AZ FAFSA Challenge
November 2022
Arizona’s FAFSA progress
Since the 2023-2024 FAFSA debuted on October 1st, Arizona has seen an increase in FAFSA completions across the state. According to the National College Attainment Network, as of November 11th, 2022, Arizona has reached a 15% FAFSA completion rate, which is a little over 14,000 high school seniors that have completed the application. This is an increase of an additional 392 completed FAFSA's compared to last year. The momentum is encouraging; however, it is crucial that as a state, we continue to support these efforts to ensure Arizona high school seniors are not missing out on funding to pay for their post-secondary education.
In an innovative effort to help more Arizona high school seniors complete the FAFSA and pursue a college degree, the Arizona Board of Regents, in partnership with the Helios Education Foundation and the Arizona Department of Education, developed a new platform – Arizona College Connect. This new system is an easy-to-use, interactive, customized communications portal that provides authorized high school personnel with access to their student-level FAFSA data and other college attainment information.
We are excited to announce that we have begun onboarding high schools and districts into our new Arizona College Connect Database. Schools with an existing data-sharing agreement in the former AZgrants system will have their access transferred to Arizona College Connect, so a new data-sharing agreement is not required.
OR email info@arizonacollegeconnect.org with any questions that you may have.
Training: Arizona College Connect
In partnership with The Arizona Department of Education, The Arizona Board of Regents will host the following virtual Arizona College Connect training webinars.
- Tuesday, December 6, 2022, from 11 am-12 pm*
- Wednesday, December 14, 2022, from 11 am-12 pm*
*Both training dates will cover the same content
This training will include a tour of the new database, a step-by-step tutorial on accessing your FAFSA reports, student-level FAFSA data, and a Q& A session.
To commence this year's FAFSA Challenge, we are excited to present our October 2022-Most Innovative FAFSA award to Millennium High School within the Agua Fria High School District. Their high school has implemented innovative FAFSA efforts that have encouraged their seniors to complete the FAFSA and build a college-going culture on their campus. Congrats to the Millennium High School team for your outstanding efforts that have encouraged your high school seniors to complete the FAFSA!
To view the FAFSA best practices that they implemented and student FAFSA peer coach videos, click on the links and video below. Their FAFSA peer coach team created this innovative FAFSA video to promote a FAFSA event on their campus in October.
Nominate your school
We will continue to award a high school each month to highlight their work in FAFSA completion and share their FAFSA best practices with high schools throughout the state.
Arizona's Most Innovative FAFSA schools will receive a $500 scholarship opportunity for their seniors courtesy of our partners at Education Forward Arizona and Ask Benji. In addition, their school will be highlighted in the AZ FAFSA Challenge newsletter and on the Arizona Board of Regents website. They will also receive a certificate to celebrate this outstanding achievement.
FAFSA Completion Dashboard
We will launch a new statewide dashboard that will continue monitoring the state's FAFSA completion rate; this public-facing dashboard will be available soon. However, schools will be directed to Arizona College Connect to view their personalized FAFSA dashboards, reports, and student-level FAFSA data. This new database will serve as a centralized hub for all things FAFSA, including data, resources, and in the near future, college attainment data.
Virtual FAFSA Assistance
With winter break right around the corner, we want to remind high schools that our statewide virtual FAFSA appointments will be available throughout the holiday break. Students are encouraged to utilize this resource. Students can select a day and time that works best for them to schedule a virtual one-on-one appointment with a FAFSA expert to assist them with the application process. This is a FREE FAFSA resource available to all Arizona students and families.