FAFSA delays put pressure on overstretched school counselors

A messed up roll-out for the nation’s key financial aid form has left guidance counselors scrambling to help confused families.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, HOST:

It’s been a tough year for high school seniors figuring out how to pay for college. That’s because the bungled rollout of this year’s FAFSA, where the Free Application for Federal Student Aid means they’ll have less time to fill it out and then calculate how much college will cost. The delayed FAFSA is making the process more complicated not just for students, but also those trying to help them. From GBH in Boston, Kirk Carapezza reports.

KIRK CARAPEZZA, BYLINE: Surrounded by many college pennants, counselor Caitlin Serna puts in the long hours assisting students struggling with college expenses. She meets with them one-on-one inside her cramped office at the Henderson Inclusion School here in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.

CAITLIN SERNA: Why don’t you just open up the doc?

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Which one?

SERNA: The doc, the supplement doc.

CARAPEZZA: The delayed and troubled rollout of this year’s FAFSA has left Serna scrambling to help her seniors fill out these forms before they make their college decisions in May. First, the government came out with a new form at the end of December, three months later than expected. Then, once it was out, it contained a big mistake calculating how much federal aid students would get. It didn’t account for inflation. Fixing that blip could now delay award letters until April at the earliest. Serna says trying to help dozens of students complete all of this paperwork by colleges’ financial aid deadlines has been time consuming and frustrating.

SERNA: I want to provide the best college and career support for my students that I can. I’m only one person. And we only really have, like, the school day. So it’s just time is limited, and working one-on-one with students is the most effective way to reach them. And I fear there will be…