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On the second day of her No Child Left Behind Bus Tour, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today visited Cincinnati's Withrow University High School to highlight the new FAFSA4caster at a town hall meeting with parents and students. Secretary Spellings underscored the importance of a post-secondary education and reinforced her commitment to greater college access, accountability and affordability. At the town hall meeting, Secretary Spellings announced new features of the FAFSA4caster that give high school students and their families additional information about the estimated federal student aid they are likely to receive when attending college.

"The FAFSA4caster is a valuable online tool to help families get reliable information in advance so they can plan ahead financially for the college years," said Secretary Spellings. "Along with expanding access to rigorous Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses and increasing aid to low-income students, the FAFSA4caster is one of many efforts we are undertaking to ensure that all students are prepared for post-secondary education."

The FAFSA—or Free Application for Federal Student Aid—is the form that students must fill out to be eligible to receive federal aid for college and cannot be submitted until after January 1 of a student's senior year in high school. Initiated last spring, the FAFSA4caster instantly calculates a student's eligibility for federal student aid and can be completed at any time. It also automatically fills in half the questions on the FAFSA, making it easier for families to complete the real form during the student's senior year.

The FAFSA4caster simplifies the financial aid process for high school seniors and their families and reduces the time it will take them to complete the FAFSA during the student's senior year. New FAFSA4caster benefits announced today will give families more specific information to help them plan and make decisions about the future. These include:

• Customized federal student aid award estimates for each program, including the Pell, Academic Competitiveness, SMART and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant programs; Work-Study, and Stafford and Perkins loan programs;

• Calculations for 12 different school scenarios, including four-year and two-year schools, public and private, in-state and out-of-state residency, and on-campus and off-campus housing.

• A Federal Student Aid PIN is automatically generated and will be sent to students in November of the year they will apply to college so they can electronically sign the FAFSA in January of that year.

• Students will automatically be sent reminder notices in early January of the year they will apply to college to complete the FAFSA.

The FAFSA4caster can be accessed from the U.S. Department of Education's web site at www.federalstudentaid.ed.gov

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