well, I think, I, I think it is. That, that FAFSA’s specific, not necessarily, but there are, there are things that you can explore. Um,

Jillian Glaze: and so-

Julie Shields Rutyna: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Jillian Glaze: Yep. We have lots of, we have lots of students who are receiving veteran’s benefits assistance, um, because of a parent’s service, and that generally isn’t part of the FAFSA process necessarily, but the school certifying official at each school will be able to walk this, the student through that process.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Great. And stay tuned, because we are gonna get that webinar on the books, um, hopefully for, for this fall. And also one other quick… Can you just say a word about survivor benefits? Um.

Jillian Glaze: Sure.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Yeah.

Jillian Glaze: Uh, for Iraq, Afghanistan service-

Julie Shields Rutyna: Well, I don’t even know if it’s- … benefits or? -attached to the, um, maybe… Yeah, I, I, I guess this is another question that just asked, um, h- how [01:15:00] survivor benefits would be, would be included in, in the FAFSA process.

Jillian Glaze: Okay. Um, I think I-

Julie Shields Rutyna: Oh, and, and actually I can correct it. The person said, “No, it’s for a student whose parent died.”

Jillian Glaze: Okay. So a student is receiving benefits for a parent. Um, I would, I would say that that would be dependent upon exactly where the benefits are coming from, how that would be reported. Um, if you have questions about a specific type of benefits, um, I know things come to students in very different ways, whether it’s through a trust, whether it’s a federal benefit that the student is receiving.

Um, I would, I would talk to the school about how that gets reported. Some things might be reported under the asset section. Um, and there might be some types of benefits that don’t need to be reported depending on how the student is receiving as income, depending on how the student’s receiving them, and when they receive those [01:16:00] benefits.

Julie Shields Rutyna: And, and what about the Social Security benefits given to students monthly, um, pre age 18, but do they need to add those to the FAFSA?

Jillian Glaze: Generally speaking, those are not, um, those are not going to be reported. Um, there is a section, if it’s a standard benefit, those wouldn’t be reported. Um, if there’s other types of, of benefit that the student might be receiving, there is an untaxed income sec- section where the student would report that.

And there’s instructions embedded in the FAFSA that would help guide that process.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Thank you. So Gillian, thank you so much. This was terrific, and thank you to all of you and for your questions. And, um, everyone have a, have a, a great day, and know that if you have follow-up, you have questions, I’m glad I left that phone number and email on the screen.

So take care everyone.

Jillian Glaze: Thank [01:17:00] you.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Bye.

Jillian Glaze: Bye.