As of today, we are over 30 percent behind last year in FAFSA filings. If we do not mobilize as a college access community, we are at risk of losing thousands of students from the pipeline to higher education.

The culprit? The difficult revised FAFSA process. Many public school counselors have told me that their students are frustrated and waiting until next year to apply.

News coverage of the disastrous new FAFSA rollout and the Education Department’s unprecedented delays in sending FAFSA data to institutions has detailed everything that went wrong. What hasn’t been covered is the potential impact this could have on the nation, what we can do to mitigate some of the unintended consequences or what we all must do right now to help.

There is no time to waste. We need a national movement to get students in the pipeline to higher education. Every single person reading this article should share this link that details state-by-state workshops, events and tools to help students complete their FAFSA.

Share this resource with places of worship and local community centers, at school board meetings and beyond. If you engage with a high school senior on the bus, on the metro or elsewhere in your local community, ask them, “Have you filled out your FAFSA yet?”

Related: COLUMN: The FAFSA fiasco could roll back years of progress. It must be fixed immediately

We know students who complete the FAFSA are more likely to continue their education. We need them to complete their FAFSA and matriculate now, before they’re out of reach.

During the height of COVID, we lost over a million students from the pipeline to higher education. This is on top of our already declining high school-age population. Losing more students will mean we’ll have a significant shortfall in the number of young adults with degrees.

This has serious implications for the future workforce, economic mobility for individuals, economic stability for communities and America’s ability to compete on a global stage.

This also has serious implications for institutions of higher education. Many colleges depend on the revenue students bring with them. When the college enrollment population declines, college revenues decline.

A small, rural college president told me recently that the FAFSA debacle has the potential to put their school out of business. If the school loses even just a few students, they won’t make payroll.

We simply can’t afford to lose more students. School counselors can’t do this work alone. We need your help.

We need a coalition of FAFSA champions committed to helping us close the gap in application filings. Better yet, if you are a college access professional, host your own FAFSA workshop and invite students and families from your local community.

And we need to move quickly. The new FAFSA process is creating delays in financial aid offers even for students who have already completed the form, and most schools’ decision deadlines are looming. Many colleges, however, want to help relieve the anxiety students and families are feeling and are willing to extend deadlines. Our National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) directory lists institutions that have moved their enrollment decision deadlines.

Students need as much support and flexibility as possible right now, and shifted deadlines give them some breathing room to weigh their options — this is the largest financial decision of their young lives. While we have several hundred schools on our list, students and families need more schools to extend their deadlines.

Giving students the time and space to make the best decision for themselves is not only the right move ethically, but also a consumer protection issue.

We wouldn’t commit to buying a home without knowing the full price, so we shouldn’t require or expect students to commit to a college without knowing what they will have to pay.

I also know that our school counseling and advising community has been significantly impacted by the FAFSA rollout. Our counselors are exhausted, confused and frustrated.

They feel powerless and want to do everything they can to help their students. Many of them realize that they are going to have to work through the summer to help their students complete the process, but due to the politics of contract negotiations, many of them won’t be able to work into the summer to support their students.

I recently sent a letter to the Secretary of Education calling on him to remind federal grantees of allowable uses of federal funds that support college-going. Our school counselors and advisers cannot be expected to work for free, and we need them now more than ever.

Let’s shine a light on this issue by sharing our support for school counselor contract extensions with our school principals, superintendents, district leaders and boards.

Without the expertise of our counseling community, students could make bad decisions.

Related: OPINION: I’m a college access professional. I had no idea filling out the new FAFSA would be so tough

Finally, extending grace to each other is one of the most important actions we can take.

I have found that in crisis, our college access community tends to turn on each other. The anger is understandable, but we need to channel that energy toward creative, action-oriented solutions.

If we don’t work together, our students lose. Let’s give grace to colleges whose financial aid awards are late this year, to counselors who may make mistakes as they navigate an unprecedented process and to students who may be delayed in getting their information where it needs to go.

The future of our nation is at risk, so let’s work collaboratively with strategy, intention and grace as we steer our young people toward their best future.

Angel B. Pérez is the CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and represents over 27,000 admission and counseling professionals worldwide committed to postsecondary access and success.

This story about the new FAFSA process was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

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