Efforts to boost FAFSA application rates in Arizona

PHOENIX (AZFamily)—Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Board of Regents are partnering to declare January ‘FAFSA Action Month’ in an effort to boost application rates.

After last week’s technical difficulties and delayed rollout, the Arizona Board of Regents said it prevented many students from applying for financial aid and impacted FAFSA completion rates.

From October 2024 to now, the national FAFSA completion rate sits at 54.4%, according to the National College Attainment Network’s FAFSA Tracker. During the same measured timeframe, Arizona’s FAFSA completion rate was 41.4%, about 13% lower than the national average.

Knowing that last year’s issues created a negative experience for many families, Arizona Board of Regents Director of FAFSA Julia Sainz and the Board of Regents will continue to assure parents that it won’t happen again.

”We’re trying to really elevate the message of FASFA and just letting families and students know that there is support available to help with the application also in support with the governor’s office and we also have an Arizona FASFA coalition that we partner with in order to help eleveate this message,” said Sainz.

After the U.S. Department of Education made multiple improvements and updates to the FAFSA software, Sainz said it has already created a smoother and easier application process for students.

“As of December we’ve already seen a little over 15% of high school seniors have completed the FASFA application. Knowing that there were a lot of technical glitches with the form if we look at that data back in April of last year we were at 18% so knowing that a month of data we’re at 15% is showing really great progress.”

Another way the Board of Regents is trying to boost completion rates is by partnering with the Cactus League to provide complimentary tickets to students who complete their FAFSA application.

The Arizona Board of Regents encourages families to complete FAFSA Applications sooner rather than later to ensure they meet all deadlines.

The federal deadline for FAFSA applications is June 30. However, the board said it’s important to check if the school your student applies to has its own FAFSA deadlines.

All Arizona universities don’t have specific FAFSA deadlines. However, in-state scholarships like the Arizona Promise Program have a priority deadline of April 30.

To learn more about the FAFSA application, click here.

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