WASHINGTON – College students may soon benefit from two new bipartisan federal laws, one that gives families extra time to apply for financial aid and another aimed at curbing on-campus hazing.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed the FAFSA Deadline Act, which requires the U.S. Department of Education to make Oct. 1 the official launch date each year of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. If agency officials can’t meet that deadline, the secretary of education must testify before Congress, explain any delays and estimate their potential cost to families, according to the law.
Higher education measures rarely rise to the top of lawmakers’ to-do list. Yet the FAFSA bill sailed through Congress despite political gridlock. Widespread glitches and delays this year with the new version of the FAFSA, which millions of students rely on annually to pay for college, prompted bipartisan scrutiny of the Biden administration’s handling of its rollout.
For years, the Education Department opened the application by Oct. 1. Though colleges and students became accustomed to that timeline, Oct. 1 was technically a soft deadline – a fact that became increasingly apparent over the past two financial aid cycles.
As the department moved closer to finalizing a congressionally mandated overhaul of the application last year, it blew past the Oct. 1 date, leaving students with less time to apply for much-needed financial aid. When the application opened months later, errors in it caused further delays, leaving some high school seniors just weeks to decide where to go to college.
Read more:How FAFSA ‘fixes’ turned College Decision Day into chaos
To avoid another crisis, the department brought on more staff this year to help resolve errors in the FAFSA, which gets refreshed each enrollment cycle. The form was still released about two months behind schedule, but careful testing allowed the agency to find and fix problems sooner. The latest rollout has gone much more smoothly.
Criticism of the botched overhaul became a rare area of bipartisan agreement in Washington over the past year. Congressional Republicans introduced the FAFSA Deadline Act in July, and it passed the majority Republican House and the majority Democratic Senate in November.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and incoming chair of the Senate education committee, said in a statement Wednesday that the law will shield students from the effects of “bureaucratic incompetence.”
“The Biden-Harris FAFSA delays forced students to choose their college without knowing their financial aid status, or not attend college at all because they didn’t know if they could afford it,” he said.
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the ranking member on the House education committee, initially opposed the bill but ultimately supported it.
“The bill strikes a balance between ensuring timely access to financial aid and not compromising the quality of the application process,” he said in a separate statement Wednesday.
The Senate on Wednesday also passed the Stop Campus Hazing Act, landmark legislation that would broaden the definition of hazing and compel colleges to disclose every hazing incident on campus. The bill passed the House in September, and Biden is expected to sign it before leaving office.
Under a federal law passed in 1990, public and private colleges must publish an annual report detailing all crimes, including burglary and sexual assault, that occur on their campuses. Though hazing remains prevalent at universities and is illegal in most states, the federal government has never required it to be included in these reports.
The Clery Center, a nonprofit group that helps colleges meet federal standards for reporting crimes, celebrated the bill’s passage.
“You can’t address a problem without first recognizing it, and this Act will increase transparency and raise awareness,” Jessica Mertz, the center’s executive director, said in a statement Wednesday.
The bill also pushes universities to implement comprehensive hazing prevention programs, publish their hazing prevention policies and identify which fraternities and sororities have broken those rules.
Read more:Congress pulls hazing, a well-kept secret on many campuses, into spotlight
Julie and Gary DeVercelly Sr., who lost their son in a fraternity hazing ritual at Rider University in 2007, said in a joint statement that the bill could save lives.
“We set out to make sure what happened to our son never happened again. No parent should have to bury their child,” they said. “Since then we have been urging Congress to pass legislation to curb hazing on college campuses, and the day has finally come.”
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.
