The Ayers Foundation announces LCHS as fafsa champion

They Ayers Foundation is proud to announce Lewis County High School as a 'Fafsa Champion' for the 2023-24 school year.

An impressive 117 high schools across Tennessee have been recognized this year as FAFSA Champions for the Class of 2024.

"It is because of the incredible dedication and work ethic of staff, administration, students, and parents that Lewis County High School receives this recognition for the third consecutive year," said Ayers Foundation representatives. "The FAFSA season was certainly a trying one, but everyone worked together and earned this honor."

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) and the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation (TSAC) award the designation of FAFSA Champion to schools whose Tennessee Promise FAFSA completion rate exceeds 90% or increased by 5% or more over the previous year.

THEC/TSAC partnered earlier this year with dozens of education and community partners across the state to launch a special FAFSA Frenzy campaign to strongly encourage and support all students and families in completing the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

"Tennessee continues to be the number one state in the nation in the number of high school seniors that complete the FAFSA. We applaud and celebrate each of these high schools for their leadership and success," said Dr. Steven Gentile, THEC Executive Director.

Gentile said that despite challenges encountered by students, parents, and school counselors with the delayed federal roll-out of a new FAFSA this year, Tennessee virtually matched last year's FAFSA completion results. The state's overall FAFSA completion rate among Tennessee Promise applicants in the Class of 2024 is 73.9%, compared to 74.1% last year. Moreover, the state reduced the gap between FAFSA submissions and completions to just 4.1% for the Class of 2024, down from 12.5% last year.

"This year's success did not happen by accident. It came from the hard work and dedication of thousands of high school counselors and educators, financial aid advisors at our colleges and universities, and our many community, state, and nonprofit partners all coming together to support Tennessee families and to help ensure every student has the opportunity to continue their education beyond high school."

Research shows that students who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to enroll in higher education or technical training after high school. The FAFSA opens the door to state and federal scholarships, grants, and other forms of financial aid that can kick-start college and career success.

To assist in navigating the FAFSA process, THEC and TSAC have curated a number of resources for students and schools at CollegeforTN.org to support Tennessee's FAFSA completion efforts. Student resources include step-by-step FAFSA-filing instructions and videos. School resources include guides focused on helping high schools strengthen their FAFSA completion and college-going numbers.

Federal officials have announced that the FAFSA for the Class of 2025 will open on December 1, 2024.

THEC/TSAC recently announced significant momentum in increasing the state's college-going rate, highlighted by a 2.4 percentage point increase for the class of 2023 over the class of 2022.

The college-going rate indicates the percentage of Tennessee's public high school graduates who seamlessly enroll in postsecondary education immediately after high school.

The state's 56.7% college-going rate for the class of 2023 represents the largest year-over-year increase since the initial implementation of the tuition-free Tennessee Promise scholarship in 2015.