I mentioned in my article on How much will it cost for my child to go to college? Part 3 – How much do colleges think you can pay? that there were changes coming for the 2023-2024 academic award year courtesy of the FAFSA Simplification Act (signed into law December 27, 2020 as a part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021). That timeline has been revised – some components have been accelerated, and other parts delayed, due to their relative ease or challenge in implementation.

More specifically, the following changes have been delayed by a year:

• Not yet clear. But the timeline was changed from the 2023-2024 awards year (FAFSA version released October 1, 2022) to the 2024-2025 award year (FAFSA version released October 1, 2023). Possibly this is everything except those changes below that were accelerated.

And the following changes have been accelerated, and will go into effect very soon (requires an announcement and then a 60 day waiting period):

• removal of the requirement of registration for male students to the Selective Service (eg the draft) to be eligible for federal student aid
• removal of suspension of eligibility for federal student aid due to drug convictions
• removal of the limit of 1.5x (150%) of the credit hours needed for graduation cap on eligibility for federal student aid (also known as SULA, Subsidized Usage Eligibility Limit)

Websites such as StudentAid.gov and the myStudentAid moble app [Apple, Android] are expected to be updated by July 1, 2021.

Like everything else in life, we’re aiming at a constantly moving target. Thank goodness for constantly updating the map. Happy college planning!