By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Monday sent a letter to all college and university presidents with updates on the launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA. Along with the letter, the Department of Education (ED) published a white paper outlining the actions they have and will take to improve the rollout of this year’s FAFSA.  

Cardona wrote that the purpose of the letter and white paper was to share the progress ED has made in the last few months around the launch of 2025-26 FAFSA. Cardona added that the department has “put all hands on deck” to make sure the 2025-26 FAFSA incorporates technological best practices, as well as feedback and recommendations from higher education partners. 

“We very much understand the deep frustrations many expressed in the initial months after the launch of the 2024-25 FAFSA form, which faced delays and technical difficulties,” Cardona wrote in the letter. “I know how challenging that was for students, families, high school counselors, community-based organizations supporting students, institutions of higher education and their staffs, and states.”

NASFAA’s Vice President of Public Policy and Federal Relations Karen McCarthy said it is encouraging that ED has listened to input from the higher education community. 

“With the steps outlined here, hopefully the 25-26 FAFSA rollout will be much smoother than 24-25,” McCarthy said. “We urge the department to keep the lines of communication open with the financial aid community so that we can plan appropriately, provide accurate advice to assistance to students, and help troubleshoot issues as needed."

The letter listed 10 actions ED is taking to address common issues brought up by students, families, institutions, and partners in the field from ED’s listening sessions – which, according to the department, included 46 listening sessions with 293 partner organizations. 

In the white paper, ED provides more details on what those 10 actions involve. 

• “Providing early and predictable timelines and launching core functions at the same time.” In August, ED announced that it would launch the 2025-26 FAFSA through what it called a “phased rollout,” where the form would be available to a limited set of students and schools on October 1 for testing. The form will be made available to all students on or by December 1. 

In the white paper, ED said through this process, most FAFSA functionalities will be available at the same time. That includes students submitting the form, processing both online and paper forms, sending FAFSA information via Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) to institutions and states, and correcting the form – with the ability for students and contributors to make corrections and the ability for institutions to make corrections through the FAFSA Partner Portal.

• “Ensuring the form functions as intended when launched.” In August, ED released more details on what the beta testing of the 2025-26 FAFSA would look like through four testing phases. And in September, ED released an interest form for community-based organizations (CBOs), high schools, institutions of higher education, states, and other stakeholders to volunteer to participate in the testing process. In the white paper, ED also detailed its “seven-layer quality and testing strategy.” 

• “Increasing transparency.” ED said it has hosted briefings and is releasing regular updates about the progress of the 2025-26 FAFSA to students, families, institutions, and partners in the field. Additionally, ED said it will soon launch a new website with regular reports on the progress of all four beta testing periods. 

• “Improving resources for students and families to assist them in navigating the form.” In the white paper, ED said it will release new and updated resources for students and their families. That includes guidance on how to successfully navigate the form, an updated Federal Student Aid (FSA) Estimator, an expanded “Who’s My Parent?” tool, material translated into more languages commonly spoken in the U.S., and new videos and previews of the 2025-26 FAFSA experience. Additionally, ED said it will begin a campaign to support students who will be completing a FAFSA for the first time and assist with the creation of StudentAid.gov accounts.

• “Providing additional resources to counselors, institutions, states, and other critical partners.” ED will provide additional training for partners through an updated “train-the-trainer model” to help ensure that those who work directly with students are fully equipped to help them navigate the 2025-26 FAFSA. This training will take place in November and will touch on lessons learned from the beta testing of the new FAFSA. ED will also hold its FSA Training Conference in December. Registration for the conference will open in October. Additionally, ED noted that it released a batch of system-generated test ISIRs.

• “Ensuring the call center has sufficient capacity to handle outreach from and provide accurate information to students and families.” According to ED, since January this year, there have been more than 700 new agents added to the FSA Information Center to handle projected call volumes for December, when the 2025–26 FAFSA form will be available for all students and contributors. 

• “Improving the user experience for students and families.” ED said it is focusing on reducing the number of applications that require corrections, especially for common reasons, such as missing student and parent signatures, or applicants choosing that they would only want to be considered for direct unsubsidized loans.

• “Providing additional outreach and support for students and families who need the most help completing the form.” ED detailed several email campaigns it has run to reach students and families. 

Also, ED noted how both students and families have voiced concerns over the FAFSA contributor experience. As a result, ED said addressing these concerns requires more time than is available during the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle and is “actively exploring potential enhancements that we can make to the 2026-27 FAFSA experience.”

• “Addressing the ongoing issues experienced by mixed status families.” In April, ED announced it had developed a new process to streamline 2024-25 FAFSA completion for applicants and contributors without a Social Security number (SSN). ED said that it will keep this solution in place throughout the 2025-26 cycle. In the white paper, the department said it will “continue to make improvements” to the identity validation process for those without SSNs. 

• “Helping alleviate the additional burden on institutions.” ED noted that through the FAFSA College Support Strategy, nearly 400 schools have been helped. Additionally, the department has delayed the institutional reporting deadline for gainful employment (GE) and financial value transparency (FVT) from October 1, 2024, until January 15, 2025. Although, NASFAA, along with other higher education organizations, and 20 senators, have continued to call on ED to delay the reporting requirement until July 2025. 

In the letter, Cardona said the department will continue to make improvements to the FAFSA form and process. ED further committed to creating and updating resources for families, institutions, counselors, and financial aid professionals. 

“This update reflects this department’s unrelenting, laser focus at every step on making the FAFSA form work for more students and families – so they can access the life-changing potential of higher education,” Cardona wrote in his letter. “As we transform this process, we are leaving no stone unturned to learn lessons, fix problems, and improve processes – responding directly to the needs and concerns raised with the department by students, families, institutions, and partners.”

Publication Date: 9/24/2024

Comments Disclaimer: NASFAA welcomes and encourages readers to comment and engage in respectful conversation about the content posted here. We value thoughtful, polite, and concise comments that reflect a variety of views. Comments are not moderated by NASFAA but are reviewed periodically by staff. Users should not expect real-time responses from NASFAA. To learn more, please view NASFAA’s complete Comments Policy.