FAFSA changes mean students can file for financial aid earlier

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as FAFSA, has made some new changes that families should know about.

Rules for filing the FAFSA have permanently changed as of Oct. 1, and students can now file from that date. Students previously were able to start the application process Jan. 1.

The new start date is supposed to allow families more time to get an accurate amount of how much money they’ll receive from the government. Colleges and universities are working to spread the word.

“We are participating in what’s called the Tennessee FAFSA Frenzy,” said Dewana Latimer, director of financial aid at Jackson State Community College. “It’s a statewide collaboration of schools that are trying to get the word out there that students can apply now.”

The second major change is called the prior-prior year, or PPY, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Applicants will use their 2015 tax returns instead of the old format of inserting an estimated number and waiting until tax season to update the information.

“The benefit of that is you’ve already filed the income tax return and we can easily verify that the income information was correct,” Latimer said.

Some students say the new guidelines are allowing them to better prepare for future semesters.

“You can use one of your old ones. It’s a lot quicker, faster — you can know what you got to do and plan things out ahead of time,” JSCC student Jamal Harris said.

If you don’t know how to view your old tax records, administrators say it’s pretty simple.

“Use the IRS data retrieval, and you can just use their database to pull in the income information for 2015 for the application,” Latimer said.

Jackson State Community College has a series of public workshops starting Oct. 4 where administrators will provide assistance with completing the FAFSA.