There wasn’t a big push for high school students to complete applications for federal financial aid when Chad Conrad graduated from Pioneer Valley High School in 2007.
He went straight to Allan Hancock College after graduation, then took time off to work and save money. He moved away and tried college a few more times before returning to Santa Maria and Hancock in 2015.
It wasn’t until Conrad’s second stint at Hancock that he filled out the FAFSA (free application for federal student aid), a form that students must complete in order to be eligible for a number of federal grants, work-study, and student loans. Santa Maria students also need the FAFSA to receive free tuition through the Hancock Promise.
Because of his FAFSA, Conrad received help paying for his tuition and textbooks. As a father of two young children, that financial help made all the difference, and Conrad said he was able to swap out his full-time job for one working just seven hours a week on Hancock’s campus.
It enabled him to focus on school, and Conrad said he only wishes he’d applied earlier.
“It’s a big confidence builder when you find out what kinds of support systems there are on campus,” he said.
Many local students have stories like Conrad’s, according to Diana Perez, director of the Central Coast California Student Opportunity and Access Program, which aims to get more low-income and first-generation students into college. Perez also sits on the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District’s board of education, where she hopes to make FAFSA completion a priority.
At a California Student Aid Commission meeting Perez attended on March 20, commissioners considered legislation that would make FAFSA completion a graduation requirement for all California high schoolers. The bill is still being developed, but Perez said it inspired her to take action locally.
The FAFSA application process is one that can seem daunting to students and their parents, who have to hand over confidential tax information, Perez said. But most are surprised by how simple the application is once it’s finished, and Perez said making the process a requirement would take some of that initial fear away.
“It’s really the right policy to implement because we’re promoting college and career readiness,” Perez said, “and most of our kids will need some form of financial aid to help them.”
She wants Santa Maria’s high school district to be the second in California to make FAFSAs a graduation requirement, and the topic will be up for discussion at the board’s next meeting on April 9.
Some schools in Santa Maria are already prioritizing the FAFSA.
At Pioneer Valley High School, a small team of college and career readiness coordinators pounced on the school’s FAFSA completion rates this year.
College Coordinator Fatima Zarate and Career Center Specialist Mandy McDonald said they checked in on every senior throughout the year.
They sent letters to every parent, gave presentations in every senior government and economy class, and took students to the school’s computer labs to do necessary preliminary work. They hosted evening workshops in which students and parents received further support getting their FAFSAs and California Dream Act applications completed.
The effort paid off. This year, Pioneer Valley had the sixth highest FAFSA and Dream Act completion rates of more than 300 similarly sized public schools across the state. Roughly 74 percent of Pioneer Valley’s 587 seniors completed the applications, according to data from the California Student Aid Commission.
Santa Maria High School had about 66 percent completed, and roughly 61 percent of seniors at Ernest Righetti High completed their applications.
“There’s really nothing different we did here other than we had a great support system,” Zarate said. “We were a team. We worked collaboratively … . We didn’t leave anybody out.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash writes School Scene each week. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 4-11, 2019.