Federal-Aid Forms Are Finally Flowing to Colleges. But Many Concerns Remain.

Justin Chase Brown took last week off. It was spring break at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where he serves as director of scholarships and financial aid. The storm is the disruption resulting from the problematic rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which went live in late December, about three months later than usual. After a rocky first month defined by glitches and unexplained errors that have hindered many applicants, the U.S. Department of Education announced in late January that it wouldn’t start sending processed federal-aid forms to colleges until the first half of March, pushing back the financial-aid timeline even further.