Compact Symposium - Navigating Financial Aid Processes

Financial Aid season is HERE! This workshop will focus on school-based best practice sharing from several high school practitioners. Come discover ideas to use with your students and families as we navigate this financial season!

An Overview of the FAFSA and Alternative Application for Illinois Financial Aid.  This session is for new staff and partners with little or no experience directly advising and supporting students and parents who completed these financial aid applications within the last year. The overview will cover essential application changes, highlight the user experience in both applications, eligibility criteria, and required contributors, and provide tips for helping students and parents navigate the forms.

This session will provide participants with financial guides, resources, and best practices to support students who are undocumented and have mixed-status families.

In honor of National Scholarship Month, the OSCPA Scholarship team will utilize this presentation to raise awareness about local and national scholarship opportunities available to CPS families, share new scholarship customizations available in SchooLinks, promote upcoming scholarship events, and obtain feedback about next steps for the scholarship program.

This popular, high-demand session addresses financial aid questions, student and family support challenges, and handling unusual circumstances in the financial aid process (e.g., homelessness (including adult youth/alumni), guardianship, immigrant parents, applying without parental information, and complex financial issues). You asked, and we heard you! Our panelists will answer questions directly from the audience and those pre-submitted through the school survey.