FAFSA parent identity verification issue - what happens to enrolled students?

YEP this is a MASSIVE problem nobody at FSA seems to care about!! We have at least 75 continuing students at our community college who will probably lose aid because of this stupid requirement. Parents who are off-grid, don't use internet, have language barriers, or are just not in contact. FSA keeps saying "oh they can use the paper form" but have you SEEN the new paper form?? It's just as complicated!!!

This is definitely a challenging situation. To clarify, you're correct that for dependent students, both the student and at least one contributing parent must create an FSA ID and verify their identity to electronically sign the FAFSA. This is part of the new FAFSA Simplification Act implementation. Students in this situation have a few options: 1. Help parents through the verification process - many schools are hosting FAFSA workshops specifically to assist with ID verification issues 2. Dependency override - if there's documented evidence of parental abandonment, abuse, incarceration, etc. (though this won't help undocumented parents) 3. Special circumstance review - financial aid offices have some discretion for unique situations The Department of Education released guidance on this in August that allows for some flexibility, though it's limited.

I know this won't solve the systemic issue, but we've had success with dedicated parent sessions. We hired translators for Spanish, Vietnamese, and Hmong families and set up computer labs with helpers who walk parents through the verification step by step. The key is doing outreach NOW, not waiting until application deadlines. We're seeing about a 68% success rate with parents who attend these sessions, even those who initially seemed technologically challenged. We also created paper handouts showing screenshots of each step in multiple languages. Cost us about $5k so far but worth it to keep students enrolled.

my daughter is at Usouthern and they told us all parents have to do the fafsa identity thing or no money. but her dad lives in mexico now and doesnt have a SSN what happens then?? the school couldnt give me a straight answer

Have you tried using Claimyr to get through to the Federal Student Aid agents? I was having similar issues with a group of students at our college and spending HOURS on hold. Someone recommended claimyr.com and they got me through to an actual FSA agent in about 10 minutes who walked me through the special protocols for parents with verification issues. They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Honestly saved me so much frustration, and I was able to get specific guidance for our undocumented parent cases. They have a special process that's not well-advertised.

I'm at a large public university and we're documenting all these cases to present to our congressional representatives. The FAFSA Simplification Act had good intentions but these identity verification requirements are creating real barriers for vulnerable students. In the meantime, we're: 1. Identifying affected students early through targeted outreach 2. Maintaining a pool of emergency institutional aid (about $800K) 3. Dedicating two staff members to work solely on these cases 4. Partnering with community organizations that work with undocumented families It's not enough, but it's something. I'd recommend documenting each case thoroughly - we may need this data to advocate for policy changes.

wait im confused. if im already in college and got fafsa before do i have to do all this verification stuff for my parents again this year???

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm going to propose a multi-pronged approach to our director: 1. Start identifying vulnerable students now through advisor outreach 2. Host dedicated parent verification workshops with translators 3. Create a small emergency fund for students whose parents ultimately can't complete verification 4. Document all cases for advocacy purposes I'll update if we come up with any other successful strategies. This shouldn't be falling on schools to fix, but we can't just let students lose their aid and drop out.