MSDE says Submittable automation sped Boost scholarship processing

Maryland State Department of Education staff told the Boost Advisory Board that this year’s Boost application used a new vendor, Submittable, and that the vendor’s automated review of federal 1040 tax forms materially reduced staff workload while flagging records that required manual follow-up.

Nicole (MSDE program staff) showed the parent-facing portal and said applicants could view application status (in review, accepted, complete or denied), message MSDE through the portal, and request edits for mistakes such as incorrect birth dates or school choices. Nicole said automated 1040 parsing looked for household-size and adjusted-gross-income fields, which historically required time-consuming manual review. ‘‘It reduced staff time and helps to eliminate the propensity for human error when looking at adjusted gross income,’’ Nicole said. Staff still manually reviewed alternate-income forms and cases where uploads were blurry or otherwise unreadable.

MSDE said it held three customer-service sessions during the application window, including sessions with Spanish interpretation, and that most incomplete applications received at least two follow-up messages. The department estimated it could complete an additional verification pass on renewals and incompletes within about a week to two weeks, which the board requested before finalizing awards beyond confirmed renewals. MSDE plans to notify families in August and anticipates first checks in September–early October.

Board members and public commenters praised improved customer service and urged that the agency document the higher-than-expected demand for the legislature.