FAFSA verification traps low-income families in 3-month paperwork loops

About 30% of FAFSA filers get selected for 'verification,' which requires submitting tax transcripts, employer letters, and signed statements to prove what they already reported. For low-income families, this is devastating: parents working hourly jobs can't take time off to visit the IRS office or track down a W-2 from a defunct employer. The verification process takes 3-8 weeks per round, and if any document is missing, the clock resets. So what? Students can't receive their financial aid package until verification clears, which means they can't confirm enrollment, which means they lose their housing deposit deadline, which means by the time they're cleared they've lost their spot in the dorm and sometimes their admission entirely. Why does this persist? The Department of Education uses blunt statistical flags (e.g., parent income below $25k, unusual dependency status) that disproportionately target the exact families who need aid most, and schools have no incentive to streamline verification because the compliance burden falls entirely on the student.