Policy Brief: Implementing California’s Universal Financial Aid Application Policy

District strategies overcame obstacles

The first-year success is impressive in part because districts experienced obstacles to implementation- including parental resistance, high student-to-counselor ratios, inconsistent tracking methods, and confusion about enforcement. Successful solutions often relied on cooperation and coordination between many individuals at schools and within districts. They prioritized clear communication about the requirement, system-wide support, partnerships with community organizations, data sharing, and incentives for students to complete the form.

Going forward

To ensure the policy's continued success we recommend:

Promote FAFSA/CADAA completion as part of the California School Dashboard. FAFSA/CADAA completion is a critical step for students learning about their college and career options. The state should integrate completion data into its factors for a school's success.

Improve data sharing among schools and districts. At minimum, we recommend that schools within a district share their data, but ideally all districts within a region would do so. This would aid with tracking student enrollment across high schools, allowing districts to better locate and support them. Districts will need additional staff and resources. Engaging county government to support data quality, sharing, and access could serve as a potential best practice to provide assistance to districts.

Coordinate efforts and build buy-in across different stakeholders. A holistic approach to increasing FAFSA/CADAA completion could aid effective implementation. The more people involved, the better the college-going culture at the school or district. This is achieved by slowly building buy-in from stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers, administrators, mayors, legislators, and the community. Creating multiple points of contact with students and families (classroom, administration, counselors) and holding special events to celebrate milestones are examples of successful district practices. When stakeholders such as mayors and legislators understand and value FAFSA completion-not just as it relates to education but as part of the fiscal impact on their communities as a whole-they will be more likely to support implementation.

Build local capacity. Districts should build local capacity by partnering with other school districts in their region and with nonprofits or community organizations that can provide specialized services. Long-lasting impacts are created by implementing culturally relevant support through these partnerships and developing an ethos of postsecondary success.