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College students from immigrant households seem to have misplaced out on state grant cash for school due to a glitch with the Free Utility for Federal Pupil Assist, confirming fears from earlier this yr.
The revamped FAFSA prevented dad and mom who didn’t have a Social Safety quantity from including their monetary data on-line. College students affected by the glitch needed to wait months for the U.S. Training Division to provide you with a workaround so they might full the shape.
Texas schools distribute state monetary help on a first-come, first-serve foundation, which meant college students from immigrant households have been final in line for help this yr.
Texas counselors who assist college students apply for monetary help to make post-secondary schooling extra accessible say school hopefuls from households with combined immigration statuses acquired much less cash than they have been eligible to get. Universities don’t observe the immigration standing of scholars’ households, making it unclear the extent to which these college students have been affected.
“These are students who are eligible to complete the FAFSA. They’re U.S. citizens,” stated Andrea Harper, of faculty entry group Breakthrough Central Texas. “When they were placed in the back of the line because of these glitches, they lost out… That’s going to impact this group of students for many years, maybe for their whole lives.”
College students can nonetheless entry federal Pell Grant {dollars}, no matter after they submit their software. However state grant cash can cowl any gaps left after utilizing federal help, serving to college students pay for housing, transportation, books and different wants. The Texas grant averages $5,000 per pupil for the varsity yr.
Karla Buenaventura Esquina had already mapped out the route from her South Austin residence to Texas State College when the brand new federal monetary help kind launched on the finish of final yr. Ever since she took a campus tour, she imagined going to Texas State. There, she thought, she would turn out to be the primary in her household to graduate from school — and a job mannequin for her youthful brother.
However the monetary help didn’t come via. Regardless of repeated makes an attempt, she wasn’t in a position to efficiently submit her kind till late spring. By then, it was too late. In telephone calls with the monetary help workplace at Texas State, advisers advised Esquina she had been eligible for the Texas grant however the college ran out of cash earlier than her kind was processed.
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Esquina enrolled at Austin Neighborhood School as an alternative, the place she qualifies without spending a dime tuition. She plans to work as a barista to save lots of up and goals to switch to Texas State after she finishes her core lessons.
“At first, it was hard. I wanted to go to a university, experience everything new,” Esquina stated. “But I don’t have to stress my parents out about putting horrendous amounts of money into a university.”
Texas State, Prairie View A&M College, the College of Texas at Austin and the College of North Texas have been among the many universities that school entry specialists stated weren’t in a position to supply monetary help to college students from immigrant households as a result of they’d run out of state grant cash. The colleges didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Sara Urquidez, a school entry knowledgeable, stated she expects the brand new FAFSA’s rollout issues will end in steep enrollment declines this yr — and that college students from immigrant households would be the most affected.
“We’re going to see that. Though they had done everything to be able to attend a four-year institution, they just could not make it work financially,” stated Urquidez, who’s the chief director of Tutorial Success Program, a nonprofit that helps highschool college students in Dallas, Houston and School Station.
The Texas Tribune companions with Open Campus on greater schooling protection.
Disclosure: Prairie View A&M College, College of Texas at Austin and College of North Texas have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full record of them right here.
