Efforts to extend the quantity of highschool college students in Hawaii who apply for monetary support for faculty have been considerably hampered by the pandemic as faculties and advocacy teams wrestle to succeed in households just about and a few college students really feel mounting strain to get a job after commencement.
Educators need extra college students to fill out the Free Utility for Scholar Assist, higher often known as FAFSA, not solely as a result of it opens the door to grants and scholarships for college students already planning to go to school, however will also be an entry level for college students who might not have significantly been contemplating a post-secondary training.
“It truly adjustments a mindset,” stated Gus Cobb-Adams, a school utility specialist at Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Schooling. “The FAFSA and monetary support planning opens the doorways to what might be potential.”
College of Hawaii requires a FAFSA for a lot of scholarships, together with benefit scholarships for Hawaii residents which can be based mostly on highschool grades, not monetary want. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021
Earlier than Covid-19, the state Division of Schooling set an bold purpose of getting 90% of Hawaii’s highschool seniors to fill out the FAFSA in 2020.
This 12 months, roughly half of seniors in public faculties stuffed out the shape, nearly precisely the identical as final 12 months. Having charges keep the identical or go up somewhat truly represents an enormous success, given the challenges of reaching households within the final 12 months, stated Cobb-Adams, who helps lead weekly digital workshops on the FAFSA for college students and households throughout the state.
“The challenges to FAFSA completion, the challenges to scholar engagement, to getting mother and father in the identical place as their scholar, have been astronomical this 12 months,” Cobb-Adams stated.
College students can’t fill out the FAFSA with out help from their mother and father or guardians, who’ve to offer monetary info and signal the shape.
Earlier than the pandemic, the Pacific Monetary Assist Affiliation sponsored a statewide FAFSA day when some college websites would host tons of of households in a single day. Hawaii P-20 additionally made common visits to highschool cafeterias to encourage college students to fill out the applying and supply in-person assist.
Most of that work has been digital for the final two years, and households haven’t responded to on-line outreach on the identical charges, Cobb-Adams stated. Hawaii P-20 solely reached 361 households with digital workshops within the final 12 months, regardless of providing them twice per week between October and Could.
The digital workshops have been a boon for some faculties on neighbor islands, together with Baldwin Excessive College on Maui. Completion charges at Baldwin jumped 11% this 12 months, a change that the varsity’s school counselor says was spurred partially by the elevated digital choices.
Subsequent 12 months, Hawaii P-20 plans to do a mixture of occasions to attempt to merge the very best of each worlds, as extra in-person programming turns into potential.
The FAFSA completion numbers additionally spotlight stark geographic variations in college-going expectations in Hawaii. At Waianae Excessive College, fewer than a 3rd of scholars stuffed out an utility for faculty support. At Kalani Excessive College in East Honolulu, greater than 70% of scholars did so.
Counselors at Kalani stated they stocked their workplaces with a number of snacks to entice college students to go to, referred to as households individually to remind them to take part, and tried to get college students to encourage their friends to fill out the applying. However finally they stated the varsity’s FAFSA completion price — the very best within the state — has much less to do with school-specific methods and extra with a college-going tradition on the college. Lower than 20% of scholars at Kalani are thought of socioeconomically deprived, and most are anticipated by their households to go to school.
At Waianae Excessive College — which had the bottom FAFSA participation price within the state — two-thirds of scholars come from low-income households.
School enrollment has declined throughout Hawaii and nationally through the pandemic, however the causes for which can be doubtless various.
At Kalani Excessive College, counselors are listening to from a rising variety of college students who say they plan to take a spot 12 months for his or her psychological well being earlier than enrolling in school. Different college students need to see extra of the world after spending the majority of their highschool years grappling with lockdowns, digital studying and different stressors of the pandemic.
In different communities, a scorching labor market, together with monetary pressures on households from the pandemic and inflation, is enjoying a task.
“We’re seeing households prioritize quick time period jobs versus school,” Cobb-Adams stated, “which is de facto unlucky as a result of we all know the important thing to having college students rise out of their socio-economic ranges is thru training.”
Civil Beat’s training reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Household Philanthropy.
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