Washington FAFSA campaign reports strong statewide gains but equity gaps persist

As of March 16 the Washington Complete FAFSA campaign reported that 38,384 seniors — 45 percent of the class of 2026 — had completed a FAFSA or WASFA, putting the state at about 84 percent of its 46,000-completion goal, organizers said.

"As of March 16, the class of 2026 FAFSA and WASFA completion rate is at 45 percent," Natalie Alvarado said. "We are now at 84% of the way to our goal of 46,000 completions." Alvarado is a WASAC staff member who guided the advisory board through the campaign dashboard and weekly targets.

The campaign is tracking a weekly pace goal of roughly 1,000 new FAFSAs; Alvarado said the effort has averaged about 1,077 new FAFSAs per week since January, putting the statewide effort above the target but underscoring the need for consistent outreach over the remaining weeks.

Why equity matters: leaders cautioned that overall progress masks widening gaps for some students. "FERPA eligible students have increased from 27% to 38%, while non FERPA eligible students have increased from 33% to 47% — the gap has widened from 6 percentage points in January to 9 percentage points as of March 16," Alvarado told the board, noting that a larger share of gains were coming from students who are not FERPA‑eligible.

Organizers also highlighted racial and ethnic disparities in completion. Alvarado reported that Asian students had the highest completion rate at 58 percent while Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students had the lowest at 25 percent, and that the advisory board's equity score improved from 3.0 to 2.33 since January.

Campaign resources and tools: Sarah Weiss, college access initiatives director, detailed outreach tools on the Your Future Funded website, including weekly thermometers, communication calendars, bilingual materials and a FAFSA portal that allows districts with a data‑sharing agreement (DSA) to see school‑level completion. Weiss said 254 districts have a new DSA in place and that 93 percent of students are in districts with an active portal user.

Local practitioners on the call described what is working on the ground. Lilia, a Moses Lake High School staffer, said one‑on‑one support and calling the FAFSA hotline helped students complete applications. Alicia (Federal Way School District) credited multilingual, person‑to‑person outreach — including home‑language calls from trained interpreters — with dramatically increasing family attendance at filing events.

Organizers said their analytics and a partner survey will be used to capture which tactics are associated with local spikes in filings and to inform a fall report to the governor’s office. They also urged partners to focus outreach on schools and student groups furthest from their targets and to share bright‑spot practices for the statewide summit planned in May.

The advisory board will reconvene during Your Future Funded week on April 21; staff asked members to submit recommended guest speakers by April 1 and promised follow‑up materials and data links to the dashboard.