{"id":800,"date":"2017-05-01T12:40:23","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T16:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=800"},"modified":"2017-05-01T12:41:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T16:41:18","slug":"new-flexibilities-for-fafsa-filers-affected-by-drt-outage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/05\/01\/new-flexibilities-for-fafsa-filers-affected-by-drt-outage\/","title":{"rendered":"New Flexibilities for FAFSA Filers Affected by DRT Outage"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_801\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-801\" style=\"width: 715px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-801\" src=\"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/FAFSA_drt.jpg\" alt=\"iStock\" width=\"715\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/FAFSA_drt.jpg 715w, https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/FAFSA_drt-300x205.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-801\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Institutions now have more options when it comes to verifying FAFSA information.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that colleges and universities would be granted new flexibilities due to the <a href=\"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/03\/10\/out-of-service-irs-data-retrieval-tool-unavailable-to-fafsa-filers\/\">extended outage of the IRS\u2019s Data Retrieval Tool (DRT)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Although FAFSA applicants still have the option to enter income information manually, college access advocates are concerned that students and families who can\u2019t access the DRT will face more complications in their quest to access federal student aid.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the US Department of Education has provided the following flexibilities.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IRS Tax Return Filers:<\/strong> In lieu of using the IRS DRT, or obtaining an IRS transcript, institutions may consider a signed paper copy of the 2015 IRS tax return as acceptable documentation to verify information provided on the FAFSA.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Verification of Nonfiling<\/strong>: Institutions are no longer required to collect documentation obtained from the IRS or other tax authorities verifying that the applicant, the applicant\u2019s spouse, or the applicant\u2019s parents did not file a 2015 tax return (often referred to as Verification of Nonfiling).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThese flexibilities are an important step toward making the process easier,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/news\/press-releases\/secretary-education-betsy-devos-announces-new-flexibilities-fafsa-filers-impacted-irs-drt-suspension\">DeVos said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cThey help applicants who normally would have used the IRS DRT to more easily complete the application process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Admitted writer\/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/04\/05\/students-share-your-college-essay-with-the-new-york-times\/mstegmeir@nacacnet.org\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit\">mstegmeir@nacacnet.org<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Institutions now have more options when it comes to verifying FAFSA information. Last week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that colleges and universities would be granted new flexibilities due to the extended outage of the IRS\u2019s Data Retrieval Tool (DRT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,25],"tags":[34,280],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access","category-financial-aid","tag-fafsa","tag-irs-data-retrieval-tool"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mary Stegmeir","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/mstegmeir\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-cU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}