UPDATED: BESE approves new policy requiring high school seniors to apply for financial aid for college

Louisiana high school seniors will be required in 2018 to apply for financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or Louisiana Office for Student Financial Assistance.
Applications will be required for graduation. However, students can submit a form with parental consent to opt out of financial requests.
FAFSA applications are required for receiving federal assistance for college. In order to receive state funding for school, LOFSA applications need to be completed.
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a new policy last week requiring the “state’s roughly 35,000 high school seniors to apply for education aid for college or submit a signed for indicating they won’t,” according to the Associated Press.
This new policy will add more demands to the workload for employees charged with implementation in St. Mary Parish.
“It will definitely add to the workload of counselors or for whoever will be put over it,” said St. Mary Parish Schools Supervisor of Secondary Education Peter Boudreaux.
“And it works in combination with the other pieces that have added to the workload of counselors thus far with tracking students that are in a Jump Start pathway versus those students that are going to do the college pathway,” said St. Mary Parish Assistant Superintendent of Schools Teresa Bagwell.
In addition counselors work with students who are a part of Act 833 and those that have individualized education plans that lay out a pathway for graduation.
“So when you take that in combination with everything else that has happened at the high school level then it is a significant amount of documentation that you’re going to do for each graduating class,” Bagwell said.
“Right now, we utilize a company called Career Compass that comes in and kind of augments what we do with counselors,” Boudreaux said. “They meet with all our seniors and go over FAFSA and LOFSA plans.
“We’ve been doing this about four years.”
The Advocate reported that Louisiana leaders were concerned that tens of millions of dollars were being left on the table. This concern resulted in a bid for students to apply for federal or state education for college in order to graduate.
“We have two problems," said state Superintendent of Education John White. "First, we are leaving tens of millions of dollars every year because we are not applying for financial aid that will fund not just universities but community colleges and technical training.
“That problem is compounded by the fact that it is really the kids that need the aid the most that are applying the least."
At this time, it is not clear if counselors will have to help students complete financial aid forms.
Completing the FAFSA and LOFSA forms require parent’s tax information. This assistance can only can from the parent.
“It’s really not something that a student can do by themselves,” Bagwell said. “It does have to involve the parents.
School systems can implement what works best for each district, Bagwell said.
“Whether the parents come in and meet at the school,” Bagwell said. “And the school kind of navigates through the FAFSA application with them or whether it’s something that they do at home with a kid having gained knowledge through the Career Compass person.”
Ultimately, school districts are held accountable for the students’ financial aid forms or opt-out forms are being completed, Bagwell said.
The state will monitor completion of forms.
“It’s all very new and it’s something that we’re going to have to look at in terms of how fast we can implement it to make sure we meet the guidelines of having documentation for all students.
The state is also helping school districts with the process by making available a $1 million grant, Boudreaux said.
St. Mary Parish School leaders were only recently made aware of BESE’s discussions of creating a new policy for graduating seniors.
“And honestly the barriers that prevent kids from completing FAFSA have to do with the fact that kids sometimes who are graduating have no intentions of say going to a community college, Bagwell said. “They look at it as college or work.
“So they wouldn’t complete a FAFSA thinking they’re going to a technical college when in fact that’s what they end up doing.
“The other aspect is the parental. You have families that are disconnected and their student doesn’t always have access to the information they would need to complete a FAFSA on their own.”
Despite the recent discovery of BESE’s new policy, Bagwell believes it was a reasonable decision.
“Really if you look at the justification in terms of leaving money on the table that students could be using to seek post-secondary education,” Bagwell said. “That’s a justifiable reason for implementing such a procedure.”
Information is from The Advocate and Associated Press.