Coordinating board previews April rule changes affecting FAST funding, Texas Grant and college access loan

The Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Financial Aid Advisory Committee heard a detailed preview of proposed rule changes that will come before the board at its April meeting, including a major redesign of FAST funding, allocation changes for the Texas Grant program and an expansion to the college access loan rules.

Chris Woolen, the coordinating board’s agency representative, told the committee the changes are proposed and have gone through public comment but are not final. He said the board has reorganized student aid rules into chapters (chapter 13 for tuition, chapter 22 for grants and scholarships, chapter 24 for loans and chapter 23 for loan repayment assistance) to make policies easier to find and administer.

The FAST program, which reimburses institutions for no‑cost dual‑credit instruction and has funded “something like 3 million semester credit hours” since 2023, would move to a three‑phase formula funding model, Woolen said. Under the proposal the board will publish projections in June based on prior‑year CBM reporting (three buckets: fall, spring and summer), make scheduled dispersals by Oct. 15, March 15 and June 15, and run a year‑end true‑up comparing projections to actual eligible credit hours. Projections will include a 10‑day data review period. Woolen emphasized the proposal does not change student eligibility or the total annual funding amounts; it changes when and how institutions receive funds and eliminates the current FAST funding‑report process.

On Texas Grant, Woolen said the legislature added new requirements that the board must reflect in rule. The proposed changes would guarantee an initial‑year Texas Grant for two groups if students meet eligibility criteria and have a FAFSA on file by June 1: students who were in the top 25% of their high school class (with a published priority SAI threshold) and TEOG pathway students with priority SAI. To support that guarantee the negotiated rulemaking committee reworked the allocation methodology and identified dedicated funding streams: Woolen said the board plans to treat top‑25 students as a funded group with a guaranteed funding amount (he cited $6,250 as the calculation the board used in committee, noting it represents 125% of a target award) and to publish a separate allocation line for TEOG‑pathway initial‑year students (budgeted funds for that stream were described as a distinct, restricted allocation).

Woolen also described a proposed change to the college access loan rules that would extend the program’s “manageable debt” calculation to students enrolled in master’s programs. He said that extension would apply to loan applications submitted after Oct. 15 of this year and is timed to coincide with the rollout of a new state loan management system.

Committee members asked how institutions should handle students from high schools that do not rank (institutions can adopt an admissions‑style methodology for such determinations), and whether the top‑25 guarantee is subject to the usual priority deadlines (Woolen said the guarantee operates outside the standard priority deadline but requires FAFSA completion by June 1). Woolen repeatedly cautioned that the proposals could change between the negotiated rulemaking stage and board adoption.

If adopted in April, the Texas Grant allocations will trigger the board’s routine 10‑day data review and a later final allocation publication; board staff said institutions should expect to see allocation memos and review windows after adoption. The committee did not take formal votes on any of the proposals during this meeting.

The board member who presented the update said staff will produce detailed implementation guidance and webinars over the coming months to help institutions adjust operationally to the changes.