Florida’s college access community rallied this summer to boost FAFSA completion rates for the Class of 2024, overcoming significant challenges posed by a delayed rollout. The Florida College Access Network (FCAN) recently convened key partners to showcase strategies and outcomes from this statewide effort.
Despite initial setbacks, these community-based partners closed gaps and increased completions through innovative outreach and persistent collaboration, leveraging multilingual resources, community partnerships, peer-to-peer support, and targeted digital campaigns to reach and assist students across diverse communities.
Key Outcomes:
- Increasing completions: From May to August, 26,511 seniors from the Class of 2024 completed the FAFSA, a 40% increase over the previous year. This progress is particularly significant given an 8,000-student increase in the senior class size.
- Narrowing gaps: Over the summer, Florida reduced the FAFSA completion rate gap between the Class of 2024 and the Class of 2023 from 8.5 to 6.2 percentage points. This improvement represents an additional 4,876 FAFSA completions, bringing the state closer to the previous year’s performance.
Effective Strategies:
Florida’s success in narrowing the FAFSA completion gap this summer is the result of a diverse array of innovative strategies implemented by community partners across the state, who pivoted from traditional outreach methods to embrace a targeted approach that met students where they were—both physically and digitally.
From leveraging peer supports to mobilizing student FAFSA coaches, organizations tailored their strategies to local needs while addressing common barriers like language differences and technology access. These efforts not only boosted completion rates but also uncovered valuable insights about engaging hard-to-reach populations, including recent graduates and returning adult learners.
The following strategies exemplify how Florida’s college access community transformed obstacles into opportunities, setting new benchmarks for FAFSA outreach and completion support.
1. Multilingual outreach and resources: Organizations across Florida developed comprehensive bilingual support systems, offering FAFSA workshops and materials in multiple languages. This approach not only assisted students but also engaged parents in the process, particularly in communities with high populations of first-generation college students.
2. Student FAFSA coaches: Citrus County Coalition for College & Careers employed recent high school graduates as FAFSA coaches. These coaches contacted every student in their high school, resulting in close to 200 FAFSA applications completed in 6 weeks, which was 42% of the total FAFSAs submitted in the school district.
3. Community events and partnerships: Several organizations reimagined FAFSA completion events as community gathering spaces.
LEAP Tampa Bay partnered with local businesses and organizations to host family-friendly events, complete with food, entertainment, and on-site completion support, transforming the often-daunting FAFSA process into an engaging community activity. FutureMakers Coalition partnered with nonprofit organizations and post-secondary institutions to offer a variety of in-person events, including daytime, evening, and weekend options. They also provided virtual drop-ins and a dedicated FAFSA email address to field questions and streamline responses.
4. Flexible one-on-one support: PLANit Sarasota adopted a “meet them anywhere” approach, offering individualized FAFSA assistance at libraries, coffee shops, and even through virtual sessions. The Education Equalizers Foundation created a landing page that provided steps to complete the FAFSA independently and allowed families to schedule one-on-one appointments with FAFSA coaches.
This flexibility proved crucial in accommodating diverse student schedules and preferences, particularly for working students and parents.
5. Expanded engagement strategies: Several organizations, recognizing that FAFSA completion is not just a seasonal effort, are developing year-round engagement plans. These strategies include early outreach to juniors, summer melt prevention for recent graduates, and ongoing support for adult learners considering a return to education.
Graduate Miami-Dade conducted train-the-trainer workshops for community-based organizations and local banks, enabling these partners to offer FAFSA assistance within their service footprints. Educación for All noted a surprising insight about multi-generation households in South Florida, where parents were often going back to school at the same time as their high school graduate children. They adapted their approach to assist both dependent and independent students with FAFSA applications.
Lessons Learned and Future Directions:
The summer FAFSA challenge revealed key insights that will shape future efforts heading into the upcoming 2025-26 FAFSA season.
Persistence emerged as a critical factor, with organizations demonstrating the power of consistent, multi-channel outreach. Their approach of offering a menu of options, from in-person events to virtual assistance, proved effective in reaching diverse student populations.
Accessibility also proved crucial in boosting engagement. Flexible approaches helped address an all-too-familiar barrier: the challenge of connecting with students after graduation when school-based communication channels are no longer available.
Organizations also tackled unique challenges head-on, developing targeted strategies to assist undocumented families and combat misinformation about FAFSA eligibility. These efforts highlight the importance of tailored approaches to address specific community needs.
Looking ahead to the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle, Florida’s college access community is already exploring innovative strategies. Discussions during the webinar revealed ambitious ideas, from advocating for universal FAFSA completion to enhancing partnerships with employers. The concept of expanding FAFSA training for educators and community members gained particular traction, with several organizations expressing interest in developing comprehensive training programs.
The Florida College Access Network’s Role:
Throughout the summer, FCAN played a pivotal role in amplifying and coordinating statewide FAFSA completion efforts. We maintained a comprehensive FAFSA dashboard, providing partners with real-time, county- and high-school level data to inform targeted strategies. FCAN also spearheaded a multi-faceted media campaign, including strategically placed billboards in high-traffic areas and targeted digital ads in communities with low FAFSA completion rates.
A key initiative was the weekly Summer FAFSA Learning Community calls, which fostered collaboration and knowledge sharing among partners across the state. These sessions served as a platform for organizations to exchange best practices, troubleshoot challenges, and adapt strategies in real-time.
Looking ahead, FCAN is poised to expand its support. We will continue to serve as a central hub for FAFSA resources, including multilingual materials and data-driven insights. Plans are underway to enhance our comprehensive toolkit based on this summer’s successful strategies, which will be made available to all Florida college access partners. Additionally, FCAN will leverage its annual Talent Strong Florida Summit, scheduled for May 5-7, 2025, in Orlando, as a forum to further disseminate learnings and cultivate innovative approaches for the next FAFSA cycle.
The success of this summer’s FAFSA challenge demonstrates the power of collaborative, community-driven, place-based approaches. As Florida’s college access partners continue to innovate and share best practices, we believe Florida is well-positioned to further narrow the FAFSA completion gap and expand higher education opportunities for all students.
Show Notes:
To access the webinar recording and slides, visit the resources linked below: