On Tuesday September 19th, the Department of Education released the verification requirements and acceptable documentation for the 2024-25 Award year. A Dear Colleague Letter (GEN-23-12) was also published that supplements the 2024–2025 award year verification information provided in the Federal Register notice.
So what’s new for 2024-25? Here are some of the changes:
- The implementation of the FUTURE Act, which authorizes a direct data exchange (FA-DDX) between the Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), will eliminate the need for MOST applicants (as well as their spouse or parents) to self-report their income and tax information. When federal tax information (FTI) is transferred via the FA-DDX to the FAFSA, it is considered verified; well, items not transferred from the IRS may be subject to verification. There will still be a few instances where manual entry of tax information will be exponentially reduced due to the new requirement to consent to transfer data from the IRS, which is now required as a condition of eligibility for federal student aid.
- Household size will be replaced with family size and is defined in the FAFSA Simplification Act to align with the number of individuals included as dependents on either the applicants (if independent) or applicants’ parents (if dependent) U.S. Tax Return.
- Confined or incarcerated students will only be required to verify their identity statement of educational purpose, and these students can be identified by the new incarcerated applicant flag. If a confined or incarcerated student is unable to submit a signed and notarized Statement of Educational Purpose, a school may accept a signed statement from an authorized official who works for the correctional facility or an authorized official who works for the oversight entity confirming to the school that the individual who completed the FAFSA and was selected for verification is the person signing the Statement of Educational Purpose.
- The suggested text for 2024-25 verification forms is included in the GEN-23-12 as Appendix A; there is suggested text for the V1 requirements, but the exact language from this suggested text must be used in the “Statement of Educational Purpose” for verification groups V4 and V5.
Be ready for 2024-25 Verification by becoming familiar with the updated requirements. The information can be found via the links below:
Federal Register
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) Information To Be Verified for the 2024-2025 Award Year
Dear Colleague Letter (GEN-23-12)
2024–2025 Award Year: FAFSA Information to be Verified and Acceptable Documentation