20 U.S.C. § 1092f — Early awareness and outreach of financial aid eligibility

(a) The Secretary must implement early outreach giving prospective students and families financial-aid information and estimates, including subsections (b) through (d). (b) Pell estimates. (1) The Secretary must create a consumer-tested electronic way to estimate Pell Grant eligibility using family size and adjusted gross income, allowing the student to indicate a single-parent household, two-parent household, or household with no children or dependents. (2) It must be tested with prospective first-generation and low-income students and families, and updated for 2024–2025 and every fourth later award year using additional testing. (3) It must be prominent on the Department website and actively shared with participating colleges, eligible middle and secondary schools, specified high-poverty schools and agencies, and agencies administering means-tested Federal benefits. (4) The Secretary must maintain a FAFSA-site calculator where applicants enter income, family size, and education level to get a nonbinding estimate, possibly a range, ceiling, or minimum, of available Federal aid, placed prominently to encourage FAFSA completion. (c) Early-awareness plans. The Secretary must create and carry out plans giving early aid information and estimates and promoting postsecondary education for first-generation and low-income populations. (1) Plans must reach eligible middle and secondary schools, specified high-poverty schools and agencies, SNAP households, and means-tested-benefit agencies. They must give information about the College Scorecard or successor, electronic aid estimates, Federal aid and eligibility including education tax credits, and State aid, college savings, scholarships, and other non-government sources; and explain how the Secretary will distribute it. The Secretary must post plans and goals, report qualitative and quantitative results annually, review and update plans at least every four award years to increase their impact, and may partner with States, State higher-education systems, colleges, and access organizations. (2) The Secretary must coordinate plans with the Secretaries of Treasury, Labor, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Veterans Affairs, and Interior. Each plan must identify ways other programs can inform low-income families, methods to explain aid and help complete FAFSA, matching outreach and FAFSA activities, goals for their effects, and how students can retain access to those programs while attending college. The Treasury plan must include methods to increase applications by tax filers, including cooperation with tax preparers or other third parties. Plans, goals, and updates at least every four years must be posted publicly, with the goal of increasing low-income applicants and recipients. (3) The Secretary must seek voluntary public commitments from States, higher-education systems, colleges, and other organizations for plans and goals to annually notify low-income prospective and current students about Federal and applicable State aid, increase FAFSA filing, and increase postsecondary enrollment. Entities may annually submit progress data. Each year the Secretary must select Early Awareness Champions from entities submitting commitments, plans, and goals; those entities must provide case studies for public posting to promote best practices. (d) Public campaign. (1) The Secretary must develop and run a campaign based on current relevant independent research about effective strategies and media for low-income populations, to increase national awareness of Pell Grants and Federal aid and, at the Secretary’s option, State need-based aid. (2) It must use the subsection (b) and (c) activities and may coordinate with the listed States, schools, agencies, programs, organizations, libraries, community centers, businesses, employers, workforce boards, and organizations serving people who are or were homeless, in foster care, or disconnected youth. (3) Each year the Secretary must publicly report on reach of the public and target populations using usual advertising and outreach measures and on any increase in Federal-aid applicants.