By JAKE JARVIS
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nearly two-thirds of all high school seniors in West Virginia had completed an important application by the end of June, according to the state’s Higher Education Policy Commission.
The application, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the first step for students to earn the Promise Scholarship and to qualify for other forms of federal student aid. In Kanawha County, where state officials secured a $55,000 grant to encourage more students to complete the application, there was at least an 8 percent bump from the 2014-15 school year.
“Our high schools were very creative in reaching out to students and their families,” said Jon Duffy, director of counseling and testing at Kanawha County Schools. “We wanted to go to where the parents were.”
Each of the county’s high schools hosted a special event during football games where parents could learn about the FAFSA and complete the application on the spot. Duffy said the application, which takes about an hour to complete, is intimidating to parents who have never filled it out before.
Jessica Kennedy, an HEPC spokeswoman, said that changes to how the federal government reports FAFSA completion make it hard to compare last year’s completion rates to this year.
Earlier this year, the federal government started counting 19-year-olds when reporting the completion number, whereas it only counted students 18 and under before
This change means an average 10 percent boost across the board, according to the National College Access Network. Regardless of whether 19-year-olds are included in the count, there was significant nationwide increase in FAFSA completions.
Kennedy said her office was able to get a special data set from the federal Department of Education which only included 18-year-olds to see if the grant money worked.
Using that data, Herbert Hoover High saw the largest increase in the number of FAFSA completions with an 18 percent jump from the 2014-15 school year to this year. Capital High saw about a 14 percent jump, George Washington High a 16 percent jump, South Charleston High a 9 percent jump, Sissonville High almost a 10 percent jump, St. Albans High almost a 5 percent jump and Nitro High a 2 percent jump. Riverside High saw a 2 percent decrease.
The HEPC recently gave Herbert Hoover a $1,000 award for having the greatest improvement, and Sissonville a $1,000 award for having the most comprehensive and creative strategy for getting more students to complete the application.
At the start of the grant program last summer, the HEPC gave each high school money to implement a strategy. At Sissonville High, counselors used the money to raffle off gift cards for students who completed the FAFSA.
“We did a lot of parent phone calls — one-on-one conversations — which seemed to work better than just putting stuff on social media,” said Hiedi Woody, a Sissonville High counselor. “Old fashioned phone calls just work better.”
Woody said part of the increase is likely because of changes the federal government made last year to the application. In previous years, the FAFSA would only have become available in Jan. 1, already months into the school year when many seniors have already applied to college.
The application was available in October this time around, and the state also opened the Promise Scholarship application to encourage more participation.
The grant money came from the National College Access Network. The city was one of 22 metropolitan areas across the country to win the award.
There is no deadline to complete the FAFSA. Students can complete the application online at fafsa.ed.gov; however, schools often require it be completed before awarding a student any financial aid.
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