The Access College Foundation already has done more to help Hampton Roads kids go to college than any organization.

It’s about to do even more.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid sounds benign enough, but it’s the kind of daunting paperwork only a well-trained and patient tax accountant could love.

It requires intimate knowledge of a family’s finances to be enumerated on a six-page form far more intimidating than a 1040. So intimidating, in fact, that only 51 percent of Access students completed the form last year, half of those with help from a program counselor.

Since the FAFSA form is indispensable to securing financial aid, which is critical to attending college, Access students were leaving money on the table.

The Access College Foundation was founded in 1988 by this newspaper’s then-owner, the late Frank Batten Sr., and his fellow philanthropist, the late Joshua P. Darden.

The goal was to provide a path to college for young people who might not have that opportunity without some help. It has since offered guidance to more than 45,000 students, and helped them gather $400 million in aid and scholarships.

Now it will do more.

Last week, Access announced it will work with Tidewater Community College to train 170 counselors to work in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk. Those advisers will help every student complete the FAFSA form.

Access will also extend its reach to Northampton County on the Eastern Shore, thanks to a $1.6 million anonymous gift.

That will pay for an adviser at Northampton High and Middle schools, who will work to boost the county’s 18 percent college-graduation rate. It will also help “pay for up to two college entrance test fees and four college application fees for low-income students, as well as provide the opportunity for $5,000 scholarships for qualifying students over four years to encourage their enrollment.”

That’s the kind of work and philanthropy that has made Access such a huge force in education – and in higher education – in Hampton Roads and across the country over the past 26 years.

The organization’s continued expansion is reason for hearty applause, both for the tireless work it has already done and for the cause of even better education for the students of Hampton Roads.