Middletown — During a visit to Connecticut on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona defended recent changes to the federal student aid system, urging students who have applied to college to complete the necessary aid forms as soon as possible.

Under Cardona, a Meriden native and former Connecticut education commissioner, the federal Department of Education has sought to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process. Amid the overhaul, however, FAFSA forms became available months later than usual, and glitches in the online system made it difficult for some families to access the materials they needed.

As deadlines approach for students to choose which college to attend, some still don't know how much different schools will charge them.

Even so, Cardona said Tuesday he doesn't regret rolling out the new FAFSA process this year, noting that this year's seniors otherwise would have been left with the prior, dated version.

"I know that there was a delay this year, but this process was broken. For 40 years nobody touched it," Cardona said. "We're fixing it, we're making it better so more students have access."

Cardona encouraged students families who haven't filled out their FAFSA forms to do so immediately.

"It's working," he said of the new process. "You go to studentaid.gov today, and within three of four days your college will have your information."

Cardona appeared Tuesday at Middlesex Community College for a panel on higher education for incarcerated people, then visited Hartford Public High School later in the day for a FAFSA workshop for Hartford students. Department of Education officials have declared this the "FAFSA Week of Action," as they seek to drive application submissions.

Connie Coles, college and career specialist at Bulkeley High in Hartford, said some students have submitted their FAFSA forms without incident, while others have run into glitches that make the process near-impossible. She recalled one student who grew so frustrated she announced she didn't want to go to college after all, before being talked into trying again.

"When it works, it's a wonderful thing," Coles said of the new FAFSA process. "We just haven't had it working the whole time."

Siddharth Krishnan, a senior at University High School of Science and Engineering, said he'd managed to fill out the FAFSA forms and has committed to attend Georgetown University next fall. Friends of his, though, haven't been as fortunate, he said.

"My opinion of the process right now has been that it's affecting certain people disproportionately, and it's completely unfair," Krishnan said. "It's causing a lot of unneeded stress."

Though Connecticut hasn't been immune to FAFSA issues this spring, the state currently ranks first nationwide in its share of high school seniors who have completed the process.

As part of his visit to Connecticut on Tuesday, Cardona spent the morning at Cheshire Correctional Institutional, where he met with incarcerated people involved in college programs. Afterward, he appeared in Middletown alongside Gov. Ned Lamont to discuss higher education initiatives behind bars.

"The level of dignity, of life's purpose that I heard from those folks earlier today is something that will stay with me forever," he said.

The panel also included several formerly incarcerated people who spoke to the value of educational opportunities in prison. Brian Sullivan, a formerly incarcerated Hartford resident who is now a criminal justice advocate, urged lawmakers to support the Second Chance Pell Experiment, which extends Pell grants to incarcerated students.

"I spent 30 years in the Connecticut Department of Correction, and I was guilty for what I was charged with, and I deserve to go where I was, but I knew I was better than that," Sullivan said. "Second Chance Pell was a key essential for me to be where I'm at right now, sitting next to the governor."

Cardona began his career as an elementary school teacher in Meriden, then became a principal and assistant superintendent in his home district. Lamont appointed him education commissioner in 2019, and he spent nearly two years in that role before President Joe Biden tapped him to lead the federal Department of Education.