Assembly subcommittee hears that FAFSA rollout and data barriers left thousands of California students behind

The Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance heard that delays and technical problems with the new federal FAFSA and worries among mixed‑status families have left California high school seniors and other first‑time filers behind previous years’ application rates.

The California Student Aid Commission said the new FAFSA launch and later applications cycles contributed to a major drop in early filings and that the commission exercised statutory authority to extend the state priority aid deadline. “Last Tuesday, our executive director, Dr. Daisy Gonzales, approved an extension of the priority aid deadline by 30 days, the most allowable under this provision, shifting the deadline from March 3 to April 2,” Jake Bremner, deputy director for policy and public affairs at the California Student Aid Commission, told the panel.

CSAC officials said problems with the federal rollout in 2024 — and continuing reliability issues this application season, especially for families in which one or more parents lack a Social Security number — depressed submissions. “As of February 24 approximately 193,000 FAFSAs and 3,500 California Dream Act applications had been submitted for the 25–26 academic year by our California high school seniors,” Bremner said, adding those counts were roughly 21% and 27% behind prior years when measured by days remaining before the priority deadline.

Why it matters: state and campus financial aid offers rely on timely application data. CSAC and the segments said lower first‑time filing rates can reduce students’ access to targeted state and institutional funds and complicate enrollment decisions.

What CSAC and the segments are doing: Bremner described an outreach push that includes statewide Cash for College webinars, in‑person workshops through regional CALSOAP consortia, targeted mailings (CSAC said it would mail over 40,000 reminder postcards), translated guidance for mixed‑status families, and a cross‑sector implementation work group for real‑time troubleshooting. Dr. Apry Medina of the University of California, Noelia Gonzalez of the CSU Chancellor’s Office and Gina Brown of the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office described parallel campus and system outreach and student communications.

CSAC also told the committee that families in which a parent lacks a Social Security number have reported mistrust about sharing information online and difficulty obtaining help from the federal student aid call center. Bremner said that while some FAFSA issues had appeared resolved earlier in the cycle, partners are again reporting reliability failures in recent weeks and that the declines are larger for mixed‑status families: “For students from mixed status families, there was a 31% decline in applications as of February 24 before we consider that deadline extension,” he said, and even after the extension those students “still appear to be about 10% behind where they've been in prior years.”

Discussion vs. decision: the subcommittee’s questioning focused on the scale of outreach, data‑sharing with local schools so counselors can target students, and data privacy protections for mixed‑status families. CSAC cited existing state law authority to approve deadline extensions in extenuating circumstances and the commission’s decision to extend the priority deadline to April 2 (action taken by CSAC executive director Daisy Gonzales). Committee members urged continued targeted outreach and clarity on privacy protections.

Looking ahead: CSAC and system partners said work remains to rebuild application rates; officials asked for continued legislative and administrative support to fund outreach and operations needed to process and safeguard data.