Salisbury University: Dept. of Education releases guidelines to process FAFSA applications during shutdown

SALISBURY, Md. – Salisbury University says this 20-day standstill has not closed the United States Department of Education, which administers FAFSA, but there’s been issues with applications that deal with data matches from other government agencies such as the IRS.

70% of students at SU receive financial aid and their financial aid office has been on a backlog trying to attain documents.

If a student is selected for verification for FAFSA, he or she can’t receive their tax transcripts. Plus, students can’t see if DHS has approved their FAFSA.

But some relief is here. On Wednesday, the USDE released guidelines on documentation which they’ll accept as a substitute for a tax transcript.

Justin Rummel, SU’s Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships says, “Their financial aid that will make it easier for the families to provide signed of copies of their tax returns to us in lieu of the tax transcript so that’s going to make it easier for students selected for verification.”

The Department of Education has turned off data matches and will reprocess them down the road once everything is settled.

Rummel says the phone has been ringing off the hook with questions, but with these new guidelines they can now play catch up to assist with some answers.