The Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee heard updates today from the Washington Student Achievement Council and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges on efforts to increase FAFSA completion and financial aid outreach for high school seniors and other Washington residents.

The members were told about a newly launched FAFSA filers dashboard that displays weekly, cumulative counts of Washington FAFSA filers for the current FAFSA cycle, and a FAFSA completion dashboard that reports high school senior completion rates by geography. Joel Anderson, assistant director of external affairs for the Washington Student Achievement Council, described the filers dashboard and said it will be updated for the 2025–26 cycle next month. He said the filers dashboard distinguishes first-time FAFSA filers (no FAFSA in the past 10 years) from returning filers and compares current-week counts with the prior cycle.

Committee members were given context on the two tools. Kara Lawson, associate director for data quality, visualization, and research at the Washington Student Achievement Council, said the dashboards differ by population and measure: the filers dashboard counts all Washington FAFSA submissions while the high-school dashboard reports a rate (completed FAFSAs divided by the number of high school seniors). "Every Monday, the FAFSA filers dashboard is updated," Lawson said, and the high-school dashboard is updated weekly during the academic year. Lawson also noted current data points available on the dashboards: about 95,000 first-time FAFSA filers in the 2024–25 cycle compared with about 100,000 in 2023–24, and a 50% FAFSA completion rate for the high school class of 2024.

State Board and college officials described how the House Bill 1835 pilot embeds outreach specialists in high schools to provide high-touch navigation and case management for students completing financial aid applications. Jamie Troggett, director of student services, K–12 alignment, at the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, said the pilot began with ESD 114 and ESD 123 working with a cohort of community colleges and expanded this year to the Capital Region (ESD 113). "If we didn't have these outreach specialists, I think we would be in even a worse spot than we are now," Troggett said, describing the specialists' work sitting with students on long calls to federal help lines, meeting students outside school hours, and reassuring families.

Officials reported operational results and limits. The outreach specialists served close to 30% more students this year, and pilots showed that intensive, tiered case management is needed: college and high-school partners use a multi-tiered system of supports framework where universal activities cover many students but smaller groups require the specialists' work. Allison (identified as overseeing outreach specialists at Olympic College) said staff spreadsheets show, on average, it takes about three visits for a student to complete a FAFSA. The presenters cautioned that statewide completion fell in the most recent cycle: they reported a 48% completion rate in the prior year and said completion was down by about five percentage points this year, aligning with national trends stemming from federal rollout challenges.

Committee members pressed for technical and operational details. Senators asked whether outreach specialists and college access teams have access to student-level portals; Anderson and Lawson said the council maintains a portal with student-level data for authorized district and community partners but that access requires an approval process. Lawson said high-school senior data come from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and FAFSA records from the U.S. Department of Education; the feed is automated and the dashboard updates weekly, but OSPIupdate frequency to the portal may be weekly rather than real time.

Presenters and senators discussed data-tracking gaps and recommendations. College officials said MOUs (memorandums of understanding) that define roles, network access, workspace, and calendaring for embedded specialists were critical to integration and recommended standardizing those agreements to reduce variation across districts. Officials also noted that most districts in their regions are 1:1 on devices and that, when needed, students can use school labs or smartphones to file FAFSAs. Pilot sites continue refining milestone tracking, and one college reported relying on staff-entered spreadsheets to record case-management contacts and milestones; presenters recommended improved CRM-style tools and more consistent data definitions if the program scales.

The presentation included practical next steps suggested by presenters: standardize MOUs, improve interoperability and timeliness of OSPI/portal data, expand marketing and awareness of the pilot, and secure resources to build more robust milestone tracking so outreach specialists spend more time student-facing and less time on administration. Committee members asked staff to follow up on portal update frequency and sharing practices so outreach specialists can intervene promptly when students start or complete an application.

The committee took no formal votes during the work session. The presenters left the committee with the recommendation to continue expanding embedded outreach specialists while addressing data and implementation barriers that limit timely intervention and program evaluation.