Pasadena Unified Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco address members of the school district community during an in-person town hall on Monday, Nov. 11, 2025. [Eddie Rivera/Pasadena Now

In a letter ahead of Thursday’s special Board of Education meeting, Dr. Elizabeth Blanco acknowledged shortcomings in the district’s recent school consolidation process and wrote, “We can do better”

Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco wrote in a letter to the community Monday that the district must start with a larger question about what students’ learning and the district’s education system should look like before debating whether some schools should close, ahead of a special Board of Education meeting Thursday.

At that meeting, Blanco wrote, the board will consider next steps in the district’s transformation plan and will hear from the district’s demographer about enrollment projections, along with how a shared vision can guide the decisions ahead and a proposed process to engage the community in “co-designing and co-constructing PUSD’s future.”

“It has been difficult to see people who care deeply about PUSD at odds and to witness the hurt across our community,” Blanco wrote. “It is time to begin healing and to move forward.”

The letter acknowledged shortcomings in the district’s recent school consolidation process.

“We moved into discussions about individual schools before building a shared understanding of the educational future we were trying to create,” Blanco wrote.

She added that the district did not always explain its information, criteria and decision-making process clearly enough, and that some people felt they were being asked to react to decisions rather than help shape the questions.

“We can do better,” she wrote.

Pasadena Unified began a long-term school consolidation planning process last December, when the board adopted a resolution setting minimum enrollment levels of 300 students for elementary schools, 400 for middle schools and 900 for high schools.

Board member Michelle Richardson Bailey moved to table that resolution indefinitely, saying staff needed time to reorganize after recent budget cuts, and board member Jennifer Hall Lee also opposed it, citing concerns about enrollment. An amended version passed.

The district formed the Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee.

On June 25, the board adopted a resolution to initiate a district transformation process, rescinding and replacing its earlier resolution establishing optimal school sizes. The resolution’s preamble notes that the district had gone through the advisory committee process and a proposed equity impact analysis of potential consolidation scenarios “without accepting the report.” The resolution called for the board to discuss scheduling community engagement sessions, with community partners, to gather community values and a vision for PUSD over the next five to 10 years, and stated that student input would be prioritized. It also stated that the district was still facing operating deficits for the next three years and would need to make additional budget reductions.

In her letter Monday, Blanco wrote that the Eaton Fire “has profoundly impacted our schools and communities” and that evolving student learning, declining enrollment, ongoing budget pressures and decisions about schools and facilities “demand a thoughtful, honest look at PUSD’s future.”

Five Pasadena Unified campuses, three of them used by charter schools, suffered major damage in last year’s Eaton Fire.

“School consolidation may be one strategy among many to realize our vision, but it is not the vision, nor should it be treated as an end in itself,” Blanco wrote. Any proposal, she wrote, should be considered as part of a broader strategy and tested against its educational, equity, financial, operational and community impacts.

She also wrote: “When fewer students attend schools across the same number of campuses, it becomes harder to sustain stable staffing and equitable access to programs and services.”

Blanco wrote that students, families, teachers, classified employees, labor partners, school leaders, community organizations, civic partners and residents of Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre should all help shape the district’s direction, and that the engagement must begin before recommendations are developed, offer more than one way to participate and make clear how feedback informs the work.

“I am not asking for your input at the end of the process,” she wrote. “I am inviting you to sit at the table and design this with us from the start.”

She wrote that the effort should build on the district’s Strategic Plan, Graduate Profile, Educational Master Plan and Local Control and Accountability Plan, and should turn aspirations into clear priorities, measures of progress and regular updates that let the community see whether the district is moving toward the future it describes.

“A shared vision will not remove disagreement or make every decision easy,” Blanco wrote.

Blanco closed her letter with a question: “What kind of PUSD do we want our children to experience 10 years from now?”

Meeting information

The special Board of Education meeting is listed on the district calendar for 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8. The board’s regular meetings are held in the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room, Room 236, 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena. Board meetings are livestreamed on KLRN Pasadena’s YouTube channel in English and Spanish.

Courtesy Pasadena Convention Center Facebook Page

Pasadena Unified School District will hold its annual College & Career Fair from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Pasadena Convention Center, where the district expects more than 100 colleges and universities.

The free fair is meant for students from elementary through high school and their families, the district said. It gives them a chance to explore higher education, discover career pathways and connect with programs that can help them plan.

Colleges from across the United States are expected to take part, according to the district. They include local community colleges, state colleges and universities, historically Black colleges and universities, private institutions and Ivy League schools.

The fair also covers jobs after high school, the district said.

Visitors can learn about career certificate programs and local job opportunities and find resources offered by community organizations.

The fair was first held at the convention center in 2013, when nearly 1,000 students and parents attended.

NEED TO KNOW

Event: Pasadena Unified School District’s Annual College & Career Fair. When: Tuesday, Oct. 6. Time: 4 to 7 p.m. Cost: Free. Where: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. Parking: On-site structure, $15 flat daily rate. For more, call (626) 396-3600 or visit https://www.pusd.us/

Pasadena’s Martin Severance Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is inviting Pasadena-area high school students to write about a heroic patriot of the American Revolution in an essay contest that closes on Dec. 4.

The chapter is tying this year’s contest to the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, according to its notice a local school bulletin.

Students in grades 9 through 12 may choose a famous figure or someone less well known, including the women and children who supported the Revolution, the chapter said.

Each essay is to explain who the Patriot was, what that person did during the American Revolution, how those actions influenced its course and what the person contributed to the founding of a new nation, according to the notice.

The assignment matches the topic of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution’s Patriots of the American Revolution High School Essay Contest, which the society launched in preparation for the 250th anniversary. The national contest is open to students in grades 9 through 12 in public, private and parochial schools and registered home-study programs. Essays are judged on historical accuracy, organization, interest, originality, spelling, grammar, punctuation and the quality and scope of references, particularly the use of primary sources. Essays from all grades are judged together, and each participating chapter sends one winner to the state level, which can lead to division and national judging. National winners receive special certificates, medals and a monetary award.

The Martin Severance Chapter was organized in Pasadena on June 13, 1914, under Adeline Belle Fitzgerald Barry, a descendant of Revolutionary War Patriot Martin Severance, according to the chapter. Most of its members live in the San Gabriel Valley, and the chapter presents American History, DAR Good Citizens and ROTC medals and scholarships to local students.

The chapter’s winning student will receive $300, a commemorative certificate and an invitation to the chapter’s Spring Awards Breakfast, along with the opportunity to read the winning essay in person, the chapter said.

Students can request the contest information and a study guide from chapter contact Dani Michelena. See https://californiadar.org/chapters/martin-severance/.

Pasadena Unified School District will begin removing trees at John Muir High School in Pasadena this week to make way for a gym and pool modernization, the district said.

The district announced the work in an Oct. 4 message to the school community, saying the project is moving into construction after years of planning. 

Tree removals tied to Eaton Fire soil cleanup drew protests at the same campus in July, along with a stop notice from the city of Pasadena.

The modernization includes a new 40-meter pool and pool deck, upgraded workout gyms and locker rooms, and new team and instructional spaces, the district said. 

It also includes improved accessibility, a new entry and lobby, and landscaping, the district said. 

The renovation was the largest active project in the district’s bond program as of May, at approximately $52 million. Interior demolition and pool deck work were under way at the campus in May.

The trees set for removal stand within the project’s footprint and must come down for construction to proceed, the district said. 

“These trees were always slated for removal as part of this project. The plan did not change because of the Eaton Fire,” the district said in the message.

The district said the Eaton Fire created a separate challenge for the site. Environmental testing identified contaminated soil in parts of the campus, including areas within the planned aquatics complex, the district said. That makes it more important to remediate and prepare the site before major construction moves forward, the district said.

“We know these trees matter. They have given shade, beauty, and a sense of place to generations of students, staff, and the community. Removing them is not a decision we take lightly,” the district said. 

The district said it is collecting seeds and seedlings from the trees when possible so they can be propagated elsewhere. It said it is also contacting community organizations and lumber companies about repurposing usable wood. 

New trees will be planted under the district’s 2026 Landscape and Exterior Space Guidelines, the district said.

In a notice of exemption posted by the state on Sept. 30, 2025, the district said the John Muir High School Athletic Facilities Modernization Project is exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act. In that filing, the district listed work on the gym, pool, baseball field and football field, along with replacement of water, sewer and storm drainage systems and electrical service upgrades.

The district said the improvements will ensure the school’s athletic facilities comply with California Interscholastic Federation regulations.

When the project is finished, the complex will have new landscaping, shade and outdoor spaces, the district said.

District update cites county concerns over projected deficit spending; talks set to resume Oct. 29

The Pasadena Unified School District told United Teachers of Pasadena on Wednesday that its latest counterproposals represent its best and final offer after 10 bargaining sessions over nine months on the 2025-26 school year, according to a district bargaining update. Salary and class size remain unresolved.

The two sides are scheduled to return to the table Oct. 29, the district said.

The update was issued by the district after Wednesday’s session. It gives the district’s account of the talks, including how the district describes the union’s proposals and what effects the district says they would have.

According to the district, UTP continues to propose a 2.35% ongoing salary increase for 2025-26. The district said that increase would create additional ongoing financial obligations. The union has also proposed firm class size caps. The district said such caps could significantly reduce schools’ flexibility in developing student schedules and classroom assignments. It also said placement decisions may be driven more by enrollment numbers than by individual student needs, program considerations or the goal of maintaining stable learning environments.

UTP has also opened negotiations for 2026-27, according to the update. For that year the union is proposing an additional 5% ongoing salary increase on top of the 2.35% it seeks for 2025-26. Its 2026-27 proposals also include changes to supplemental compensation rates that the two sides had previously negotiated and agreed upon. The district said those increases would affect the cost of supplemental assignments and make them difficult to budget and plan for. It said they could also require schools to substantially reduce, or in some cases eliminate, the programs, activities and assignments they offer.

Other topics for the 2026-27 bargaining season include changes to Article VI, Hours, and increases to the CTE and Children Centers and Permit salary schedules, the district said.

The update also described the district’s finances.

At the end of the 2025-26 school year, the district gave an update on its ongoing Fiscal Stabilization Plan with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, according to the update. The district said the plan requires PUSD to address structural deficit spending and implement identified budget reductions.

In September, LACOE approved the district’s 2026-27 budget while continuing to identify fiscal concerns, the district said. According to the update, the district is projected to have unrestricted general fund deficit spending over the next three years.

The update quotes a letter from LACOE to the district. In it, LACOE said the district continues to meet minimum reserve requirements, but projected structural operating deficits in later fiscal years reduce available reserves over the multiyear period. “We therefore remain concerned that the pattern of deficit spending should be closely monitored to ensure it remains manageable and does not contribute to further fund balance erosion,” the letter is quoted as saying.

LACOE also identified several factors that could further affect the district’s financial outlook, according to the update. Declining enrollment and student attendance are expected to reduce future state funding. Labor negotiations with UTP for 2025-26 and 2026-27 are still underway, as are negotiations with all of the district’s other labor partners for 2026-27. The update said any resulting costs are not yet included in current budget projections.

In the update, the district said it “remains committed to productive, good-faith negotiations that balance the interests of employees with its responsibility to students and the broader school community.”

The update lists the district’s bargaining team as Sergio Canal, chief human resources officer; Helen Chan Hill, chief academic officer; Jen Alcazar, director of human resources; Lori Touloumian, principal of Thurgood Marshall; and Maricela Brambila, principal of Willard.

It lists UTP’s team as Bethel Lira, bargaining chairperson, of Thurgood Marshall; Jonathan Gardner, UTP president; Nathan Banditelli of the California Teachers Association; Stephanie Kaul, a teacher at San Rafael; Lisa Collins, a school nurse at PHS; Michael To, a special education teacher at Blair IB; Maureen Noble, a teacher at Jackson; Beverly Rodriguez, a teacher at John Muir High School; and John Lira, a teacher at McKinley Elementary.

One of the driving factors in operating any large organization, whether it be a K-12 educational facility or a university or a private corporation is the cost of overhead. In any organization, a certain amount of money needs to be spent to provide whatever services are the primary mission of the organization, and a certain amount of money needs to be spent on “keeping the lights on”. Utilities, support personnel who do IT work or work in HR, etc.

A certain amount of that overhead is inevitable, no matter what sort of organization you run, but there are others that are tied to decisions regarding where you put your facilities and how many of them you have.

In two decades of involvement in the district, as a parent, site volunteer, and then Board Member, it’s become undeniable to me that PUSD is spending too much of its money on too many locations, and it is impacting the student experience in many ways. That’s already true today, but we are on track to drop to 3000 high school students before 2034. This means the more facilities we keep open, the more of our bond money we are spending on what is effectively empty space, and the worse our overhead cost will be, as a percentage of the budget.

The cost of the status quo is giving none of our high school students real modern facilities, cutting electives, cutting sports programs, and reducing the support services that our most disadvantaged students need to be successful.

How can we address this?

1. One district-wide high school (roughly 4,000 students present-day). This would take a significant amount of the bond, and the district would have to pick one of the two largest school sites (Muir or PHS) to make it work. We could invest for truly world class facilities at that site, including five-sport athletic facilities (basketball, aquatics, football, baseball, soccer). Logistically this would be complex, and involve many intermediate issues of shuffling students around while the construction was underway, since we have to continue teaching students while this campus is being rebuilt. The single biggest advantage here is that we are no longer pitting school communities against each other for enrollment, and no matter how much farther enrollment drops we no longer have to worry about declining enrollment issues at multiple sites resulting in service disparities between the sites.

2. Two high schools (roughly 2,000 students per school). The obvious default locations are PHS and Muir, but an argument could be made for Blair because the Allendale campus could be incorporated, increasing the square footage to be comparable to the two larger schools. If we chose this option, the two schools would both be reasonably nice, albeit not as nice as the single facility in option 1, and we would have to spend somewhere between 30-50% more than we would with a single facility. We will be back to tension on “staffing for electives” vs. “having constrained options” in the next decade, though, as both of the high schools will be under 2,000 students. There are, however, advantages to more than one site, including giving parents and families two choices, and geographic coverage, which cuts down on transportation costs.

3. Three 6-12 facilities. This option is most agreeable to both Blair and Marshall parents (who have already opted into a 6-12 model) but won’t be agreeable to the folks who want a true middle/high school experience. It would also necessitate closing all of the dedicated middle schools and eliminating the 6-8 at McKinley to make the numbers pencil out, and would also be more expensive than option #2. This might work, in spite of the total number of secondary schools, as the merger of the middle school population goes a long way towards solving our “not enough kids on the site” problem, but more on that below.

It’s important to remember that the district is capped out on bond authorization. We cannot authorize more bonds, for quite some time, and thus the money that we currently have is *all that we have* for re-engineering the district. Every dollar we spend on facilities at site X is a dollar we don’t have to spend elsewhere. The state bond fund is not going to come to rescue us.

I feel very, very strongly that it would be a major disservice to the students in this district for the next three decades to not spend the facility money making facilities that will last. I have major difficulties with the “spread the money around so every site gets something” model some board members support.

We must put more students on the open sites. We can’t get there by recruiting students from private, we’ve been actively courting them for three decades now and we have not made serious progress.

No matter what else happens, if either Blair or Marshall exists as a going concern it must have enough high school students to offset the overhead impacts on the Master Schedule, meaning the schools must get significantly bigger at the 9-12 grade span. Neither Blair nor Marshall has enough students in the high school cohort to prevent class size ratio problems.

Whatever the current board chooses is going to be hard. It’s going to be harder still because nobody is going to be happy with the immediate impact.

Unless, of course, the Board continues to do nothing at secondary.

Patrick Cahalan, former PUSD Board Member.

The Oct. 6 forum at Brookside Golf Club comes four weeks before voters fill the seat Dr. Yarma Velázquez steps down from office

Two Pasadena neighborhood associations will host a forum Tuesday, Oct. 6, for the two candidates seeking the open District 7 seat on the Pasadena UnifiedSchool Boardd, according to Councilmember Steve Madison’s office.

The forum, set for 7 p.m. at Brookside Golf Club, falls about four weeks before the Nov. 3 general election. District 7 is the only one of three contested Pasadena Unified School District races with no incumbent running, after Dr. Yarma Velázquez, the board’s vice president, did not seek reelection.

The San Rafael Neighborhoods Association and the Linda Vista-Annandale Association are hosting the event in the Arroyo Room at the club, 1133 Rosemont Ave., according to Madison’s office.

The candidates are Dennis McNamara and Cynthia Torres.

Justin Chapman, Madison’s District 6 field representative, will moderate. The newsletter said he is doing so in his personal capacity.

District 7 stretches from the Linda Vista neighborhood in west Pasadena to Madison Heights.

McNamara’s ballot designation is retired finance executive. Torres’ is education services consultant. McNamara qualified for the ballot July 27. Torres qualified Aug. 12, the last day of a filing period that was extended because the incumbent did not run.

McNamara chairs the citizens’ oversight committee for the district’s school bond program, his campaign has said. Torres is president of College Decisions, a Pasadena educational consulting firm she founded in 2010, and has served on the district’s Citizens’ Oversight Committee, according to a Los Angeles County Democratic Party news release announcing its endorsement of her.

McNamara has been endorsed by Assemblymember John Harabedian and Pasadena City Councilmembers Jason Lyon and Justin Jones, his campaign has said.

The seat is decided by plurality. The candidate with the most votes wins, with no runoff. The winner will serve a four-year term on the seven-member board.

The forum is one of three for board candidates in four days. United Teachers of Pasadena has scheduled one for 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. Seven groups, including the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area, are co-sponsoring another at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, at the Pasadena Unified School District, 351 S. Hudson Ave.

Voters in Districts 1 and 3 will also choose board members Nov. 3. The District 5 race will not appear on the ballot because incumbent Patrice Marshall McKenzie was the only candidate to qualify.

Arjun Dhadwal organized a Zoom “Ask Me Anything” session; he says many students asked about AI

Local student Arjun Dhadwal has leaned on Khan Academy both for schoolwork and to learn on his own.

Khan Academy is one of the world’s largest free online learning platforms. In the 2024-25 school year, it reported 104.9 million active learners and availability in more than 190 countries and 55 languages.

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, the Polytechnic School senior turned the tables, bringing Khan Academy founder Sal Khan to his classmates for an “Ask Me Anything” session over Zoom.

Dhadwal organized the event, which was sponsored by Poly’s 3D Printing & Design Club. He co-hosted it with Mark Rasic, the school’s director of college counseling and 11th and 12th grade dean. In written responses to questions from Pasadena Now, Dhadwal described how the session came together and what he heard.

The idea, he wrote, grew out of what he saw among his peers.

“Looking around at my community, I saw an enormous number of peers who were motivated, smart, and full of potential, but lacked the guidance they needed to harness their abilities and make the most of the high school experience,” Dhadwal wrote.

He took the request straight to Khan.

“My father prompted me to reach out to him and his assistant with a simple proposition about my club and Polytechnic and how helpful it would be, and in his humble style, he agreed,” he wrote.

What stayed with Dhadwal most was Khan’s account of his own career. Khan described how his path, priorities and values changed over time, and how often he came back to his roots and his passion for education.

“His story encouraged me (and I’m sure other students, as well) to focus on what I really value in my life, and chase that over money, success, etc.,” Dhadwal wrote.

Khan was a hedge fund analyst before he quit in 2009 to work full time on Khan Academy. The nonprofit offers free videos and practice exercises across K-12 subjects.

Many students asked about technology’s role in education, especially artificial intelligence, which Dhadwal called “a contentious topic among educational institutions these days.”

In Dhadwal’s telling, Khan “suggested that while AI can be used negatively by serving as a cushion to offload cognitive effort, for those who are really interested in learning, AI can actually increase cognitive involvement and benefit curiosity.” The key, in Khan’s view as Dhadwal relayed it, is encouraging students’ intellectual curiosity and desire to learn.

Khan has spoken publicly this year about AI’s limits in schools. In an April interview with Chalkbeat, he said that for a lot of students, Khan Academy’s own AI tutor, Khanmigo, was “a non-event.” He compared AI tutoring to a teacher sitting at the back of a classroom, waiting for students to ask for help: “Some will; most won’t,” he told Chalkbeat.

Dhadwal was struck by what students didn’t ask.

“I was surprised that not many students asked him about college, though his answers to questions on career guidance and how his priorities have changed over time shed some light on college’s role in life,” he wrote.

Khan Academy has been a regular part of his own studies.

“I’ve used Khan Academy a lot for school and for my own personal learning, and it’s been enormously helpful in conjunction with in-class lectures for building solid understanding of material,” he wrote. “Sal has been an inspiration to me for a while now, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak to him, and to share the opportunity with my classmates, too.”

As organizer, Dhadwal wrote, he was responsible for the logistics, for clear communication among everyone involved and for publicizing the event within the school. Multitasking and staying organized mattered most, he wrote, calling them skills “that my three years as a high schooler at Poly have already significantly strengthened.”

Poly, a K-12 independent school at 1030 E. California Blvd., opened in 1907. According to the school’s history, it grew out of the same institution that became Caltech, which split off its grammar school that year to focus on the college.

Dhadwal wrote that the session gave the club “such a strong start to the year.” Its current plans involve using 3D printing and computer-aided design software on engineering projects meant to benefit the community.

“While we don’t have any more guest speaker events currently planned, I hope to organize more for the year, as I feel we can really make a strong community contribution this way,” he wrote.

United Teachers of Pasadena will host a community forum Saturday for candidates seeking seats on the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education.

The forum, organized by members in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre, begins at 2 p.m. at First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena.

The forum, which will follow a moderated Q&A format, gives PUSD school board candidates the opportunity to share their priorities and vision with educators, parents, and the broader Pasadena community.

Questions will be drawn from United Teachers of Pasadena members, which include librarians, counselors, psychologists, speech pathologists, nurses, and teachers.

“Pasadena Unified School District’s education professionals who work most closely with students have burning questions for our prospective school board members.  The education professionals we represent are looking for true leadership from a school board that will prioritize safe, stable, fully-staffed schools,” says Jonathan Gardner, UTP President.

The announcement did not identify which candidates have accepted invitations to appear.

The forum comes a month before the Nov. 3 general election for four of the school board’s seven seats, in districts 1, 3, 5 and 7, each for a four-year term. Three of those races are contested.

In District 1, incumbent board member Kimberly Kenne faces Felita Kealing, a school student recruiter. In District 3, incumbent board member Michelle Richardson Bailey faces Veronica Elias, whose ballot designation is educator/parent. In District 7, Dennis J. McNamara and Cynthia Torres, whose ballot designations are retired finance executive and education services consultant, are running for the seat held by Dr. Yarma Velázquez, who is not seeking reelection.

Incumbent board member Patrice Marshall McKenzie was the only candidate to qualify in District 5, so she will be appointed in lieu of election.

Board members are elected by geographic sub-district, and candidates must live and be registered to vote in the sub-district they seek to represent. The candidate with the most votes in each race wins, with no runoff. The district serves Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre, along with unincorporated county areas

The event is free and open to the public.

Pasadena Unified School District seniors have been able to apply for federal college aid for 2027-28 since Sept. 23, and California’s Dream Act Application opens Thursday, Oct. 1, as the district urges early filing.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, went live ahead of the Oct. 1 public launch listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s testing plan, and the department called it the earliest launch in the program’s history.

Students need to complete only one of the two applications, according to the California Student Aid Commission. March 2, 2027, is the priority deadline for most colleges and universities and the final deadline for Cal Grant applications, the commission said.

In its Sept. 28 update to families, the district encouraged seniors to apply early and explore the financial aid that may be available to help pay for college or career education. The district pointed families to the commission for information on aid options. The district and the commission both gave Oct. 1 as the opening date for the two forms; the Department of Education opened the federal form Sept. 23.

The 2027-28 FAFSA covers aid for July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2028, and most forms are processed immediately, though some take one to three days, the department said. Students who completed the form during the department’s beta testing, which began Aug. 5, do not need to resubmit, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators reported.

The FAFSA is for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, T-visa holders and other eligible noncitizens, according to the commission. The Dream Act Application is for undocumented students, students with U visas or Temporary Protected Status, students who meet California’s nonresident tuition exemption and students from mixed-status families, the commission said. It opens the way to Cal Grants, the Middle Class Scholarship, Chafee grants, University of California and California State University grants and community college fee waivers, among other aid. Submission of grade point averages for Cal Grants also begins Oct. 1, and students must reapply for each year of college.

Under state law, high schools must confirm that each senior completes a FAFSA or Dream Act Application or turns in an opt-out form, a requirement in place since the 2022-23 school year. Completing an application or an opt-out form is not a graduation requirement, the commission said. More than 70% of California’s Class of 2026 completed one of the two applications, according to the commission. State lawmakers designated October as Student Financial Aid Awareness Month in a resolution by state Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, the commission announced Aug. 13.

The commission reported in May that first-time FAFSA completions among students from mixed-status families fell by more than 3,000 over the past year. Dream Act Application completions from those families fell by 910, the commission said. The commission pointed to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and two state laws, Senate Bill 54 and Assembly Bill 21, as protections for applicants’ information.

The College Access Plan, which is based in Pasadena, offers free drop-in college advising for students at all Pasadena Unified high schools, including help submitting the FAFSA and the Dream Act Application. Drop-in hours run from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in school libraries on Mondays and Wednesdays at Pasadena and Blair high schools and on Tuesdays and Thursdays at John Muir and Marshall high schools. The commission also offers free Cash for College workshops, online and in person, where financial aid experts help families complete the forms.

After the March 2 Cal Grant deadline, the commission’s priority deadline for community college students is Sept. 2, 2027. The federal deadline to file the 2027-28 FAFSA is June 30, 2028, EdNC reported.

NEED TO KNOW

Event: 2027-28 Free Application for Federal Student Aid and California Dream Act Application. When: FAFSA open since Wednesday, Sept. 23; Dream Act Application opens Thursday, Oct. 1; Cal Grant deadline Tuesday, March 2, 2027. Where: Online. For more, call 888-224-7268 or visit https://www.csac.ca.gov/apply