This story about FAFSA assist was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, unbiased information group centered on inequality and innovation in schooling. Join the Hechinger Ok-12 publication.
An enormous a part of Elizabeth Home’s job is encouraging college students to fill out the Free Utility for Federal Pupil Support, or FAFSA. The FAFSA is the important thing to assist for monetary assist comparable to Pell Grants and federally backed loans, however mother and father should present their Social Safety numbers or fill out 9 zeros if they don’t have one.
For college students who’ve members of the family with out the correct immigration paperwork, filling out the shape has lengthy been seen as a dangerous method to attract consideration to their household’s standing. Home, nonetheless, urges college students to take that step and fill out the FAFSA anyway.
“We encourage them to not cease your future plans as a result of you have got a concern because of being undocumented,” mentioned Home, who’s the director of faculty counseling companies with Greenville County Faculties in South Carolina.
However this fall, some faculty advising teams are reluctantly taking a distinct stance. With President-elect Donald Trump saying he needs to deport thousands and thousands of immigrants within the nation illegally and finish birthright citizenship, they’re cautioning college students filling out the shape for the primary time to assume twice earlier than doing so if they’ve members of the family who don’t have correct documentation.
In November, the Nationwide School Attainment Community, or NCAN, shared unprecedented steering cautioning college students with members of the family whose immigration standing is questionable about filling out the federal monetary assist utility. The assertion mentioned it couldn’t assure the information college students and oldsters submit on the FAFSA would proceed to be protected in mild of the incoming administration’s public statements and priorities.
“Though the Larger Training Act prohibits using information for any function apart from figuring out and awarding federal monetary help, presently NCAN can not guarantee mixed-status college students and households that information submitted to the U.S. Division of Training, as a part of the FAFSA course of, will proceed to be protected,” the group mentioned in its steering.
Counselors like Home are nervous these messages will undermine the belief colleges have constructed with immigrant households to get college students into faculty.
“Even one pupil not filling it out is a detrimental influence,” she mentioned.
College students who’re U.S. residents are eligible for federal monetary assist, no matter their mother and father’ immigration standing, however they might fear about sharing their mother and father’ data on the FAFSA.
College students who will not be licensed to be within the nation will not be eligible for federal assist, however the FAFSA is broadly used as a pathway for different forms of scholarships. Highschool counselors and faculty advisers have inspired these college students to fill out the shape as a result of some faculties supply scholarships no matter citizenship standing.
FAFSA information is protected below the Larger Training Act and the Privateness Act of 1974. There is no such thing as a settlement permitting information collected on the monetary assist kind for use for immigration enforcement. In a press name this month to reply questions concerning the rollout of this 12 months’s on-line FAFSA, administration officers with the Training Division mentioned President Joe Biden has prioritized defending pupil and household privateness.
“We will’t communicate for future policymakers, and college students and households ought to think about this data and make the choices which might be proper for them,” a senior Training Division official mentioned.
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Some teams are sharing NCAN’s message with counselors or immediately with college students, comparable to Matriculate, a corporation primarily based in New York that pairs excessive attaining and low-income college students with undergraduate mentors to assist information them to school.
“It’s data that we imagine our college students have to have entry to,” mentioned Bryan Contreras, managing director of program, partnerships and development at Matriculate.
Others are providing totally different recommendation. ImmSchools, a Dallas-based nonprofit that works with colleges to enhance outcomes for immigrant college students, is encouraging college students to fill out the paper model of the FAFSA kind as a substitute of the web utility. Within the paper model, college students would not have to immediately reply a sure or no query on whether or not they have a Social Safety quantity, although they do nonetheless must put one thing within the area for the precise quantity.
“Fears are heightened and with good motive,” mentioned Astou Thiane, director of coverage at ImmSchools. “You have got an administration that has been on the document saying they may pursue a coverage of mass deportations towards undocumented and immigrant communities. I believe that may have far-reaching results on immigrant folks, interval.”
Trump has been constant in his intent to hold out mass deportations, however he’s despatched combined messages on what these plans entail. He has mentioned he would work with Democrats on an answer permitting “Dreamers” — college students delivered to the USA illegally once they had been younger — to remain within the nation. However incoming administration officers have additionally mentioned one choice to keep away from breaking apart households with a mixture of residents and folks not licensed to be within the nation is to deport everybody “collectively.”
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The Nationwide Affiliation for School Admission Counseling, or NACAC, whose 28,000 members embody highschool counselors and faculty advisers, is weighing the dangers. Issues over filling out the FAFSA will not be new to college students and households with questionable immigration standing, mentioned David Hawkins, chief schooling and coverage officer with NACAC, however the mass deportation threats have intensified fears that immigration enforcement will discover a method to make use of FAFSA information, although it’s speculated to be protected.
“We will’t assure that the longer term administration may or may not use this data, however we don’t wish to stoke fears when there isn’t something but on the desk that may counsel that this data will likely be used for something apart from monetary assist,” Hawkins mentioned.
Finally, Home believes warning college students towards filling out the FAFSA will do extra hurt than good. The college counselors in Greenville are going to proceed advising college students to fill it out, no matter their citizenship standing, and join them to colleges with scholarships they might qualify for.
“We might love for each group to be encouraging and useful — to assist us discover sources for all of our college students,” Home mentioned.
Contact Hechinger workers author Ariel Gilreath at 212-678-3639 or gilreath@hechingerreport.org.