Letter to the Hon. Dietra Trent, Secretary of the Virginia Department of Education - Urges Financial Aid Flexibility in Absence of IRS Tool

Letter

Dear Secretary Trent:

We write today regarding the outage of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) and its impact on institutional and statewide deadlines for financial aid. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

The DRT allows students and families to automatically import their tax information onto the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and has assisted millions of students in applying for federal student aid. In 2014-15, about half of all FAFSA applicants used the DRT. Out of concern for the security of taxpayer data, the IRS has temporarily suspended the tool until extra security protections can be added. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen recently testified before the Senate Finance Committee that the tool is not expected to be restored until October 2017. While data privacy is paramount, and these additional security protections are necessary, the tool's suspension creates a significant impediment for applicants completing the FAFSA.

The suspension of this tool will require the manual input of financial data that is not always easily accessible. With priority financial aid deadlines for many of our public two-year institutions quickly approaching or recently passed, the unexpected removal of the DRT will likely impact Virginia students'--particularly those who are low-income and first generation--ability to receive student aid. In order to accommodate the additional administrative burden that many students and families now face, we respectfully request that you encourage colleges and universities to offer flexibility to applicants for need-based scholarships and grants and institutional financial aid. Such flexibility is necessary to ensure that all students seeking aid in the Commonwealth are able to successfully submit their applications without undue burden.

Thank you again for your consideration of these concerns, and for your continued commitment to providing students with access to affordable postsecondary education. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with you on this important matter.