Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Financial Aid Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board staff proposes students work through a sample FAFSA/WASFA; debate centers on privacy and equity
Summary
Staff proposed that students interact with a sample FAFSA/WASFA as evidence in the High School and Beyond Plan rather than mandating official federal submissions. Board members and community liaisons deliberated privacy, opt-out records and district capacity; staff will include the approach in an August resolution for further review.
State Board of Education staff proposed adding an activity to the High School and Beyond Plan requiring students to work through a sample FAFSA or WASFA form with educator support, rather than mandating formal federal or state submissions.
The proposal, introduced during a Future Ready follow-up, would change how the board defines "evidence" that a student has engaged with financial aid planning: instead of merely receiving information, students would complete a paper or sample form under supervision and have that interaction tracked in the online high school and beyond system. Executive Director Randy (staff) described the change as a way to move districts from passive information distribution to ensuring students meaningfully engage with financial aid materials and the FAFSA process.
Public commenters had urged stronger action. In public comment, Governor Ferguson asked the board to adopt a requirement that high school seniors complete a FAFSA or WASFA with an opt-out option, saying Washington ranks low in FAFSA completion and that doing so has increased completion in other states. "Thousands more of our seniors can utilize the very generous financial aid we offer," he told the board.
Board members raised three primary concerns in response to staff's sample-form proposal: student privacy and records, equitable implementation across districts, and the administrative burden on school staff. Several members said an explicit, recorded opt-out would create a permanent record that could be subpoenaed, and asked how federal and state records systems would treat any submission. Others noted that many communities and school districts lack staffing and translation capacity to help students through the form reliably.
Members also debated precedents. Staff and members pointed to other required high-school activities contained in the high school and beyond plan (for example, career interest inventories) and said the sample-form approach could sit alongside those activities rather than becoming a stand-alone graduation requirement.
Task force liaisons and community liaisons told the board their consultations with marginalized communities had repeatedly flagged privacy and implementation concerns: several communities opposed a graduation requirement but supported stronger, structured expectations that districts provide meaningful supports and clear information.
After extended discussion, the board took a nonbinding show-of-hands on whether to include the staff's sample-form interaction language in the resolution staff will bring back in August. A majority indicated support for drafting the language into the August proposal; several members preferred deferring the final decision until additional listening sessions and the task force report.
Next steps: staff will include the sample-form interaction option in the draft framework to be presented in August and continue webinars and task-force meetings to gather feedback. The board and staff emphasized that the proposal as described does not require students to submit official federal FAFSA/WASFA filings; it would document educational engagement with the form as an activity in the high school and beyond plan.
