San Diego County Office of Education’s countywide “Race 2 Submit” competition has helped lift FAFSA completion from 49% in 2019 to 65% in 2026, while schools serving unhoused and immigrant students posted some of the biggest gains. Counselors link the push to
For months, the biggest deadline hanging over many San Diego-area students wasn’t graduation—it was the paperwork. By the time families were juggling work schedules. housing stress. and the daily pressure of getting through the week. the Free Application for Federal Student Aid could still feel like the last step on a list that never stopped growing.
Yet in San Diego County, schools have tried to turn that scramble into a race with a scoreboard. In 2023. the San Diego County Office of Education launched “Race 2 Submit. ” a countywide competition between schools and school districts aimed at improving financial aid application completion. The campaign is backed by training. data dashboards. and counselor support—and it has started to show up in completion numbers. especially for students many educators say are most likely to miss out on aid.
In San Diego County, the share of students who completed the FAFSA form rose from 49% in 2019 to 65% in 2026, matching a statewide trend. But within the county, the effort has played out in sharply different ways depending on the needs of the student population.
Schools serving unhoused and immigrant students saw some of the largest increases in FAFSA and CADA completion. Those gains matter because California is pushing to keep fewer financial aid dollars on the table for high school graduates. In 2022. California made completing financial aid forms a graduation requirement. and Tanya Bulette—school counseling coordinator at the San Diego County Office of Education—said the county expanded training and tools to educate families after that change.
“The campaign unlocked something in our school teams to really understand that we don’t want to put up any kind of barrier for students to go to (college),” Bulette said. “And financial aid is the number one reason why our students do not elect to go.”
The county also built mechanisms to keep students from falling through the cracks. Bulette said the San Diego County Office of Education created a dashboard that pulls completion data from the California Student Aid Commission. allowing counselors. teachers and students to monitor financial aid completion and CalGrant award rates at school and district levels. Counselors also rely on the California College Guidance Initiative portal. a tool launched in 2024 that tracks each student’s FAFSA completion status. to keep students on course with the March 2 deadline to qualify for a CalGrant.
At Monarch School, which serves unhoused students, the effect of those efforts is tied to a moment of clarity that came late—then changed everything.
Jessica Ley Nuñez. a school counselor for the county education office. recalled how a recent Monarch graduate. who had been leaning toward working full time instead of continuing school. was persuaded by the numbers after years of trying to reach a decision. Ley Nuñez said that after many unsuccessful attempts to persuade him otherwise. she reviewed the financial aid forms he had filled out months earlier.
When he saw the Pell Grant figure, Ley Nuñez said his eyes widened. A budget followed—tuition, housing, and a meal plan at Southwestern College in Chula Vista—leaving him with an extra $3,500. “He had a number to hang on to,” Ley Nuñez said. “And that one simple act helped him understand. ‘I wanted a job to be able to buy a laptop. but you’re telling me if I invest in my future higher education. that’s already there waiting for me. ’ ” She said the result was enrollment in community college.
The county competition has also pushed schools to widen how they talk to families. At San Marcos Unified School District. 82% of 1. 600 enrolled seniors completed their financial aid forms this year—the highest district completion rate in the county—up from 76% in 2025. Bulette said the district ramped up persuasion strategies that included teacher and parent nights. a “free pie to apply” incentive for students. and early counseling sessions about state and federal grants for underclassmen.
“There was at the beginning some fear from the staff of not wanting to feel like they were digging into personal finances,” Bulette said. With new training and partnerships, she said schools were better able to tailor outreach to their communities.
That tailoring shows up in how individual campuses performed. Twin Oaks High School. a continuation school in San Marcos Unified serving at-risk students. increased its financial aid application completion by nearly 60% compared to last year. Lincoln High School increased its completion rate by 28% compared to last year after partnering with the California Student Opportunity and Access Program to expand college counseling. Palomar High School. which enrolls a large undocumented student population in Sweetwater Union High School District. increased its financial aid form completion rate by nearly 60% compared to last year; the district partnered with Students Without Limits. a nonprofit that helps immigrant families with the California Dream Act Application. the state’s financial aid form for mixed-status households.
The push hasn’t only been about finishing forms—it has been about whether the applications translate into dollars. At Carlsbad High School, 91 out of 343 students who completed forms received a CalGrant, a 43.8% increase compared to last year. Southwest High and Sweetwater High. both schools with historically low completion rates. had 75% and 65% of their seniors receive CalGrants. respectively. this year.
The campaign’s work begins far earlier than senior year. Ley Nuñez said Monarch School had all seniors complete their financial aid forms. and her plan for “Race 2 Submit” starts in the ninth grade. She teaches students about maintaining a good GPA. taking A-G college course prerequisites. and career tracks at universities or trade schools.
But at a school where many students try to survive on the streets or in shelters. Ley Nuñez said financial aid can’t be treated like a normal to-do list item. First. she said she has to make sure basic needs are met and connect students to food. housing and social services. If an unhoused student stops coming to school or is part of an off-site independent study program. she drives 45 minutes across the county. sets up a laptop with her phone’s WiFi hotspot. and says. “Let’s get your FAFSA done.”.
She said parents are sometimes the ones who are hardest to reach. Ley Nuñez relies on the school’s parent and family liaison to help with obstacles such as shelter or access to a computer.
Pew Research data. which the county education office points to. suggests that the four-year window after high school—when students make decisions about college enrollment and affordability—largely determines the next few decades of economic mobility. For Ley Nuñez, the competition is framed less like a scoreboard and more like a safety net.
“Beyond the banner and the cash prize,” she said, “for Ley Nuñez, the competition has always been about ‘making sure that all students access the funding they need to be able to follow their dreams after high school,’ ”
For families living close to the edge. the difference between “maybe later” and “submitted” can be measured in deadlines like March 2. in portals that show completion status. and in the size of a Pell Grant. In San Diego County. those details have become the center of a campaign schools are learning to run—with urgency. persistence. and a promise that the next step won’t be blocked by paperwork.
San Diego County Office of Education Race 2 Submit FAFSA completion CalGrants Pell Grants CADA California College Guidance Initiative California Student Aid Commission March 2 deadline school counseling Monarch School Southwestern College