What Is Considered FAFSA Data For Purposes Of Data Sharing?

According to the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) and/or ED's Privacy and Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), FAFSA data include the following:

• The fact that the FAFSA was filed in and of itself;
• Answers to questions the student and parents are required to answer on the FAFSA for the calculation of the student aid index (SAI);
• Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) and FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS) data;
• Key processing results;
• Student aid index (SAI);
• Student’s financial aid history as reflected in the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS);
• Non-federal tax information (FTI) ISIR data to determine award eligibility, and the resulting awards and disbursement data (including Federal Pell Grant eligibility);
• Federal Work-Study (FWS) awards and pay dates; and
• Information contained in the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System.

According to the 2023 Federal Student Aid (FSA) Training Conference session B010, Data Use and Considerations Under the FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification, FAFSA data no longer includes federal tax information (FTI) received on the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), defined as the following: 

• Tax year;
• Tax filing status;
• Adjusted gross income (AGI);
• Number of exemptions and number of dependents;
• Income earned from work;
• Taxes paid;
• Educational tax credits;
• Untaxed Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA or Individual Retirement Account) distributions;
• IRA deductible and payments;
• Tax exempt interest;
• Untaxed pension amounts;
• Schedule C net profits/losses;
• Indicators for Schedules A, B, D, E, F, and/or H; and
• IRS response code which indicates the status of the tax filer/FTI with the IRS, to include one of the following:
• Tax filer and FTI provided to the FTI Module (FTIM),
• Not found at the IRS,
• Found and a nonfiler,
• Found but IRS not able to provide information.

It is important for financial aid offices to keep this data separate from other data collected from the student to ensure that it is only shared with appropriate individuals or offices and only when allowed, depending on the conditions under which the data are requested or shared. Search the AskRegs Knowledgebase for Q&As specific to the data request.