WASHINGTON, DC - In an effort to help more students afford college, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today joined with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Dr. Jill Biden, and students at Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, DC to demonstrate the new, streamlined 2010-2011 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA is used to help determine a family's expected annual contribution to college expenses and eligibility for need-based federal aid, such as Pell grants.

Senator Reed authored a key provision to the Higher Education Opportunity Act to streamline FAFSA and make it easier for students and their families to complete. Reed has also held workshops reminding Rhode Island students and their parents to file for FAFSA early (for the 2010-11 academic year, students may begin filing their FAFSAs on January 1, 2010) so they don't miss out on financial aid for college.

While the paper FAFSA still remains a daunting 107 questions, the U.S. Department of Education has begun implementing Reed's plan to streamline the online application and now allows applicants to skip several questions that don't apply to them. The website has also been updated to make it easier to navigate and complete the necessary questions.

"I applaud the Obama Administration for quickly adopting these measures and swiftly enacting a plan to simplify FAFSA and help millions of Americans apply for federal financial aid for college. Improving this system will put qualified students a few mouse clicks away from obtaining the financial aid they are entitled to receive," said Reed, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. "Applying for college can be stressful. We should make the process of applying for financial aid as simple and streamlined as possible. We need to keep working to make college more affordable, but the new FAFSA form will help make a sometimes daunting task less time-consuming and frustrating, and give more students access to critical federal loans and grants."

During their discussion with students, Secretary Duncan noted that progress is also being made on syncing the FAFSA and tax information from the IRS. The Department of Education is still testing a system that would allow tax-return information to be downloaded straight onto the aid application, and expect it to go live in 2010.

In years past years, many students and their families found filling out FAFSA so difficult that they had to pay private companies to fill it out for them or just gave up. According to recent estimates, about 1.5 million students would probably be eligible for Pell grants -- which are for low-income families -- but do not apply.

Reed also created a pilot program that allows students to apply for financial aid in their junior year of high school to ensure that they are aware of the financial aid opportunities available to them so they can plan accordingly.