Even though congressional leadership agreed to top line spending amounts to move the FY 2024 process forward, they still need more time to finalize the details. As a result, Congress has approved and sent to President Biden’s desk a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that extends the first set of spending bills until March 1, and the second set, which includes student aid funding, until March 8.

The congressional delay in finalizing FY 2024 appropriations coupled with the Department of Education’s delay in implementing the new FAFSA and new methodology for determining eligibility will impact the ability of colleges and universities to provide financial aid packages to students and families.

The March 8 CR deadline is well past when financial aid administrators need to know student aid funding levels to package financial aid offers for new students enrolling for the fall semester. Without the Pell Grant maximum level set, and the fate of the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and Federal Work-Study programs up in the air, financial aid administrators cannot build a reliable federal aid package that will help students make decisions about fall enrollment.

In the meantime, while FAFSA filings are slowly ramping up, institutions will not receive their eligibility information from the Department until early February, at the earliest. There has also been no update on when or if the Department will update the income protection allowance tables for the 2024-2025 award year. It remains unclear what impact the update may have on the delivery of student information to schools.