ED Announces Plans for a ‘Phased Rollout’ of the Upcoming 2025-26 FAFSA
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
The Department of Education (ED) on Wednesday gave more details about the upcoming launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA, and will begin a “phased rollout” of the form on October 1 to a limited set of students and institutions for testing. The form will be made available to all students on or by December 1.
After the rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA, which was plagued by glitches, errors and technical issues, ED said it would gradually release the 2025-26 form in order to improve testing. FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer, who was hired by ED to help with the rollout of the 2025-26 FAFSA, said during a press call that the testing period will begin on October 1, 2024, with hundreds of volunteer students participating.
ED plans to expand the testing period to “thousands” of students by mid-October, and to “tens of thousands” of students in early November, with a goal of having the 2025-26 FAFSA open to all students and families “on or before” December 1.
In the “coming weeks” the department will release more information on how the testing period will work, along with details on how ED will solicit participation from volunteer students and institutions.
NASFAA Interim President and CEO Beth Maglione noted the importance of having a thoroughly tested FAFSA after the disastrous rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA.
“Ideally, we would have a fully functional, well-tested FAFSA opening on October 1,” Maglione said in a statement. “But given where we are in the process, and the challenges that have plagued this year’s rollout, we would rather wait until December 1 to allow time for the necessary testing to ensure a functional system when ED launches the 2025-26 FAFSA.”
During the press call, Singer said testing for the FAFSA will be conducted with students and contributors, will pull actual IRS data, and will generate real Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) that will be received by institutions.
Singer said this testing period will surface bugs and errors that will be addressed and resolved before the FAFSA is fully available to the public. A phased rollout will also allow ED to incorporate user feedback to ensure the FAFSA’s instructions are clear. According to the department this will allow ED to provide resources for the community that support students and families.
“This extended testing period will enable us to ensure the FAFSA is as stable and as user-friendly as possible, enabling more students to complete the application quickly and take the first and most important step towards college affordability,” Singer said in the press call.
In its announcement, ED said the launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA will include full functionality, including submission and back-end processing at the same time.
Just last week, ED announced that batch corrections – which allow for financial aid offices to more efficiently and accurately submit FAFSA corrections in bulk – would not be functional for the current 2024-25 FAFSA. On Wednesday, a senior department official stated that batch corrections for 2025-26 “will not be done by December 1,” and that ED will release a roadmap outlining when batch corrections for next year will be available.
NASFAA, along with other higher education organizations, previously urged ED to ensure it releases a reliable 2025-26 FAFSA with end-to-end functionality – including batch corrections, which are typically available when the FAFSA launches each year.
Maglione said that while it is encouraging that ED listened to NASFAA and community input and is now communicating fall timelines ahead of time, it is less encouraging to hear that next year’s FAFSA will launch without batch corrections functionality.
“As we move forward, we hope that ED will maintain a high level of transparency — particularly around issues that would directly impact the ability of financial aid professionals to serve students, such as a functional batch corrections process,” Maglione said in a statement. “We also hope this two-month planned testing period will allow for a much smoother rollout when the FAFSA is available to all applicants on December 1.”
Along with the announcement, ED said it will continue to seek feedback from partners through its upcoming August listening sessions and a request for information that will be released next week. Through these engagements, ED will also publish a new roadmap with additional tools for students and families, counselors, institutions and others for a “successful 2025-26 FAFSA season.”
Stay tuned to Today’s News for more updates on the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle.
Publication Date: 8/7/2024
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