FAFSA Completion Project
Overview and Participation Request
Contact: Marcia Weston, NC State Education Assistance Authority
mweston@ncseaa.edu
919-248-4686
What is the FAFSA Completion project?
The North Carolina Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) and College Foundation, Inc. (CFI, also known as
CFNC.org) are working with partners in North Carolina to help students begin, and persist in, their education beyond
high school by successfully utilizing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to access federal, state,
and institutional aid to help pay for college. CFI is offering detailed information that enables counselors to know
which students are (or are not) engaged in the FAFSA process, permitting them to encourage, support, and advise
students who may be struggling with the process or who may need additional assistance to resolve errors and to
complete and submit their FAFSA.
Why is it important?
Active support of students engaged in the FAFSA process is critical for many reasons:
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Nationally, research suggests that 90% of high school graduates who complete the FAFSA enroll in college (U.S.
Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:
2002/06)).
Over the last several years, districts where the U.S. Department of Education has provided information about
which students have completed a FAFSA have reported double-digit increases in college-going rates as well as
significant increases in the amount of state-wide Pell grant awards.
A lack of financial resources can force some students to attend part-time or work longer hours to afford college.
Among community college students, these two factors are associated with lower persistence and graduation
rates (McKinney & Novak, 2012).
Other research shows that for more than 60% of students their greatest concern about going to college is paying
for it (U.S. Department of Education, 2014, College Opportunity Agenda).
In May 2014, the U.S. Department of Education asked state education leaders to assist all districts and high schools in
their states by providing access to FAFSA completion information that helps high school counselors more effectively
utilize time and resources in their work with students and also to help connect low-income, first generation, and
underserved students with higher education. SEAA and CFI, working with NCDPI, are responding to the USED request by
offering information on those students who have started, completed, and submitted a FAFSA to high schools and LEAs in
North Carolina.
What will be provided to CFI by NCDPI?
On behalf of the participating districts, NCDPI will:
 Produce a file containing selected student information (detailed below) for current seniors enrolled at the high
schools in participating districts and GEAR UP schools.
 Deliver the file to CFI to conduct the matching against FAFSA data and to populate the resulting report to the
CFNC.org Professional Center for each participating school.
The file will provide the following directory-level data about each 12th/13th grade student in the participating districts
and schools:
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First name, last name, middle initial
Date of birth
Home street address, including city, state, and zip code
Student identification number (“UID”)
Six-digit school number
What will be provided to my counselors by CFI?
After the FAFSA matching is completed, CFI will:
 Provide information to authorized users (typically principals and counselors) via their existing CFNC.org
Professional Center accounts. These authorized staff in each participating school will be able to view information
for their students only.
 Offer technical and implementation support to those accessing the data.
The output is designed to help principals and counselors be aware of students’ interaction with the FAFSA process so
that they can better support students as they complete the FAFSA. In particular, CFI plans to provide “plain English”
guidance so that counselors can guide students in making needed corrections and completing the FAFSA. Output
provided to schools for the 2014-15 school year is expected to be similar to that shown in the table below:
Student
Name
FAFSA
Status
Error Codes
Signed by
Student
Signed by
Parent
Submitted
Flagged for
Verification?
How to resolve
the error
John Rothman
Will I. Am
Pete Townsend
Not started
Completed
Started
N/A
None
N - Missing first or last
name
N/A
Yes
Yes
N/A
Yes
No
N/A
Yes
No
N/A
No
No
Geddy Lee
Completed
R – Student’s SSN
match, but no date of
birth match
Yes
Yes
No
No
N/A
N/A
Correct the Student’s
Last Name or First Name
or confirm (re-enter the
same value) a blank First
or Last Name field if the
student actually has only
one name.
Confirm (re-enter the
same value) or correct
the Student’s Date of
Birth.
Neil Peart
Alex Lifeson
Steve E. Nix
Completed
Completed
Not started
None
None
N/A
Yes
Yes
N/A
Yes
Yes
N/A
Yes
Yes
N/A
Yes
Yes
N/A
If the date of birth is
correct, the student
must correct the date of
birth on the SAR/ISIR to
the same value
reaffirming that it is
correct.
N/A
N/A
N/A
Why am I being contacted about this?
NCSEAA and CFI are seeking NC LEAs as possible “early adopters” who are interested in the FAFSA Completion Project as
a mechanism to support their current participation in initiatives such as the Financial Empowerment Project and others
that include increased FAFSA completion as a goal.
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Each district that agrees to participate will be required to sign an agreement designating DPI to provide its list of
students for matching and allowing NCSEAA/CFI to provide the federal data to high schools.
NCSEAA/CFI will honor all FERPA requirements and "opt out" requests filed by parents with the LEA. The LEA will
determine which students should be excluded from the list of seniors prior to CFI receiving the list from DPI,
filtered to remove those students who have opted out.
In the future, CFI would like to solicit feedback from school-level users so that we can improve delivery of FAFSA
data in a way that makes it more useful for them in future years.