On March 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) announced that the ability for students to make updates and corrections to their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms in the first half of April. This is another delay in a process that has been rife with delays and technical issues.

In advance of that implementation, USDE will provide detailed information to partners, students, and families on how to correct the most common FAFSA form errors including no signatures and selecting ‘yes’ to applying for unsubsidized loans only (Question 8).

The reason for this most recent delay is due to a recently identified a vendor issue that was incorrectly calculating the Student Aid Index for records of dependent students with assets. That issue has now been resolved.

To date, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) has processed more than 4.3 million FAFSA forms and delivered ISIRs to the majority of schools, states, and designated scholarship organizations.

Click here for more information from the USDE.

On March 23, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the FY 2024 budget for the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and other agencies. This signing followed the March 22nd approval by the House and Senate.

Under the approved budget, the USDE receives $79.1 billion for FY 2024, which is $500 million less than was received for FY 2023. The agreement comes more than six months after the Oct. 1, 2023 deadline to finalize the FY 2024 budget appropriations for the USDE and several other agencies.

For the USDE, Title I and state grants for special education services each receive a $20 million increase over FY 2023 allocations and avoids a Republican-led proposal recommending an 80% cut in Title I funding.

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On Monday, April 1, 2024 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. EST,  The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) in partnership with the Center for Medicaid Services (CMS) Health and Human Services (HHS), will convene state and local government leaders virtually to discuss investing in children’s mental health and well-being.  The convening will feature schools, districts, and states that are successfully providing school-based services and are investing in building schools’ capacity to support student mental health. It will also raise the issue of sustainability and discuss resources available to ensure states are positioned to utilize Medicaid funds to sustain these efforts long-term.

The webinar is open to the public and anyone can attend. However, on April 2^nd, USDE and CMS are offering SEA and SMA teams an opportunity to receive technical assistance and discuss school-based services in their state. This unique opportunity is not always available to states, so interested parties are encouraged to take advantage and indicate through registration if they are interested in being considered for this opportunity and a USDE team will follow up.

Sign up by clicking HERE TO REGISTER.

On March 11, 2024, the Biden administration released its FY2025 budget, which proposes a 3.9% increase over fiscal 2023 for the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), for a total of $82 billion in discretionary funding for early learning, K-12, and higher education. Education-related proposals include a guarantee of high-quality child care at a cost of no more than $10 a day for the vast majority of families and an expansion of tutoring, after-school and summer programs. The budget also calls for investments aimed at easing teacher shortages. Another proposed initiative is a new Academic Acceleration and Achievement grant program at $8 billion for which details are yet to come but are expected to support and sustain learning interventions developed with COVID emergency funds, particularly for students with the highest needs.

In addition, the Biden Administration previously announced nearly $200 million in grants to expand registered apprenticeship programs, especially in high-demand areas that include K-12 teaching.

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