 Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well today. We'll go ahead and get started. My name is Linda Kellum. I help do the technical support and run the NCLA government resources sections. Help. I'm an accidental government information library and webinar series or help for short. And thanks for coming for today. You can see information about the GRS section on our website. The links are in our chat box. Government resources section of North Carolina Library Association is a great group. If you're in North Carolina and like to get involved. But you can also support us through our YouTube channel if you want to subscribe to that and learn more about all different kinds of topics related to government information. Including one that might be interesting to people who are coming attending this one today is our last webinar called your city your issues civic engagement workshops. This is a really popular one and might be helpful for people who are interested in doing some engagement workshops and it's very timely and relatable topic topic. So, so today, today's webinar is facts and helpful tips about the FAFSA and dream app act applications. And it's available as a writer library science student and staff member at San Diego City College. She's the chair of we bruce up nonprofit library services and resource advocacy organization, serving the San Diego Imperial Valley and border region and we're very excited to have her today to talk about this topic. Thank you very much Linda and thank you to the North Carolina Library Association for this really great webinar series. Like, as Linda mentioned, there, I have a little nervous about technical difficulties this morning so I'm keeping the slides at, you know, to a minimum and working directly on the whiteboard, and I will be sharing some links. Today, to start off with I wanted to share the agenda today's agenda. And so today's agenda. You know, we're going to talk a little bit about the workshop and the workshop in this workshop and the introduction to fast and dream act challenges students face and the role of the financial aid office dreamer resource center. And I'd like to set aside 15 minutes for Q amp a, it can be really easy to get into all the information and there's there is a lot to discuss so I'm going to keep an eye on the clock. But again, I wanted to welcome everyone today and thank you so much for joining us, either this morning or this afternoon, depending on where you are. I have taught, I have, I have conducted financial aid workshops for several years from multiple perspectives and formats, and I find. I've learned through experience that the PowerPoint presentation format isn't exactly. It hasn't worked the best for me if only because there are students parents staff. There are a lot of questions there's a lot of information to process so I developed a habit of starting the first 1520 minutes of any presentation by taking down questions and then I answer them one by one. And it, in the end, everyone learns together but this is my first time presenting to the library community specifically, you know, on this subject so I appreciate the challenge and the opportunity. So I'm going to, I'm going to do a little bit of reading first and then we'll get into some of the links and the application itself. Thank you. So, as I mentioned, I have been conducting financial aid workshops for several years from multiple positions different positions over. I've spent a period of time at different community college campuses, including EOPS financial aid and outreach. So I have conducted these workshops for students for staff and for parents specifically on and off campus and many of these students have have taken place in a library setting because of the access to computers printers and, you know, friendly staff, and we have this large space so over the years are, you know, in my studies as a library science I have become increasingly interested in this, this crossover or these these overlapping worlds between, you know, how a student matriculates how a student gets to college stays in college completes college and the, you know, various streams of support that are available either through academics or through student services, which primarily the classified staff. So, this webinar is an opportunity to to to bring some of these worlds together. And so, and also I've noticed that over time I've been receiving requests for information from public librarians. On a on a one to one basis or through small teams. But again this webinar appears to be a really great opportunity to reach a larger community. And then one more one more item before I get into the workshop. Another inspiration for this webinar is the book to action grant that liberals and the San Ysidro Public Library was awarded in 2020. There are 56 other book to action programs that will take place at 55 library locations across California. So, book to action is a framework that takes the basic book club concept and expands it to create a dynamic series of events for adults and intergenerational groups librarians work closely with a community partner to develop a series of programs. Community members read and discuss an engaging book on a current topic, attend author or speaker events and put their new found knowledge into action by participating in a community service or civic engagement activity related to the book. California Center for the book is a program of the California Library Association supported by supported in whole or in part by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the state librarian. So based on personal family and lived history, professional interests and an eye toward the populations we serve us at the college where I work. In the library where I intern, I chose the theme trans border communities and the book of poetry by a map in the title album offenses, which was published in 2018 by cardboard House House press. Our activities have included conducting FAFSA and Dream Act workshops for students book drives for children and crisis project author readings art workshops with youth and the community cleanup. Prior to the pandemic we were scheduled to partner with the city of San Diego and a large scale community cleanup of the Otai Tijuana River Valley and art workshop series. The program was canceled due to the pandemic. So continuing on with our program series through the dreamer resource center at San Diego City College to bring authors and organizations to campus. And this webinar will be shared as, as, as part of, you know, one of the features of this program series. So thank you for staying with me. I was pretty long intro. So for the workshop today as I mentioned. The workshop is typically conducted on a Q&A type basis. But today we're just going to go straight into the applications themselves. So briefly, to introduce the FAFSA, the free application for federal student aid, or the FAFSA as the acronym is the first step in the financial aid process students use the FAFSA form to apply for federal student aid, such as grants work study and loans. In addition, most states and colleges use information from the FAFSA form to award non federal aid. The California Dream Act is the financial aid application for students who meet the non resident exemption requirements under AB 540. So those are, we have two different applications on the agenda today and we're going to take a look at both of them right now. Let me see. Sorry, here's my desktop. And so here's a link to the California Center for the book. So leave it as website. Where I'm, where I'm the chair. We belong, we are the local chapter of a national chapter called reformer. And we are reformer.org. Okay, so the here is the application, the online application for the FAFSA. Now, students can find this application at FAFSA dot GOV. Today, we're going to use the PDF. So this is, you can find easily find the the FAFSA application by googling FAFSA 2020 2021 PDF. We encourage the students to use the online application because it's faster. And it's automated, many of the programs are automated to be processed as soon as that application gets to the campus. So, but this is what the PDF looks like. And sometimes, you know, you're going to have students that have limited access to computer services. So if it comes down to printing out a FAFSA application on paper and filling it out by hand, that is still a possibility. So I just wanted to share this is what the application looks like for the fall 2020 semester. Now, these applications are released typically about a year in advance. So they're, they're always released October 1 of the prior year. So this application was released on October 1 of 2019. So the campuses will start are starting to process them now in preparation for the fall 2020. So a few of the features of this application are, you know, you're going to have you're going to start off with some you have some information here about how to fill it out. There are some state guidelines and deadlines that need to be observed depending on where you're joining us from, and that information is here. So I recommend looking at the PDF anyway just I have one always at my desk just to for quick reference and here's some more information about how to fill out the financial aid form. The most important features for today. Because again there's there's a lot of information we can get to are, you know, this is a concern that we share, you know, with librarians library service and, you know, the mission of, you know, our college is that students are completing these applications with accurate consistent information that and with the with that that these items will be processed efficiently and expediently. So it's really important that from the start the students can develop the confidence to know how to fill out this to fill out these applications so starting really with with the name the issue with the name. It's not just the length the name but sometimes students have more than one last name and these these applications are not customized for that. So, it's really important that we remind our students that if the name must match what's on the Social Security card. If there's any deviation from the Social Security card the student will run into some issues. So that includes if they, you know, maybe they have nicknames like junior or there there's a family name that they they were they were they're referred to that's, you know, not on the Social Security card and they will put that on the FAFSA. So it will cause delays, because there will be these applications are fed, you know, to the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration Office, and other government agencies so at any point in this process if there's a discrepancy in the information that's going to it's going to cause a delay. So, first and foremost, it's really important that students fill out the name accurately. It's an area for the Social Security number date of birth all of this vital information. It's very important the student completes it accurately sometimes you know with you know completing these applications online. We run into issues of keystroke error. And that happens, but more often than not, it sometimes comes down to a sort of personalized view of, you know what, you know how how how one refers to him or herself. So here you have vital questions related to citizenship, you know to complete to complete a FAFSA you must be either US citizen or permanent resident or fulfill one of the visa criteria there there's only certain visas that are eligible to complete a FAFSA and that includes asylees, asylees and refugees. But for the most part it's for US citizens and permanent residents. This is the area where they would enter their alien registration number. And these these, the next set of questions are designed to continue to determine, you know eligibility for students including state of legal residents, that is a big one. Students may ask you, you know what, what that might mean perhaps they were living in another state last, you know, the prior year and now they're currently living in California these are very technical questions and do determine eligibility for the students so might, you might get reference questions related to puzzling through how one determines residency. In that case, it's typically best, unless the answer is immediate it's it's best to refer to the admissions office where the student is planning to apply to because they have, they'll have a registrar they'll have someone there to help guide the students specifically about residency policies and guidelines. The selective service questions. They'll come to bear. It's it's become. It's it's received a lot more attention in these last few years, given the question of gender. So males are males between the ages of 18 to 25 are required to sign up or to register for selective service. You know in the past, typically these these were these registrations happened during you know it's like a civics course or the forms would be available through the US post office. Many students don't know that they need to register for this. If the student leaves this area blank. The application they will they will default them to mail and request a registration for selective service. If the student. It's not making. There are no selections for transgender students but we have. We have encountered that and that's typically what the financial aid office will. That's when we'll step in to help out help the student out. So, this next question the the drug question, as it's called, often it's like, have you been convicted for the possession of or sale of legal drugs for an offense that occurred while you were receiving federal student aid. The operative term here is where you convicted while you were receiving federal aid more often than not this. The answer to this question is no. So, but just to give you some insight on that one. The next set of questions are designed to determine eligibility. They already has a four year degree bachelor's degree. They are typically not eligible for federal aid in the form of grants so these questions are designed to figure out the educational level the student is at their goals and whether or not they meet that criteria. These next steps, depending on how the student answers. Those questions will determine whether or not they're going to need information from parents. So here the student is going to answer some income information. And that's for the 2020 2021 year they're going to ask for 2018 income. And these section three, this is where you get into the dependency section. And if they answer student answers no to all these questions, then they must include parent information and that's what this section is designed for. Once a student is able to say yes, then they are considered an independent student and only need to include their information. So, but in the case that a student needs to provide parent information. This is the section designed for that. And so this is where the parent fills out their own educational level if they're receiving aid from certain assistance programs income information, and then the next steps are for, you know, they're designed to determine where the parent wants to send their information to like the colleges. And that's where they include the federal school codes, and or the school name and address. And then here's where either the student or the student and the parent will sign the application and send it off. So if they're going to send it by mail. It's going to see the address. The address would be address here somewhere. Sorry, it's been moved around typically when a student fills this out online, they will have needed to set up an FSA ID. So that is, that is basically a kind of electronic signature that they will use to sign in and out of the FAFSA and then ultimately sign and send it off. So, those are the bare bones of the FAFSA and a couple of comments about it is, it's, it's my role in the office is, is, is typically one of reference so I, answer questions I help the students puzzle through pretty complex government and institutional guidelines and procedures. You know, I assist them with establishing criteria for determining financial aid eligibility. You know the financial aid office uses applied methodology to determine eligibility. It's, there's a lot of, there are a lot of steps that students go through and there are many challenges for them while they're going through this process and typically it take, it can take a full year for a student. And in my opinion and in my experience, it can take a full year for a student to really get a grasp of the entire financial aid cycle. It's, it is a learned there is a major learning curve to it, it's something that they have to master on the early end, because it will determine, or it will help to determine, you know, the success of how, you know, entering school staying in school being supported through school. And so it's very important that they, they can grasp a lot of these concepts and control language and the information that they need to provide in order to fulfill the financial aid process. I'm going to go to briefly to the dream act application. And that's so same as the FAFSA there is a PDF available online. The, the web address for the application, you know, it's seesack.ca.gov. And here again is more information about who is eligible for to complete the dream act. The important point here is to remember that students will not complete both the FAFSA and a dream act. The dream act application, the FAFSA does those are two different applications and the dream act application. It has its, you know, its eligibility criteria listed here and it can be, it can be complex. I am not a certified registrar, I, I have to, I am not allowed to advise on residency, I can only provide point to the guidelines. And I typically, I, again, I just help refer the students to the guidelines and then and or to the admissions office because that's where they have technicians designated specifically for these really complex determinations. So that's what I would advise. If you were asked at the reference desk, what to do is to, to help the student locate the registrar or the designated staff for determining residency because it can be quite complex. So if you're working in California. This is, this is specifically an application for our dream act students. And so on. We mentioned earlier a little bit about AB 540. And that refers to an affidavit this this this this on October 12 2001 Governor Gray Davis signed into law assembly bill 540 adding a new section 68130.5 to the California tuition code section 68130.5 created a new exemption from the payment of non resident tuition for certain non resident students who have attended high school in California and received a high school diploma or its equivalent. Over the years eligibility requirements have been expanded. AB 540 is often referred to as the AB 540 affidavit or the California non resident tuition exemption. This affidavit looks like this, and it's accepted so this one specifically for the community college district, and it's accepted at all the California community colleges. And so a student, a high school student typically would need to turn one of these in to the admissions office. And it would ideally would need to be in place prior to the dream act application. Because all of the, you know, eventually the admissions application is going to need to match up with the FAFSA or the dream act application in this case. So it's really important that students are aware that they need to fill out this affidavit and typically the high schools receive and know about this information. So this would be applicable in particular for maybe school librarians if you know this would be a good reference point for them. But this is what the affidavit looks like. And then here's a link for more information about AB 540. And it's also offered in Spanish. So I encourage, you know, at some point you want to return to take a look at these. So let's take a look at this information so that you can assist your college students, you know, on their immigration status. Many, many colleges have what are called dreamer resource centers. This is ours. These, these, these centers assist students with, you know, any questions they might have they support them in various ways, including they can have one on one consultations. There's the opportunity for to engage in support, you know, undocumented students in various ways their referrals to immigration consultations and the dream act is the dream application is just one of the ways that the dreamer resource center, you know, helps, you know, helps out their students. So whereas, okay, so here's a dream act application. And again this is the PDF it's a shorter form. And typically this, this application is directly connected to state aid so the ability to help students wave their tuition fees and perhaps be eligible for Cal Grant and Cal Grant is typically it's it's a competitive grant from the state of California. There are three different kinds of Cal Grant Cal Grant a b and c, depending on where the student is going to attend school. We will the financial aid office is charged with determining which Cal Grant can be applied. So same as the FAFSA there's some introductory introductory information. And again it's very important that some vital information is captured, because this again these applications are fed through various government agencies, again including Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration. So information must match what's what is on record. So this is where the student will, you know, have their name determine if, if, depending on how the student answers these questions they even put a stop and direct the student to the FAFSA because, you know, the students will think that they need to complete both applications or perhaps they have their operating under some inaccurate information and they might complete one or the other. Again, anytime a student has to go back into the application or change something it can create a delay so we really we really focus on trying to get the students to complete the correct application the first time with the accurate application the first time. And so here's going to ask about marital status dependency status so these are questions that you know verbatim like that how the student answers these questions will determine whether or not he or she needs to include parent information. Here's some information about who is considered a parent. And this, this information tends to get updated. And so this is where the students experience every couple years because of the changing nature of, you know, relationships. And so, here is where they capture the income information. Same as the FAFSA for the 2020 2021 year they're going to ask for 2018 income. And these are more questions about assets. These are questions about services, the household might be receiving. And then your student information asking pretty much the same questions but from the students perspective. And then it's basically a sign and submit. So, the dream act application. Students will fall have some issues with signing their applications there we have students that let's say are eligible to complete a FAFSA. But it's possible that their parents either don't live in the country or they do not have social security numbers. So, the way that they sign their applications, it could be a manual process the FAFSA permits for a signature page to be printed out at the end if the students parents cannot sign with an FSA ID. The dream application affords them to do it online as well. So, these are, I know we just kind of we really blasted through those. But those are the two, those are the two applications that the financial aid office uses to help the student determine their own their financial aid eligibility and it's really important that students file these applications. Year to year because many different programs use the information called from the FAFSA to determine eligibility for other programs like scholarships, or perhaps institutional funding, private funding. And the college itself will use certain criteria from the FAFSA to see, you know, who they can award, you know, these these funds. So we, even if, for example, even if a student has a bachelor's degree, they're thinking of going on to graduate school but, you know, maybe in a year or two and in the meantime they need to take some classes to prepare for their graduate programs. In California, if they're eligible, they might be able to receive the fee waiver, which is now called the CCPG. And it's the most efficient way to process to get process for that is still to file a FAFSA in spite of the bachelor's degree, because that process has been completely automated through the financial aid office. So as soon as we receive the FAFSA, we're going to check for that tuition fee waiver and apply it to the student's account so that they can receive that assist assistance for the tuition. So depending on where you're joining us from like what state you're joining us from you might have tuition programs that will assist. That can assist your students so I am a big advocate for applying for students to apply for their FAFSAs and or or the Dream Act every year so long as they are, you know, intend to be in school. Because one it's one less step that they have to take care of. They might have to submit additional documentation they might have to be verified, and all of those processes that process takes time. So the earlier the students the students get this done, the better. And once they're awarded then they're awarded for that academic year and they don't need to go back to the FAFSA or Dream Act until it's time to renew it for the next year. So, just a little bit about what the financial aid office does you know we are not we don't work for the government but we are there as a service to assist the student in this process so as a librarian if you are. It's it's great information to to point the student to the financial aid office if you know someone in the office, even better students often thrive from you know being sent to directed staff and we also we share in this in this concern for accurate and accessible and free information. So yes, the FAFSA and the Dream Act applications are free applications. We, again we're not a government service but we are there to reconcile any discrepancies or contradictions or gaps in information in order to get the student package for financial aid eligibility because if the student is missing any information, we can't go forward in the process. So typically, you know the goal of these workshops is to you know enhance. One's understanding of the FAFSA and Dream Act applications, but the second step and this is for students is to actually get them to complete and submit the FAFSA form. So today we're not going to be submitting any FAFSA or Dream Act applications, but these workshops are typically designed for that like so we would automatically just log on to a computer. We would pull up the applications and I would spend the next hour or so visiting with each student to help them complete their applications and it has been proven in the past that you know libraries have been helpful in this department because they have you know lent us their spaces they have shared their spaces with us and you know that's typically where you have the majority of the computers on campus. And so I'm very grateful for that I've worked with many librarians to set up these kinds of workshops so depending on the institution that you're visiting us from like your role in this. I'm not from you know one librarian to the next, but I can assure you that you know in our capacity to refer to students to accurate and accessible information. It goes a long way. So, I know I know that was a lot and I just in case I kind of, I wanted to stop there to see if we had any questions at this time. I can go on a little more but I don't want to, you know lose track of that so do we have. Okay, so I have some questions here already in the chat. Great. So if you could, I can read them or you can read them. Sure. So the just the Dream Act application on is it only applicable to the state of California and how does apply to other states. So the Dream Act application. We have it specifically here in California. Now, depending on you'll want to be in touch with your state legislators how they are handling tuition for non resident students. That's where that's where that's what it boils down to. It's like the ability for state legislation to accord policies to assist students that are of non resident status so we can. We might this would refer to deferred action students. Maybe 540. So at this time specifically at this period in our time. I would advise you to speak specifically to your campus registrars on the topic because the the information does change. It's a bit of it's it can be very political right now. So I can only advise from the point of view of California. Yeah, so it would be best to talk to the. Yes, specifically to the registrar. Yes. Okay, cool. And I think you answered this a little bit, but it's one of questions. Well, actually there's a question in the chat. There was someone asking about the students apply every year for the class. I think we talked about it briefly. Yes, but no, it's very good question. Because the short answer is yes, so long as a student is in school or is I say even thinking about going to school because the app the fastest is. It's released so early. I, I advise students apply for it every year. It's free. It can take 20 to 25 minutes to complete online. Depending on if it's the first faster or not the students just get better at it every year. And, and I encourage them to send it to the campuses that they are thinking of attending. I think one of the major points is that, you know, students cannot receive federal aid at more than one campus during a semester. For example, you can have a student that is attending a community college and a state college or let's say a private college at the same time. A student can be receiving can receive state tuition assistance at the community college via the FAFSA and also receive federal aid at the private college at the same time during the same semester. But the student cannot receive federal aid at both the community college and the private college at the same time. So it really, so the FAFSA is really one application to be reviewed for several different kinds of monies or you know programs funding streams. And so this is this is intended to streamline that process, but it's just really important that the student is mindful of where the funding is coming from and you know the schools that it's being applied to. But yes, short answer apply every year. And early. Thank you very much. Is there. So David was asking given the students have to apply are completed FAFSA every year is there a high percentage of students who forget to fill it out and miss out on financial aid opportunities. I would say that I think that they do forget, or they are not, or access is limited, or they get bogged down by the process. Honestly, like students, they might get, they might get derailed at some point. Sometimes there are students that have trouble, you know, accessing their parents information or, or that's typically the issue. But we have special populations of students that you know perhaps they are their foster youth or they're homeless or they have many challenges facing just completing an application so they, they do. They do stop at some point for various reasons. So that's why, you know, we often have on and off campus workshops to raise awareness to make the application accessible and to guide students through this process because they don't miss out on this on these financial aid opportunities now the what I can say is that you know the application is available, you know, October 1 of the prior year. But it and then it closes June 30 of the next year so for example, the current FAFSA that we are processing right now, which is for the 2019 2020 year. The application was available was made available October 1 of 2018, and you have until June 30 of 2020, like literally 1159pm June 30 2020 to submit a 2019 2020 FAFSA for this current academic year. It's a long, it's a large long window of, you know, the period to access this application. But once it closes it's, it's near to impossible to reopen an application or to award a student for a previous academic year. So yes, we do miss students so hence, you know, a lot of these outreach services that we try to provide. Thank you so much. And you talked about how libraries can be involved. Have you done joint presentations of libraries or is it primarily that they help facilitate the ability to get into the, or to get students to come. Sure. I have a couple years ago I interned with at Central Library and Library Administration, I did, they have a charger school that isn't that is like literally embedded in the library and I have assisted with some surveys and programs you know establishing or supporting connections between public libraries and, and higher education, I've, but I've not done a specific collaboration with the library community. And this is my first, this is my first one really. And I'm very interested in doing that because there's a lot of overlap in our capacity for, you know, we're available as reference librarians and there's a there are technical aspects to these applications. There's a lot of outreach services to be fulfilled. So I'm looking at what, you know, what a mixed, what might be referred to as like a mixed use. I don't know a librarian like that someone that is fully versed in student services but also functions, you know, with, like, literally inside the library is as an information specialist, an information literacy and information specialist so I'm thinking, I'm thinking very actively in those directions. Yeah, that's great and I think there would be a lot of interest but at the same time hesitancy on the part of librarians because of the technical, you know, aspects of it and taking someone down the wrong way. So I think it's definitely an opportunity for collaboration. Absolutely. And I, you know, I want to offer my information, my, you know, my, my, to, you know, connect with me and I plan to take this work on with, with the MLIS like I would like to do a kind of project at City College, you know, what would this position look like what would these services look like how would training manifest like I'm, I'm so I'm actively thinking about those things too. Great. Thank you so much. Here's my email address. We're still on the browser thing. Oh, that's it. Awesome. Thank you so much. Are there any other questions? I think it too might be an interesting place to partner with some of the student groups on our campuses. In addition, you know, talking about. So I know some of our, some of the students groups did presentations on what it means to be a Dream Act student and, and other kinds of institutions like that so it might be another way to, you know, have more of the impact and then here's how you. I agree. There are many connections to be made between the financial aid office, the library, there are student groups, you can contact like student government and create a network. And really and share, share information and knowledge that way and develop programs specific to your campus. And in these times, like, I think it would just, it's very impactful. Yes. I don't see, let me check the Q&A to just to make sure. Oh, I think there was a question from Rebecca. Did my email address was that shared for it with everyone I didn't. Oh, it was only shared to the panelists here. I can. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's. But the fault is just for the panelists, so. Oh, I see. I see. Awesome. Yeah, so feel free to get in touch with each. Yes, please. Please. Thank you so much. Of course, thank you. Thank you very much. And if, of course, even to the extent if you want to provide feedback on this presentation. I know I it's very DIY, but I am typically I really like to respond to questions because that tells me how, you know, the public is looking at these applications and you know what we can do to address those issues. Great. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. And thank you everybody for coming. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you.