As graduation approaches, fewer than a third of Alabama high school seniors have successfully completed federal financial aid forms.

That’s a significant dip from completion rates last year, and could spell trouble for both students, who need to fill out the FAFSA to get college aid money, and colleges, who are scrambling to determine how much aid to budget for future students. With decision day just around the corner, students and families are running out of time to get help from school counselors.

“Every month has been something different – a different delay, a different issue, a different problem,” said Courtney Sankey at Birmingham Promise, a group that helps local students pay for college. “So it’s been tough.”

Traditionally, the FAFSA comes out in October. But this year’s updated form has been plagued by delays and errors.

Alabama requires high school students to fill out the FAFSA in order to graduate – an effort that, in recent years, has landed the state at the top of national rankings, and is intended to help boost the number of students who go to college.

State officials are still encouraging students to fill out the form, but told AL.com they expect to waive the requirement for more families than usual this spring.

As of this week, more than half of Alabama high school seniors – 53% – had not completed the form or had requested a waiver, according to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

“The US Department of Education’s delay in rolling out the ‘new FAFSA’ and then their technical delays because of software problems has made this year very problematic for students and institutions,” ACHE president Jim Purcell told AL.com in mid-April, calling the numbers “disheartening.”

“I do anticipate that less high school seniors will complete the FAFSA than last year and the decline could be dramatic,” he added.

According to a recent ACHE analysis, Alabama students who didn’t fill out the FAFSA left an estimated $66.7 million in unclaimed Pell grants on the table in 2021. That number could be even higher this year if current rates don’t improve.

Preliminary numbers show that several states are seeing significantly lower completion rates this year. In Alabama, the drop was dramatic: Just over 15,000, or 31%, of the state’s 49,000 eligible seniors have completed the form so far, state data shows. Another 7,000 have asked for waivers from the state.

Among the thousands of students who have started the application but haven’t finished it, problems abound, according to the education department: Applications have errors. Parents or spouses haven’t completed information. Immigrant parents without Social Security numbers keep getting error messages.

“More engagement and more solutions are needed, and they cannot be placed simply at the feet of state agencies or institutions,” Stephen Pruitt, president of the Southern Regional Education Board, wrote to the department on April 18. “This will take a collective effort and we need USED to lead rather than push the issues to local levels.”

State advocacy organizations, such as Alabama Possible, and presidents of local colleges have been among dozens of groups nationwide that have been pushing Congress to act.

“It’s been a disaster by the Department of Education federally, despite everybody’s pleas from both the public and private sector to mitigate it,” Gen. Paul Hankins, of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, told AL.com recently.

This week, the federal department announced new fixes, including a more streamlined process for applicants who do not have social security numbers. Officials also will be working with states with some of the biggest gaps to help get completion rates up.

And applicants can now go back and fix any mistakes they’ve made on the form. The department has processed nearly 1 million corrections so far, officials said.

“Any students who have been waiting to fill out a FAFSA need to know that now is the time to fill it out,” U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary James Kvall said in a Tuesday news conference.

But in Alabama, the delayed rollout already has left an impact on some colleges, which, officials said, are seeing fewer enrollment applications as high school seniors question post-grad plans.

About half of the students who attend four-year private colleges in Alabama use Pell grants, federal aid distributed to low-income families. Several of the state’s private institutions, including several HBCUs, Hankins said, are reporting much lower admissions than usual. Or, Hankins said, they may be waiting to make offers to students until they can finalize a scholarship package.

“All the way around, it’s a problem for both the students and the universities,” Hankins said. “And with enrollments already declining across the nation, the ability to get these students committed and on their way puts our schools in a great deal of difficulty.”

April is already a busy month for high schools, but the delays could add even more to counselors’ workloads, said Amy Smith, a college and career counselor based in Anniston.

“When it opened in October, we had more time to help them – it was like a process,” she said. “And now it’s reversed that order.”

“A lot of students, that’s their way out,” she said, of a college degree made possible through financial aid. “Their only way out is education and getting their Pell grants that they’re not going to have to pay back.”

Groups like Birmingham Promise are feeling pressure, too. The organization requires students to complete the FAFSA before determining how much they will have to pay out to colleges – a process that typically starts in June.

Sankey and her Birmingham Promise team spent a lot of time navigating calls from confused parents this year, she said. The program itself had to adjust parts of its application because of FAFSA delays and changes.

And even with pledged financial support, several students are reluctant to make commitments without knowing how much aid they’ll get, Sankey said. Her team is encouraging students to try out a community college – which are typically free with Pell grants – if they’re undecided on where to go.

“A lot of students are making blind decisions,” she said.

There are a few things students can do while awaiting their financial aid packages, Smith said. If a student qualifies for free and reduced-price meals, that’s already a pretty strong predictor of whether they’ll get a Pell award, she said. Several schools also have their own aid calculators, which can give an idea of how much the total cost will be.

“Those numbers are kind of scary right now,” Smith said. “But I believe that people will do it.”