• Only select yes if your parent is unwilling to contribute information on your FAFSA. If you select yes, then you will only be eligible for unsubsidized loans.
• It is important to select No so that the FAFSA gathers parent information to determine eligibility for Federal Pell and FSEOG grants, Student Work Study, and WA state grants.

• Please review this helpful guide for creating an FSA ID and filing a FAFSA without a Social Security Number.

Some families experience trouble submitting their FAFSA when the parent tries to complete the FAFSA first, or the student tries to submit the FAFSA before the parent completes their part. While Federal Student Aid works to resolve this issue, here is the best way for dependent students to complete the FAFSA:

• Student starts the FAFSA form and works through all sections up to the parent invite.
• Invite parents to complete their section.
• Save and stop (do not submit).
• Parent completes their portion of the FAFSA including signature.
• Student returns to their FAFSA to sign and submit their section.

• Students need corrections such as: providing a signature for a student or parent, granting consent to access IRS tax data, adding a school to your FAFSA, or correcting questions previously answered incorrectly such as seeking Unsub loans only.
• Federal Student Aid has helpful guidance on how to complete the most common corrections.
• SPU should receive the corrections within 3-5 days, you will receive an emailed notice with an updated Financial Aid package in the following days.

• There are many reasons a FAFSA may have a rejection, which just means it needs to be corrected.
• Common reasons for FAFSA corrections are:
  •  FAFSA needs to be signed by the student.
  • FAFSA needs to be signed by the contributor (parent, other parent, student spouse).
  • Student did not provide consent to retrieve or disclose their federal tax information.
  • The contributor did not provide consent to retrieve or disclose their federal tax information.
  • Confirm citizenship or eligible noncitizen status.
• Federal Student Aid has helpful guidance on how to complete the most common corrections.
• SPU should receive the corrections within 3-5 days, you will receive an emailed notice with an updated Financial Aid package in the following days.

• IRS Data Exchange: All applicants are now required to use the IRS Data Exchange, this reduces the number of errors and the number of questions on the form itself.
• Contributors: Anyone who is required to provide information is referred to as a contributor. A contributor may be a parent, step-parent or spouse.
• Student Aid Index (SAI): the term Expected Family Contribution (EFC) was replaced with the Student Aid Index (SAI). This name more accurately describes the number used to determine aid eligibility and, unlike the EFC, the SAI may be a negative number, down to -1500. Although, a negative SAI does not mean a student will receive more aid.

4/22/2024 update:

SFS is excited to announce that we are reviewing FAFSAs. Remember, SFS will send information to your spu.edu email; please check your email often. In addition, students can check Banner, under Financial Aid menu for 2024-2025 Financial Aid Requirements SFS needs to process your application.

General Updates:

• Students who made a recent FAFSA correction or filed your FAFSA in the last 3 weeks: SFS should import your FAFSA this week and an email will be sent to you once we have received your FAFSA.
• Undergraduate Students who are planning on taking Summer 2024 courses and need Financial Aid- please complete the Undergraduate Student Summer Aid Application. This will ensure we know you are planning to take classes this summer.

4/15/2024 update:

As we mentioned in our last update on 4/8, SPU began importing 2024-25 FAFSA's at the beginning of April. If you filed your FAFSA prior to the end of April, you should receive an email letting you know it has been received by the end of this week if you have not already received one.

Other important updates for this week:

• 2024-25 FAFSA Corrections Available Now: If you need to make a correction to your FAFSA, this includes adding SPU to the list of colleges on your FAFSA, it is now available.
  •  Check the status of your FAFSA by logging into your studentaid.gov account and selecting your FAFSA submission from the "My Activity" section of your account dashboard.
• 2024-25 Additional Information: Due to the challenges of FAFSA Simplification, we may need additional information to review your FAFSA. Please check your email often.
• 2024-25 WASFA Filers: SPU is loading WASFAs. The changes to the FAFSA impacted our process. We hope to have these loaded this week. We will send an email once these have been received. If you completed the application, SPU will review your WASFA with the FAFSAs.
• Financial Aid Requirements: Student Financial Services will reach out to you with outstanding Financial Aid Requirements, but you can check these ahead of time and complete these early. This will speed up the process of your financial aid offer. We encourage you to monitor these in Banner, under 2024-2025 Financial Aid Requirements.

This year has had a lot of challenges with the FAFSA, but the Student Financial Services team is ready to help answer your questions. SFS will contact you if additional information is needed. If you have any questions or concerns now, we are here to assist you every step of the way.

4/8/2024 update:

Great news! As of last week, SPU has received and started processing the majority of the 2024-25 FAFSA submissions. The Student Financial Services staff is working hard to review these and hope to begin finalizing financial aid packets for incoming students this week. Review this additional information for more details on the process:

• If you have not filed, make sure to submit your 2024-25 FAFSA as soon as possible. If you filed a 2024-25 WASFA, we hope to have these imported in the next week.
• Updates and corrections to FAFSA: On or before April 15, you or your contributor should be able to make a correction to you 2024-25 FAFSA to address any of these items:
  • When you view your FAFSA online at studentaid.gov, it shows “Needs Action” because:
    • A signature is missing from you or a contributor,
    • You or your contributor did not give consent to transfer federal tax information,
    • or you accidentally requested unsubsidized loans only.
  • You did not enter SPU in the list of schools you want your FAFSA sent to

As Student Financial Services is reviewing FAFSAs and begins packaging, they may need additional information. Remember to check your email. If additional information is needed, it will be listed as a Financial Aid Requirement in Banner. Make sure to submit any requirements as quickly as possible.

3/26/2024 update:

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education began sending small batches of FAFSAs to schools to test the FAFSA transmission process. They will begin sending an increasing number of FAFSAs to an increasing number of schools, a process that's being called a "ramp up" to a normal FAFSA delivery level. We can share that SPU has received a handful of 2024-25 FAFSAs.

Once your individual FAFSA has been sent to SPU, you will receive an acknowledgement email from Federal Student Aid sent to the email address listed on your FAFSA. SPU will not begin sending communications until the month of April. Once we have a firmer timeline in place, we will send another communication.

• The Department of Education also promised that parents without social security numbers would be able to apply for an FSA ID and password by the middle of March. As of today, the process is partially working. Parents without an SSN can now access the FAFSA, but they have to manually enter all of their financial information. Furthermore, when a student invites a parent to contribute to the FAFSA, the information the student enters must exactly match the information the parent provided on studentaid.gov when applying for a FSA ID and password.
• If you and your contributors already submitted your FAFSA but you need to make updates or corrections, you will be able to do so in "late March" according to the Department of Education. Unfortunately, we do not have a precise date when corrections access will become available.
• If you have not already done so, we would urge you to submit your 2024-25 FAFSA now. Many students and families have said the application process is easier than before.

1/30/2024 update:

As you might have heard by now, there have been some delays and technical challenges with the U.S. Department of Education's "soft launch" of the 2024-2025 FAFSA which became available on December 31st, 2023. You may have experience a wait time, technical issues, and/or an inability to access the application as a result. We encourage every current and prospective SPU student and family to complete and submit a FAFSA.

We understand that the Department of Education's delays and technical issues can cause concern for you and your family. We want to assure you that we are monitoring the situation and staying informed of any other possible delays or issues with the 24-25 FAFSA. Our office has been informed that the FAFSA application system should become more accessible over the next several days, and we appreciate your patience during this time as you continue to complete and submit your 24-25 FAFSA application.

To accommodate the delayed availability and technical issues students and families are experiencing with the 24-25 FAFSA, we want to remind you that the SPU Priority Filing Date for FAFSA has been extended to April 1st, 2024. We recommend that you submit the 24-25 FAFSA as early as possible, before the 4/1/2024 priority date, so we can determine your financial aid eligibility in a timely manner.

Please note that the Department of Education has announced there will be delays in transferring your completed FAFSA application to colleges/universities. After you complete and submit your FAFSA, you should receive an email acknowledgement from Federal Student Aid (this message will be sent to the email address you used for FAFSA). However, our office will not be able to receive your application at SPU, see any of your submitted FAFSA information, or advise on aid eligibility until a later time (currently estimated late March 2024).

We will continue to keep you informed with periodic updates and reminders.

Previous Update:

The FAFSA application and delivery system is changing for 2024-25. As a result, the application was made available later than usual in the end of December. To accommodate this later availability, we are extending our FAFSA/WASFA priority filing date to February 28th, 2024. Please stay tuned for more details as they are released.

The FAFSA Simplification Act represents a significant overhaul of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid starting with the 2024-25 award year. This includes the Free Application of Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, need analysis, and many policies and procedures for schools that participate in federal student aid programs.

These changes are aimed at making it easier for students and their families to apply for financial aid with a more streamlined application process.

Key Changes

• Availability- the FAFSA will be available in late December 2023.
• More streamlined application process with fewer questions, and an easier way to transfer tax information directly from the IRS.
• Student Aid Index (SAI) replaces the term Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
• New terminology- you will notice new terminology being used in the application and aid eligibility process.

Terminology changes

• Contributor: anyone who is asked to provide information on the FAFSA- student, student spouse, parent(s), and stepparent(s) for example.
• Consent: each contributor will now need to provide their consent to their Federal Tax Information (FTI) being included in the FAFSA, even if they did not file a U.S. tax return.
• SAI: Student Aid Index (SAI) replaces the Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
• FTI: Federal Tax Information (FTI) transferred directly from the IRS

Changes to the application

• The number of questions on the FAFSA will be reduced
• For students whose parents are divorced or separated, the Custodial Parent on your FAFSA will be the parent who provides you with the most financial support and will no longer be the parent with whom you lived with most over the past 12 months.
• Each contributor (student, student spouse, parent(s) and/or stepparent) will have to provide consent.
• If any contributor does not provide their consent, the Student Aid Index (SAI) will not be calculated, and we will not be able to determine your eligibility for financial aid.
• Foster, homeless, and unaccompanied youth- as well as applicants who cannot provide parental information- will be able to complete the form with a provisional independent student determination and receive a calculated SAI.
• Students can list up to 20 schools on their FAFSA via the online application

Other changes

• A direct data share with the IRS will replace what is currently known as the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT).
• Resources for completing the FAFSA form will be expanded to the 11 most common languages spoken in the United States.

Watch the "What's Changed for the 2024-25 FAFSA Form?" for more details.

Please continue to check back as we will update this page as we receive more information so we can continue to help you and your family navigate the new application process.