Sen. Jon Ossoff is putting pressure on the Biden administration to address a delay in financial aid for Georgia students. This comes the same day as the Biden administration announced an additional $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness.
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Ossoff says he's calling on the Department of Education to quickly fix an issue with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. There appears to be some sort of problem impacting Georgia students and their ability to make decisions about their enrollment. It's also barring Georgia colleges and universities from sending accurate financial aid offers to students, according to reports by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WABE.
The FAFSA form typically opens on Oct. 1, but reports suggest it didn't become available until Dec. 30 this academic year. Due to the months-long delay, students may not receive their aid for the semester until the first half of March.
That becomes a problem for lower-income students who may not have the means to thrive in school and survive on campus without it.
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"We were pleased to see the recent announcement of the Department’s plans to provide additional resources and support for under-resourced high schools and colleges to assist their students with the FAFSA form, and to deploy federal staff to support aid efforts," Sen. Ossoff and a group of colleagues calling attention to the delay wrote. "We urge the Department to distribute these resources and tools to schools and institutions of higher education as quickly as possible, and to clearly communicate with stakeholders about the ways to access these resources and how these new resources will support students, families, and student aid administrators in submitting and processing the FAFSA form."