New platform at agency that administers state financial aid compounds suffering as students wait for grants

The last year has been marked by repeated delays stemming from the botched rollout of a new federal student financial aid system.

In Pennsylvania, those hurdles have been compounded this fall by difficulties in the transition to a new platform system at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. PHEAA is the agency that administers the state’s financial aid grant program.

Some students who would usually get their grants in September still don’t have their money. Others have reported receiving late fees from their colleges and, in some cases, have been unable to register for the spring semester because of holds on their accounts.

» READ MORE: Here’s what one Philly-area college financial aid expert advises about the latest FAFSA delay

“Clearly their software is still not completely functional,” said Michael Driscoll, president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who earlier this month was talking with a group of 20 student government leaders and discovered that one couldn’t register for classes, another was having trouble paying rent, and two more also had problems with getting their grants.

Driscoll heads the commission of presidents from Pennsylvania’s 10 state universities, including West Chester and Cheyney.

The stress for students, he said, has been enormous, and he fears some will choose not to come back for the spring semester, concerned that they will be on the hook for money they were promised. The maximum PHEAA grant is $5,750.

“They are going to lose a semester or lose whatever … at a time when Pennsylvania needs all the educated workforce it can get,” Driscoll said.

PHEAA spokesperson Bethany Coleman said the new “modernized” system launched by PHEAA this year ultimately will benefit schools, students, and families but acknowledged that its start was “a heavy lift” and that this first year “has been less than ideal.”

» READ MORE: Big changes in applying for federal financial aid are coming: Temple official breaks down what it all means.

But she also blamed delays on ongoing problems with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) program, which meant the agency didn’t even begin to receive student records until mid-April and found they were “riddled with errors.” The state agency uses FAFSA data to administer its grants. New corrected files were not available until the second half of May, she said.

“At that point, we had more than half a million records sent to us all at once, forcing us to condense what would normally amount to nine months of processing into just four,” she said. “… We were just not prepared for such a large volume in such a short period of time.”

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Coleman said all grant applications that met the June 1 FAFSA filing deadline have been processed, with $130 million in funds being distributed to colleges since late October.

“More funds will be released in the coming days,” she said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education said in a statement it is aware of the delays and has provided support to PHEAA to try to resolve issues.

“We have strongly urged PHEAA to communicate clearly and proactively with students and financial aid offices regarding these delays to help mitigate any potential impacts on students or higher education institutions,” the department said.

Some education officials are asking why PHEAA didn’t delay the rollout of its system, given ongoing problems with FAFSA, which last year experienced a delayed launch, technical glitches, and miscalculations. The problems with FAFSA meant students and their families had much less time to apply for aid last year. And issues weren’t even resolved by the start of this semester.

The FAFSA form finally became available this week, nearly two months past its normal Oct. 1 launch but before the date the department initially projected — Dec. 1. Congress has passed legislation awaiting a signature from President Joe Biden that would require the form to come out by Oct. 1 every year.

“Originally, the feds were supposed to roll out their new form in 2023-24, so we started working on ours for the following year so we’d have some time between the two,” Coleman said. She did not address whether PHEAA could have delayed its launch, given the issues with FAFSA.

Students have felt the impact.

Because of financial aid delays, William Delrossi, 19, a fine arts major at Temple University, said he was temporarily unable to register for classes and, as a result, didn’t get some of the classes he wanted for his major.

“They finally figured it out, but it was kind of too late,” said the sophomore from South Philadelphia.

He said he works weekends and needs the grant money — he receives $2,630 per semester — to stay enrolled at Temple and described the process as “scary and frustrating.”

Delrossi is one of 161 students from lower-income families who also receive scholarships from the Philadelphia Education Fund, a nonprofit that helps students with college and career success.

“As first-generation, low-income college students, our … scholarship recipients are careful to keep their student accounts balanced,” said Allison Kelsey, who oversees the scholarship program. “PHEAA’s grant is a critical piece of the financial aid matrix that makes college possible. Without it at the usual time, our students tried to cobble together other resources while contacting us for help requesting accommodation from their colleges.”

She said she hopes to work with PHEAA next spring to improve the process.

Aslyn Anaya Planas, 21, a junior health sciences major at Thomas Jefferson University, said she was hit with a $100 late fee in September because she didn’t have her grant.

“It was just stressful,” she said. “I feel like they should just communicate more. No one really knows what they are doing. It makes everything so complicated.”

She said Friday that she was notified via email the money would be coming.

The Philadelphia Education Fund is covering her late fee, as well as late fees for its other students, Kelsey said.

College officials said they have been doing what they can to assist students, removing late fees as they become aware and clearing the way for students to register for classes. IUP also alerted students over the summer to watch for an email from PHEAA to register in the new system. Some students, however, reported never receiving the email, IUP’s Driscoll said. In other cases, the link within the PHEAA email expired within 24 hours, before students acted.

PHEAA, Coleman responded, has posted information on its website and on social media and said confusion arose because some students have multiple email addresses.

Driscoll said IUP also has contacted landlords, asking that they give students extra time to pay.

IUP didn’t receive its first file of information from PHEAA until early October, and it had possible awards listed for only 950 of 3,100 potentially eligible students. By Nov. 15, PHEAA had released funds for only 1,700 students, he said.

“It doesn’t seem like there was much contingency planning going on here,” he said. “The students really deserve better.”

Some students also are frustrated with their colleges for not waiving payment until the grants arrive. Nora Stocovaz, a student at Dickinson College, wrote last month in the student newspaper, the Dickinsonian, that the college would not credit the grant to her account without the amount being confirmed by PHEAA.

“All we can suggest at this time is, if you are able to submit payment in full for your current FA24 balance owing then please do so,” the college’s students account office wrote to her in an email, she said. Students then will get a refund when the grant comes through, the school said.

“The government has determined neither myself nor my family can pay this sum of money,” wrote Stocovaz, who is from Philadelphia, “but Dickinson College thinks I have thousands upon thousands of dollars laying around to give to this institution and just wait for the refund?”

Dickinson spokesperson Craig Layne said the school “regrets the stress students have experienced during this process.”

“Dickinson’s financial aid and student accounts offices have worked tirelessly in good faith with students and PHEAA to resolve issues related to the delays as expediently as possible,” he said.

PHEAA’s Coleman said the agency is asking schools not to delay students from registering for classes and has worked with colleges to advance funds for student accounts when requested.

Temple University took PHEAA up on that offer in September and began to slowly deposit money in accounts of students deemed eligible, said Emilie Van Trieste, director of the office of student financial services.

“But it was a very time-consuming, manual process,” she said.

Temple, where more than 5,000 students are eligible for state grants, finally got money out to most students who were eligible earlier this month, she said.

“We find ourselves in a much better position now,” Van Trieste said, “but it has taken us a couple months to get here.”

She said she hopes next year goes more smoothly but isn’t faulting PHEAA for this year’s complications.

“I think PHEAA has been good with the hand they were dealt,” she said.