QUESTION
How are New York City public schools and the City University of New York (CUNY) supporting students with the FAFSA process?
1:05:57
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4 min
New York City Public Schools and the City University of New York (CUNY) detail their efforts to support students navigating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process amidst challenges.
- Professional development and ongoing training for school counselors and staff focus on navigating the financial aid process.
- The redesigned FAFSA application presents challenges, such as late availability and technical glitches, requiring diligent work and collaboration with community partners.
- New York City Public Schools host FAFSA nights and use texting campaigns to update students directly.
- CUNY admits the FAFSA delay is problematic, prompting various initiatives such as hiring work-study students for citywide financial aid assistance and training admissions staff.
- Collaboration between New York City Public Schools, CUNY, and donors is underway to offer scaled services throughout the summer.
Rita Joseph
1:05:57
In terms of FAFSA, what type of support do New York City Public Schools And Q me, does it does there a point where you have city public school pass it on to Quni to continue to process?
1:06:06
And if so, walk me through it.
Melanie Mac
1:06:11
I'm gonna pass to Kristen to speak to what FAFSA support looks like in general, but also what it has looked like this year with the redesigned application.
Kristen Harris
1:06:21
So in general, again, we have a comprehensive set of professional development specific to the financial aid process because it is there are multiple phases of that that in the best years when we didn't have a streamlined application.
1:06:39
This year, we know there are significant plays because of the late availability of the Simplify FAFSA.
1:06:47
And now there are technical glitches with different student income income background.
1:06:54
So we are working really diligently.
1:06:57
Again, that's why we have every Monday morning.
1:07:00
We are meeting regularly with our schools and our counselors to to help them navigate that process.
1:07:06
We have really close relationships with our CVO partners that deliver comprehensive professional development ongoing because this is a on going process, and every phase of the financial aid process requires some skill building and some refresh.
1:07:21
And so we do that across the school year.
1:07:24
So it's the 101 in the beginning of the school year all the way through how they submit verifying all of the technical difficulties that might happen with a with particular her populations and financial backgrounds.
1:07:39
So we lean on the PD and we lean on the experts in the field that are doing this work.
1:07:45
We partner with the PESQ, the Hire ED Hire Education Services Corporation.
1:07:49
So we're staying really close to what's happening at the state to provide information.
1:07:54
We they text students at the state level.
1:07:58
We also have a texting campaign where we're texting students directly to give them updated information and also be be able to to help students when they're doing this at their schools.
1:08:10
We also attend if the school reaches out, we attend their their FAFSA nights and and support those evening programs when they are bringing families in to support that work.
1:08:19
And we're leading on full ecosystem of folks that are supporting specifically now with all of the challenges with the new FAFSA.
1:08:27
So New York City, public library, all of our partners across the field and CEOs, and other their offices.
1:08:39
So that's how we're attacking it and and trying to work in in collaboration with our community partners to ensure students have the resource information and the experts, so collaborating with their admissions and their financial aid officers to deliver completion events.
Reine Sarmiento
1:08:55
And for CUNY, the FAFSA delay has caused major concerns about all of the things that we just talked about to boost the application rate.
1:09:06
Our concern is that if students don't know or get their award letter on time, they won't go anywhere.
1:09:12
And so our admissions staff has been trained on the FAFSA in the tab.
1:09:19
We've launched and hired work study students to be deployed throughout the city, to offer financial aid assistance regardless of their Q And E students because we find that this is an imperative that needs to be addressed on the city level.
1:09:34
The campuses have virtual events, in person events, and that also we also have over 200 Bridge Coaches working with the New York City Public School Systems to be able to help, and they're trained on faucets.
1:09:51
We're currently looking at a particular program to provide more scaled services through the summer.
1:09:57
It will be a very long summer, and we have been approached by some donors to be able to assist in our efforts.
1:10:04
So I hope to be able to have something short to share.
Rita Joseph
1:10:09
Thank you.