Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: [00:00:00] Good morning and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us on this this beautiful day. My name is Julie Shields. And I am the senior director of college planning, education and training at MEFA, and I’m so glad you’re joining us on this MEFA Institute webinar. And the topic this morning is Massachusetts State Financial Aid, and we have the person, we have Dr.

Lanham McCurdy, who is the Senior Deputy Commissioner of Access and Student Financial assistance. And she’s at the Office of Student Financial Aid, part of the Department of Higher Education. And we’re gonna talk all about, um, the new. Well, financial aid programs, um, and, um, I guess I won’t give it away, but you already know there’s a lot of good news here, so, um, it’s, it’s exciting.

Um, before we start, I will just, um, give some logistics. [00:01:00] So. If you have a question, put it into the q and a and, um, we’ll, we’ll try to get to your questions. That’ll, there’s a lot of content, but you know, any burning question you can put there as well. And if you need to leave, we’re recording this, so we will be sending you the recording and the slides tomorrow.

And lastly, just a reminder that the MEFA Institute has so many lessons on so many topics, and when you participate, then you can receive professional development points. And so in the follow-up you’ll be able to see how it’s easy to do that. So with that, I will turn it over to you, KHA. Okay.

Clantha McCurdy: Good morning everyone, and it’s, uh, nice to be with you today.

Happy Thursday. I’m looking forward to spending the next hour with you as we, um, preview the financial aid programs. I think this is an excellent time to connect with you, given the [00:02:00] FAFSA completion season that, uh, will be shortly underway and would like to share information with you to help your students make, uh, good choices for state financial aid or just for their college, um, career path and where they might end up going.

These are some very exciting times at, uh, the Department of Higher Education with financial aid, so I’m looking forward to that. Um, just to start out, we have always focused on access and affordability with our state financial aid programs. We’ve not always had sufficient resources to achieve the levels that we want, but.

It’s everything that we do with our financial aid policy is always focused on access and affordability, and we’ve had a number of things going on, um, within the past three years actually, as you look at the world of state financial aid for Massachusetts. As we [00:03:00] look at access and affordability, we are looking at providing financial aid programs, um, access to financial aid.

We’re gonna talk a little bit about the free community college program and free, um, tuition and fees at our other four year institutions. Uh, as we review access, we are focused on removing barriers. And we introduced the tuition equity policy to you last year. We’ll highlight that a little bit today. And then we have also devoted, uh, many resources to outreach to students outside of our typical college age group, the 18 to 22-year-old, um, looking at adult learners, um, for many programs that are workforce related.

But, uh, specifically. The Mass Reconnect Program, which basically kicked off the free community college this past year. So this is the way we sort of lined up our financial aid [00:04:00] policy and the programs that might come, um, under the policy and how we hope to help students and their families, um, maneuver through their college, um, career.

So with Access, one of the things that I wanted to point out, uh, this morning. Is removing barriers through the tuition equity law, which we introduced. Had a few workshops last year, and certainly we’ll have more this year coming up that um, we’ve had, um, people from our legal team who can explain this law a whole lot better than me.

Uh, we wanna make sure that that word is out there and we are partnering with many stakeholders who have been working with the population that we are hoping to reach with the tuition equity law. So in Massachusetts passed that this past year. Um, it opened up an opportunity for undocumented students, uh, to take advantage of in-state [00:05:00] tuition.

Certainly. Also, um, to, uh, benefit from state financial aid. And I have a little bit of information here about, uh, the master application, but in essence, uh, the tuition equity law carves a pathway for in-state tuition and, uh, state financial aid for non-US citizens, including undocumented students. The eligibility, um, students are required to have attended a Massachusetts High School for at least three academic years.

They don’t have to necessarily be consecutive years. And as we deploy this policy, um, we are holding to three years, but a student might not complete the full year. So there’s a little flexibility there and if you have questions about that, you could certainly reach out to, um, our agency. We look for the student who have earned either a high school [00:06:00] diploma or the equivalent and meeting one of the documentation requirements as far as their, uh, citizenship status.

And again, these students are allowed in-state tuition, which wasn’t possible before this past academic year 2324. Certainly, um, eligibility for state financial aid. So any of the programs that we discussed this morning, if a student is undocumented and has that, uh, documentation on file at their institution, they could benefit from any of those programs, uh, so long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

What this program, uh, developed for us or brought along, I’m sorry. This equity law was the creation of a Massachusetts application for state financial aid. We call it the maa because as you know, our undocumented students are unable to, um, get a complete analysis [00:07:00] from a fafsa. They can submit it, but it will reject with incomplete information.

So instead of saying they cannot complete the fafsa. The FAFSA will not yield the results that they need. So we invite these students to complete the mafa application. It became available, um, this past year and as we roll out, um, financial aid applications for this year, we certainly, um, we’ll have this one available.

We launched that Mafa application in January of 2024. And at that point, um, we basically had about three months to get this application ready. And like anything, there might’ve been some hiccups with that, um, trying to get information out so you knew or know what the student is required to do and you have a better understanding of that application.

Um, all of those things. But, um, we, for this current year, [00:08:00] 24, 25. We have basically about 1600 students who have applied for, um, financial aid for this school year. Uh, last year, 2324. When that application was launched, um, we ended up with about 500 students who applied. And I like sharing this picture because it speaks to what we are trying to do under the tuition equity law, which is thinking about equity and.

As you can see, our governor right in the center, one of the things that I love about this governor is she loves to have, um, uh, public relations, uh, events, um, centered or focused around things that are happening, and it has given us an opportunity to highlight major events under, um, our state financial aid programs.

So the fa Mafa application will be available once the FAFSA is completely launched by, [00:09:00] uh, the Department of Education, the federal department. We will have the Mafa application as well. Right now we are in sort of a trial testing period where applications are being processed, but the developers of our masks for application must, um, commit to making any.

Final last minute changes, uh, for our application before it, um, goes live. And in every way this Mafa application, um, mimics the FAFSA application. Um, it is an electronic application. It’s online only. There is no paper application available for this. Um, and the students are able to go into our mass aid system into a student portal.

To, um, began their application. It is available in English and Spanish. So every question and instructions, uh, are provided in two different languages. [00:10:00] Um, we are exploring whether or not we can offer this in additional languages, but for now it is English and Spanish and we just encourage students, um, family members who are helping and.

Guidance counselors as well to make sure that they read questions very carefully. What we have realized is, um, sometimes there’s a misinterpretation or a student might, um, skip different sections or what have you, and when that happens, that certainly, uh, results in an incomplete application. But we do make contact with every student to let them know.

If their masks for application was received and if it requires any additional, uh, support. So look forward to some additional, um, workshops on that, uh, where we’ll spend a lot of time. And, um, in partnering with MEFA, we have a number of things on TAP to get through [00:11:00] the, um, Masa application. In fact, anything that we do with FAFSA includes vasa, so.

I think that might be a nice way to, um, sort of talk through that. Um, when the student completes that Mafa application at the end, uh, they must sign it and there is an e-signature that we prefer, but the student can opt for the paper signature and if so, they’d have to download that, sign it and submit it back to the office.

Um, either uploading or they can. Sent it by email, scanned by email. Faxes available. But, you know, faxes are almost, um, going out of date now. But there are different options for the student to get that, uh, signature page, uh, back to us. And that has been one of the major things that we’ve had to follow up with students on.

So enough about the application process. Uh, [00:12:00] let’s talk about affordability and how is the Department of Higher Education slash Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Julie Shields-Rutyna: and can I just ask you one question before we move on? Sure. Someone asked if we happen to know how many out of the 1600 eligible students, uh, how, how many out of the 1600 are eligible to receive state aid?

That was the question.

Clantha McCurdy: Um, you know, I, I, I had information on that, um, a few weeks ago, and it was about two thirds. I can get an update on that. Um, and the ones who are not eligible, uh, and, and by eligible we mean that that student’s application resulted in a student aid index in 2324. It was the EFC. So if the application results in, um, a student aid index.

That student then, um, uh, can go on and be considered for state financial aid. Uh, in [00:13:00] some cases they will qualify for a mass grant, or in other cases they would qualify for benefits under free community college or many of the other programs that we will talk about, uh, a little bit later. Um, as you know, these students are not considered PE eligible, but if the SAI that they receive puts them in that range, then we do consider them for mass grant.

Um, I think earlier in the year when someone asked that it was close to 900 students, um, who were eligible. And the other thing is initially in 2324, we were doing a hundred percent verification. And found that, that kind of slowed down the process. So we wanted to release this information to the colleges right away, and, uh, without verification, with the understanding that as they review the application, if something doesn’t look right, much like the FAFSA process, the [00:14:00] institution should, uh, connect with the student for additional information.

Or they can come back to our office and we can track down different things. So, um, I. Julie, I think I’ll try to get, uh, a, an updated answer to that question, uh, and provide that later or at future workshops, you know. That’s great. Like the one we have tomorrow. Okay. Thank

Julie Shields-Rutyna: you.

Clantha McCurdy: Are there other questions before we move on?

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Just, just a question about the documentation on file. Um, if you could say that re, re reiterate.

Clantha McCurdy: Attesting to the fact that they meet certain standards. Um, and we can share a copy of that affidavit with you. It is really on our website. If you look at tuition equity law, just put that in the search at the DHE website, which is www.mas.edu. [00:15:00] Just put intuition equity on the search. It will take you to a landing page.

And, uh, there is a link to the affidavit that affidavit has to be collected at the college that the student will attend, either public or private. And so our students are able to, um, benefit from state financial aid at either independent or public institutions. Um, but that is the documentation that we refer to.

Okay. Thank you.

The good stuff, affordability, and this is what excites me. Decades at the financial aid off. I’m not gonna date myself, but it’s been many. So if we look at affordability, uh, I love this chart because it shows where Massachusetts has been in the last just three years, starting with, uh, fiscal year 23 when, oh my, when we got money that year, just [00:16:00] about 175, uh, million dollars.

We thought that that was great. And just this past year that then moved up to well over $300 million. And for this current fiscal year, we are just under, um, $400 million. And that is, um, outstanding and amazing for Massachusetts. So it shows the investment in state financial aid. And where the Commonwealth is headed.

Um, and it’s just, you know, if you’ve been in financial aid at the college level, um, and within our agency, it’s like we never thought we’d get to this day, but it has allowed the Department of Higher Education, uh, or Massachusetts in general to attack the, uh, access and affordability issues. And we’re gonna move on and chat about that a little bit, but, um.

And, and just a couple [00:17:00] years we’ve added over $200 million to state financial aid when in the past we never had, um, 150 million, right? So the buzzword this year has been free community college. And I like to say that, um, we implemented free community college, uh, fully. 24, 25 academic year because we did launch in, uh, 2324 pre community college through the Mass Reconnect Program for students age 25 and over.

And if you remember the chart that I showed early on where it says outreach to non-traditional age college students, this is what I mean under the mass reconnect program. So free community college, as we, uh, know it to be, uh, exists under, or is funded under two major programs. [00:18:00] Mass Reconnect and Mass Educate.

And what that simply means is that there are specific, uh, line items that the legislature funds, uh, for free community college. So. If you look at mass reconnect, the line item is something like 1596 dash 24, could be 24 14 or something like that. So we, when the budget is passed or when there’s a house budget or senate budget, first thing that we do is go to, to the individual line items that supports, uh, student financial aid to see where they are so we can start looking hopeful and planning for, um, the next academic year.

Mass Educate then supports students of all ages and under both mass. Reconnect to mass educate income is not a factor. Uh, so what we guarantee is, um, sufficient aid to cover that student’s cost of attendance. Um, and I think for [00:19:00] counselors, um, it, it is just good to know that there is free community college.

The details probably aren’t as specific. But, um, when a student gets an award notice from a community college, it may reflect an award that says Mass Reconnect, or it may say Mass Educate. Just understand that those are programs that are funded, uh, to promote free community college. So under Mass Educate, which is the larger of the two.

It is considered, uh, the Commonwealth Free Community College Grant program, and as my slide says, it’s designed to provide financial assistance to full and part-time undergraduate students who are enrolled in an approved program at a community college. It’s a last dollar scholarship. I’m, I’m sorry, last dollar grant, which means that as the colleges are looking to make sure that a student will have sufficient [00:20:00] resources.

To meet the cost of tuition and fees. They will look at that after they’ve applied, let’s say programs like the student’s Pell Grant, if they are eligible, or, um, a mass grant or any other, uh, state or federal grant aid that the student qualifies first. And so, as an example, if a student’s tuition cost, and I’m just gonna throw out a number, is $7,000.

And if the Pell Grant is $3,000 a mass grant. Is a thousand dollars then that, um, mass Educate would be equal to 3000 to make certain that they have sufficient funds and students are able to enroll in a certificate or associate’s degree program at the community Colleges under the free community college program, mass Reconnect, again, designed to support full and part-time undergraduate students.

But the student has to be aged 25 or over, [00:21:00] uh, at the start of the academic semester. So someone who starts, um, in January, let’s say they did not go to school in um, September, but they start in January when the school is reviewing their FAFSA or MASA data to determine which program that they’re eligible for.

They certainly will look at the age and determine, um, which program that they will award to that student to meet their cost of tuition and fees. And again, it’s still last dollar. And uh, they’ll just look at what that student, I like to say what that student brings in with them because, uh, of a Pell Grant or the.

These guidelines for mass educate and reconnect are very similar with the exception of the, um, age factor.

Here’s another picture that I wanted to share that, um, talks [00:22:00] about the promotion of the free community college, and you see the governor in the center there. She’s, uh, flanked by her Lieutenant Governor, secretary of Ed, um, and the commissioner Pirate Ed. And then on the opposite side are the legislators who were very key in getting this, uh, program, um, representatives com board and, uh, Senator Spilker.

And then we have a couple of students at the table too. So this was a major event that happened. I think this was maybe late September at, um. I believe it might have been at Mass Bay Community College, uh, that we had this, but I think pictures are worth a thousand words, so I just thought I’d share that with you today as well.

So if we go back and look at Free Community College, the student must complete the FAFSA or the Masa. Um, it is awarded as a last [00:23:00] dollar grant and awarded after all other non loan aid is provided. It targets free tuition and fees. The students’ cost for tuition and fees and full or part-time, but for part-time students, a minimum of six credits is required.

And under free community college there is, um, a book and supply allowance up to $1,200 and there’s an additional allowance of $1,200 that’s awarded to uh, students who meet. Certain income threshold. And I would say, um, to understand that it’s mainly Pell Grant eligible students. So students have an opportunity under the free community college program, uh, on the Mass Educate component to get, uh, a $1,200 book allowance, much like the book allowance that’s provided under mass reconnect.

[00:24:00] But there is an additional allows for other related educational expenses that can be awarded up to $1,200 and the institutions are awarding these funds to students. In fact, I will say that the Department of Higher Education allocate funds under, uh, mass reconnect and Mass educate. To the 15 community colleges and they then take that money and award it to students as their packaging financial aid to meet their educational costs.

But the focus has been on tuition and fees and the book allowance. And also, as I’m chatting this, I took a glimpse of myself and my camera’s a little wacky these days. I come out a little fuzzy, so I do apologize for that. I meant to state that a little earlier. Um, Julie, I will pause to see if there are any questions on Free Community College before going on.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Yes. Um, well, [00:25:00] these are about a few different things, but they’re still about what we already talked about, so I’ll ask them. Okay, sure.

Clantha McCurdy: Um,

Julie Shields-Rutyna: is, is state aid from the mafa beholden to satisfactory academic progress the same way federal aid is?

Clantha McCurdy: Um, uh, yes, the answer is yes. Um, satisfac to academic progress is an eligibility criteria under all state financial aid programs.

In fact, we maintain that to be aligned with federal financial aid. So that, and that’s always been the policy so that our financial aid officers aren’t looking at one standard for federal aid and another for state aid. Um, but, um. Satisfactory academic progress has been a requirement for students. Um, well, gee, since it’s been around.

Okay.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: And then just another, um, overarching question, is state aid available for private institutions as well as public, um, [00:26:00] and is it available, um, if students wanna take it to another state?

Clantha McCurdy: Okay. The only program that is portable, well, there are a couple of programs that are portable. And that is the Foster Child Grant, which we, um, we’ll talk about later.

If a student has been under the care of DCF and are pursuing, uh, a college career, they can receive up to $6,000 from the Foster Child Grant Program and take that anywhere in the country. That’s very similar to the Christian Herder Scholarship, which is also portable to any college, um, in the country. Um, mass Grant is portable, but only to states that we have reciprocity with.

And about a decade ago there were multiple states, but now we only have reciprocity with Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington, dc And the reason for the [00:27:00] restriction is that those states, other states that we shared reciprocity with. Decided that they wanted their state aid to remain internal to institutions in that state.

So once that happens, then of course we come off the list, um, with reciprocity under a program like, uh, mass Grant, Massachusetts far benefited from that than other states because students come here to go to college. You know, we have a wealth of, of fine institutions, public and private. And so it was about a four to one, uh, ratio of how much aid we brought in from other states for those students.

But, so there are only three programs that are portable with, um, restrictions. Uh, what was the other part of that question? Julie?

Uh, you are on mute.

Okay. Yeah. Are you coming off mute or. [00:28:00]

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Oh, you can? Yep. You know what, I’m gonna clarify the next question and we’ll ask it later so you can keep going. Thank you. Okay. Alright.

Clantha McCurdy: Okay, sounds good. So I’m gonna continue on and, um, continuing with the phase of talking about free and affordable college. Um, of course we have opportunities at community colleges, which we just talked about under free community college.

But what are the opportunities for students? Um, at four year, um, colleges in the state, and this is four year public colleges, mass Grant plus. Um, and this is a program that you’ve probably heard a little bit about. It’s been in the news, um, in the last couple weeks as, uh, the University of Massachusetts has been launching, uh, their promise programs to students.

Um, but tied to Mass Grant plus. It is another state program that funds, uh, tuition and fees at our public institutions for, uh, low income PE [00:29:00] eligible students. Um, and it also provides a $1,200 book allowance available at our nine state universities and all of the UMass campuses. So again, it operates as a last dollar scholarship, but.

Provide students with that opportunity. And this is a program that we were able to, um, increase the value as our financial aid. Um, appropriations have increased over the year for mass grant plus, again, last dollar, so get used to that word. Um, it probably doesn’t mean much to the student as long as they know that they’re getting financial aid.

But for the. Financial aid administrators, they know that, that, um, in awarding these funds, they are considering other grant aid first to make sure that these funds are available to students. And the good part about that is that in the equation, when a [00:30:00] campus looks at a student’s award for these programs, you are looking at the cost of tuition fees, uh, minus.

Other non loan aid, and that equals the Mass Grant Plus award. They’re not looking at tuition fee costs minus the student aid index, right? So that has been moved out of the equation, but um, the institutions have adopted or adjusted to that measure. And, uh, this program supports full-time PE eligible students as well as part-time students.

And again, six credits is required for those students. For the Mass grant, plus, we highly encourage students to, uh, understand and know the institutions of FAFSA deadline or the Masa deadline. The state may publish a deadline, but usually that is a little later than the college’s deadline. In fact. This year in the appropriation language, our deadline for certain programs was [00:31:00] listed at as August one, which doesn’t mean that that is the same deadline that the institutions will have for packaging their students.

So, but if the students meet the financial aid deadline that is published by the institution, they would have the better chance of getting, uh, a full package and. By all means, you want that student to adhere to any deadline that the state publishes. And as you look at the FAFSA and masa, we always begin with a May 1st deadline that might shift if the legislature approves, um, a later deadline.

Or in the case of what happened last year with the fafsa. We moved that May 1st deadline for the FAFSA and Masa to July one initially, and then when the legislative budget was out, that had changed to August one. Um, and again, students who met that institution’s deadline, which could have been [00:32:00] March 15th or April one, were already in the game because they had submitted their applications earlier.

We’re hoping that there will not be any delay with the FAFSA this year. Um. I know on the master side, um, we did not have the delays. We were able to process those, um, fairly quickly, uh, as long as we got correct information from the student. I’m gonna share with you one other program that helps to make, uh, tuition and fees affordable for our students at our public, uh, four year campuses.

And this is, uh, another version or an extension of Mass Grant Plus, and we actually call it. The Mass Grant plus expansion program, and this program supports tuition and fees for non-PE eligible students. So Pell eligible students are getting Mass Grant plus, but non-PE eligible students are getting assistance from the program that we call Mass [00:33:00] Grant plus expansion.

And it is available at all public four year institutions and which includes the UMass campuses. But what do these students get? Last dollar assistance, but it provides only half of the student’s tuition and fee cost. So here’s the difference. If you’re Pell eligible, then you are awarded this money, uh, in consideration of other non loan aid at a hundred percent of your tuition and fee cost.

Um, also with the book allowance. If you are a non-PE eligible student, uh, who meets a certain income threshold and we cap that currently at a student aid index that’s around 15,000, uh, then you are eligible for up to half of your tuition and fee cost, which is pretty substantial. If you look at half of tuition at, let’s say, university of Massachusetts, Amherst campus, and as I mentioned, um, you have.

Heard recently [00:34:00] the UMass campuses have reached out with, um, their commitment to students, um, working along with the Mass Grant Plus program to make this offer to students. And again, we encourage students to complete the FAFSA or MASA as early as they can. So, Julie, I’m gonna pause here before moving on.

I’m sure there might be some questions.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Okay, so if someone has an SAI of a hundred thousand. But Oh, okay. But doesn’t have a degree they can still attend free. Yes. So I answered behind the scenes that. Okay. Okay. Um, I know I get this question a lot and you probably do too, clan, that, that this program is for everyone. There’s that confusion because they have to file the FAFSA or the masa.

Right. But, um, SAI is not considered, um.

Clantha McCurdy: Right For now, are you saying, um, sorry, I’m talking about

Julie Shields-Rutyna: mass [00:35:00] educate here, so Oh yes.

Clantha McCurdy: For free committee, right. Income is not a factor and which, and, um, with that comment I could have said income or SAI is not a factor on the mass educate. Um, one thing that I will, um, mention is you’ll have probably a PE eligible student who might get a small award.

Under Mass Educate, and that’s because that student is getting Pell Grant, which right now it could be up to what about almost $7,400, and they may also get a mass grant. So their need, excuse me, to cover their tuition fees is a lot less. But the student who comes from that much, much higher income with no non loan grant aid may need the whole thing.

And so yes, they’re getting free tuition. And fees. So, but that’s what happens under a free tuition and fee program. [00:36:00] And the reason we require the FAFSA or MASA is it helps the department to analyze data, make projections so that we know what we need to request for the cost of administering a free community college program.

And it is an easy platform for institutions to award the student because they’re not having to do something separate for students who say, well, I’m here and I’m not gonna complete the fafsa. Give me my free community college. No, you gotta complete that because you are aligned and you are in their system, and they could easily award you.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Okay. All right. So you can keep going. And I, I, yep. I have a couple of overarching ones we can talk about at the end. So.

Clantha McCurdy: So one of the things that I wanted to mention, um, in addition to the programs that we just covered, which provides free community college or free tuition and fees at our public institutions, there are a number of [00:37:00] programs that continue to be funded under state financial aid.

And many of these, you know, but I just wanted to, um, highlight a few of those and go into details on some of these. Mass grant full-time students. You know about that. That’s the one program that my office will, um, provide information to students on when we get that fafsa. Uh, and many students aren’t aware that the state’s getting a copy of their FAFSA application and.

And so when we communicate with them, sometimes it’s confusing. Well, my college just awarded me, you know, financial aid that may not include mass grant, but we are attempting to let that student know that we’ve received their application and either they’re eligible for mass grant or not. Mass Grant is a, uh, centralized financial aid program, which means that the state, uh, awards the student and notifies the student, and the student simply takes that award to any institution of their choice.

Public and private, which is another part of the [00:38:00] question, Julie, as I remembered someone asked, are students who attend the, um, independent private colleges eligible for, uh, state financial aid. And many of these programs are, but a lot are geared to public. In fact, on this page here, I’ll just point out, mask rent is public and private.

Um, the high demand scholarship, public and private, the ECE early childhood educators, uh, paraprofessional and Gilbert Grant. You could be enrolled at a public or private institution, but programs like Cash Grant, the in demand scholarship and the tuition waivers are all at the, um, public institutions.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Oh, that’s

Clantha McCurdy: great.

I’m, yes. Um, gonna move on and talk about a few of these, um, before we end today’s, um. Discussion. So Mass Grant, mass grant is the Commonwealth’s primary need-based grant program. Um, it’s the [00:39:00] program that we’ve supported for decades, and as I mentioned, when a student completes that fafsa, the state’s gonna get a copy of it as long as that student has indicated that they are a Massachusetts resident.

If a student makes a mistake and puts me instead of ma, we will not get that student’s application until they correct that. But one of the first things that we will do is see if that student qualifies for a mass grant, notify that student. But at the same time, the institutions are aware of any student who qualifies for a mass grant because they can access our um, mass eight portal.

Go in and take a look at their students. So that’s something when a student gets an award letter entering freshmen, um, you may see that the institution has populated that with mass grant. It may have a disclaimer, but they can do that because they know that that student’s eligible, either they know that that student is Pell Grant [00:40:00] eligible, which qualifies them for mass grant, or they’ve, um, reviewed that and current, confirmed that in our, in their web portal.

This is something that I mentioned earlier. Uh, the Quran is portable, um, to, to students who attend colleges in Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington, dc so public and private colleges in Massachusetts and the three, um, states or district that we have reciprocity with. Um, one thing student must be pal eligible.

Now, what you might learn if you’re on the, if you’re really into the weeds of financial aid. You’ll understand that there are some students who have been designated Pell eligible and they have very high student aid indexes. Well, we understand that there’s about 1200, um, floating around this year, and those students, if they have that Pell flag and are getting Pell, then they are getting a mass [00:41:00] grant.

But it is a very smaller mass grant. So that’s where you might see some, you know, questionable well. The student has a high income or high SAI, are they eligible? Uh, what the institutions and our office looks for is that Pell eligible flag. Those awards range from 500 to $3,000 annually. So as you know, those extremely high, uh, sais are getting that minimum award of 500 and students who get mass grant can get it for four years, um, four years, eight semesters.

If they, uh, tap out, then they’re done with that. But they will be able to access other state financial aid programs. And I’m mentioning here the May 1st deadline, which is published on the fafsa. Um, the state has to provide to the US Department of Ed, the state deadline, so that gets [00:42:00] printed, um, with the instructions for every state.

We’ve always had a May 1st deadline, but it might be revised due to certain circumstances. We revised it under Covid and again, um, revised that this past year based on the challenges that we had with the fafsa. Another program that I mentioned, the adopted and foster. Fee assistance program, or at least I talked about the grant.

But this is the fee assistance program, which is awarded to students who attend, um, public colleges and universities in Massachusetts. And this is a full tuition and fee program. So here again, um, when I mentioned last dollar grant under Mass Grant Plus or Mass Educate, this will be one of the programs that the institution would, um, put into, uh, the.

Pool of financial aid for a student and for this program, students who qualify under this program would [00:43:00] not get any money from Mass Educate because their tuition and fees are already free. The student does require documentation, um, from the Department of Children and Families, and we’ve implemented, um, an upload of documentation, but in some cases, uh, the student can provide.

Their documentation directly to the colleges. So we are working with the Department of Children and Families to make that documentation process easier. Um, getting the opportunity to upload that information into the system. And the only thing about the DCF program is that it provides a system up to the point that the student turns age 26.

So if the student will turn age 26 during an academic year, they’re funded for the full year. Um, and this program continues to grow, um, 550 students in 2010 up to eight 30. This past year, but [00:44:00] my staff tells me that we are already at capacity this year. So that means to me that there are more than 800 students who are eligible, and we may have to ask for a supplemental to, um, award these students, but this is considered an entitlement program.

So if we need to reach out, I’m sure the legislature will respond appropriately. Here’s a program that is strictly for students, um, attending our private institutions. And this is the Gilbert Matching grant program, so it does support. Years ago, this program was designed to support access and choice and choice, meaning, uh, student wanted to go to a non-public institution, but the costs were higher.

So every state in the union had, um. Something that was called a tuition equity program. And the Gilbert Grant is sort of a Massachusetts answer to that. Um, this is, uh, money that’s allocated to the colleges, to the [00:45:00] institutions, and the institutions get to award that to the students. It has remained at a fairly low level from 200 to $2,500 a year.

And the recipients must meet all eligibility requirements, which include enrolling full-time. So for programs like Mass Grant and the Gilbert Grant, it is, um, a full-time status for the students. And on average, um, we are providing about $22 million for Gilbert Grants, and that’s supporting anywhere between, on average, about 85 to 9,000, 8,500 to 9,000 students.

So a student who applies to Harvard, BCB, uim, Springfield, uh, college or what have you, might see that they’re getting a Gilbert Grant. And my favorite program that I always want to mention to this group is the Christian Herder [00:46:00] Scholarship, completely portable to any college around the continental USA. It meets up to half of the students unmet need, and it is a four year commitment to students on average up to about $20,000 a year.

But with college costs, um, it looks like that $20,000 a year might be increasing the next year, so long as our budget can support that. But for the Christian Herda Scholarship Program, it does require that the institution nominate students and students have to complete. Kinda wonky online application because they have to list, um, information along with references, uploading letters of recommendations, transcripts, that sort of thing.

And if students get through that process and are selected, um, it’s a wonderful program. And as, um, I didn’t put it here, but students for this program are, [00:47:00] um. Selected due to, uh, demonstrating their ability to overcome adversity. Um, it could be health related or it could be financial related or other circumstances that, let’s say the typical student does not have to, um, go through.

And for many of our herder students, you would not know that they’re going through these things unless it’s very clear. So the 25, um, application will kick off in December and I wanted to mention that. So you can look for this information in your mailbox and hopefully, um, you will be, uh, encouraged to submit, uh, nominations and don’t give up if you submit them every year and your students are not selected.

If you wanna know, well, what are you doing wrong? It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong, it’s just that this is a very competitive program. If you have specific questions, um, about your [00:48:00] nominees, you can reach out to our office. Um, so with that, I’m gonna pause four questions. We have pretty much about maybe eight minutes or so to do that.

This

Julie Shields-Rutyna: is perfect. Yeah. Okay,

Clantha McCurdy: great.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: So I’m gonna go with the hardest first. How about, okay, so. Will Massachusetts, this is about, um, the mafa form and Okay. Um, students who aren’t eligible to file the fafsa, will Massachusetts guarantee confidentiality of undocumented students’ affidavits from disclosure to feds?

Clantha McCurdy: Yeah, that’s a great question and we are seeing it more now than ever. The way I will answer that is at this time, the Department of Higher Education is not sharing information, uh, for students who complete the master [00:49:00] to anyone. The only way that that information, uh, will be shared is if our legal counsel decides that the, uh, the agency has no other option.

And at this point, we’re not seeing that at all. So students should feel, uh, comfortable completing that application. We’re not giving up anybody in this state. This is Massachusetts is a blue state, so you know, we, and we do maintain confidentiality. Um. I, I think there would have to be some mandate that forces not only Massachusetts, but I think there’s about eight or nine other states, uh, maybe more who are also awarding undocumented students.

You know, you take the larger ones, um, California, Texas, um, and some others. But, um, I, I, I don’t see that happening at all and. If that were to happen, our legal counsel would, uh, guide us through that. Um, [00:50:00] there are a lot of stakeholders that are working with us, um, on the master application and that is the one thing that they put in front of us, the confidentiality.

So right now zipped.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: That’s great. And kind of a related question from another person, um, will there be sort of extra marketing about the mafa this year, given? Given everything.

Clantha McCurdy: Definitely extra marketing. We’re gonna do everything we did last year, which included a number of workshops with counselors and other college access stakeholders, financial aid administrators.

But we have a director of communications who’s working on a number of, I, you know, we, we are working, we have a weekly meeting, uh, that Julie and I are part of with all of these, uh, communication strategies and, uh, we are. Um, we have a contract with a couple of marketing agencies, but our goal is to really beef [00:51:00] that up because one of the things that, uh, has come to the department is that this word is not getting out.

And how do we get that word out? And our focus is going to be on communities where we know that there’s a potential of a high concentration of undocumented students. You know, we don’t know that. You may know that more than us. We are told that there’s at least 3000 undocumented seniors in, uh, the senior class this year.

So we wanna get at that, we want to increase that number, and we’re gonna do everything that we possibly can, working with our stakeholder partners and our institutions to encourage, um, awareness.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: That’s great. And I have a couple more. Mm-hmm. Um, this is a question about early college. Okay. And so the question is, um, is there definitive language from the state, um, about.

Early college students pre matriculation credits being considered for SAP, [00:52:00] uh, for satisfactory academic progress. It seems that financial aid office officers are sometimes unsure. Um, so this person is asking if there is some definitive language. Yeah.

Clantha McCurdy: You know, that’s a great question. I’ve not seen any definitive language come out of the department and I, I.

Personally think that institutions might treat that, uh, differently. ’cause some early college programs are, um, in partnership between institutions and, uh, student. Um, what I can say is that a student who is participating in early college cannot receive state financial aid because they’re not eligible to complete the fafsa.

Uh, does it stand to reason that their performance should not be counted? But I can take that back to our academic unit and general counsel because I think that question needs to be answered. And it is something that, uh, [00:53:00] nowhere will you find, uh, that the financial aid guidelines address that, but that is probably something that the department should issue guidance on.

So we’ll hopefully get to that and have that released, um, at some point in the very near future.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: That’s great. And then someone is asking, is there a tool available on the DHE website for students to sort of answer a set of questions to see what state aid they might be eligible for? Is there anything like that?

Clantha McCurdy: There is. We have a cost calculator that was introduced I think maybe a couple years ago. And, um, it is being updated, but if a student goes there and. Um, all I can tell you is you have to go to mass.edu under financial aid, uh, search for cost calculator. And it’s very similar to, or somewhat similar to, um, calculators [00:54:00] that you might find on the college board’s website or whatever, but it’s focused on state financial aid.

So depending on how a student answers questions or whatever, it may say, oh, you might qualify for mass rent. Oh. Or. You know, you’re, uh, you’ve listed a community college, uh, you will qualify for a free community college or what have you. Yes. And that program, um, we just, I don’t know if the changes have been, um, introduced yet or under the test phases, but, uh, yes, we do have a tool and it’s being enhanced.

I should say it that way. I should have the exact website for that. But Julie, maybe I can add that to the PowerPoint if you’re gonna share that later. With the group. Great. And uh, and so I can add a slide with that, with some context. Oh, that’s great. The tuition equity, uh, the uh, cost calculator tool and a couple of other links for programs.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Oh, thank you. Okay, that’s terrific. And just two more. Are there any supports [00:55:00] besides the ones we’ve covered for students who are unhoused or who might have been at any point in their high school career?

Clantha McCurdy: Um, what I can tell you is that we have a pilot program that offers assistance for housing that exists between community colleges and our four year state universities.

And, um, and it also provides some stipend to students, but a broad program, no. However, I know that students are able to answer or respond to those questions, um, on the fafsa, but. That may be the next area. And we are doing a lot of work in that area, but we’ve not specifically created a program for students.

Um, it is something that we hope to, in fact, right now our focus has been on tuition and fees, and we are reminded every day that that’s not the only cost that students have. Uh, room and board, other transportation, even childcare. [00:56:00] Those are things. So we hope to grow the programs too. Began to address other related educational expenses.

And that certainly would include housing. Um, I don’t know if, if, uh, the department will end up with a specific program, but it could be wrapped into one of the existing programs.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. And I think the last question, and we are on perfect time here. Oh, great. Is, is there a specific application for the in-demand scholarship?

Clantha McCurdy: Um, no. The in-demand scholarship is available to public college students, four year students, and it is allocated, those funds are allocated to the institutions and get this, this program supports undergraduate and graduate students. The award could be up to the cost of tuition. I should have included a slide on that, but it’s a wonderful program that was created just a year ago.

Um, the legislature funded that program at $23 million. This year’s only at 10. [00:57:00] However, um, the student has to, um, connect with their financial aid office to see if they qualify because it’s awarded directly by the college. There is an application for the, in a high demand scholarship that goes to public and private.

And this year we are awarding probably about $33 million for that program. Um, we got some federal funds for that. So there was a pretty extensive, uh, application process for that. And next year there will be an online application for that. That will release probably in the late spring for the 25 26 academic year.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Okay. That’s terrific. Well, clan, thank you so much and I wanna thank all of the participants. Those were some really great questions and I’ll share that tomorrow morning at the same time, 8:30 AM clan will be back with us, um, with a panel. And we have another webinar that is going to be talking more about [00:58:00] how you can counsel your students through.

Um, these, the, the fact that there is all this great new money, right? Um, but also there’s so much of it and how can you help them, you know, choose the path that’s that’s right for them. So, um, I just welcome you back if you’d like to come to that or you can sign up for it. And if you can’t attend, then you of course will receive the, the recording for that one as well.

So, clan, we’re gonna keep you busy, okay?

Clantha McCurdy: I look forward to it. So hopefully I’ll see some of you again tomorrow.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you so much everyone. Have a great day.

Clantha McCurdy: Bye.