The Department of Education announced Thursday that the Simplified FAFSA form for the 2025-26 academic year will be widely available on or before Dec. 1, foregoing its traditional October start for a second year in a row, according to a statement.
A limited set of students and institutions will be granted entry beginning on Oct. 1 through a phased rollout, allowing the Office of Federal Student Aid to resolve any system errors that might arise before its official release.
“Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the Department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a statement.
Last year’s FAFSA form was ridden with glitches and delays from the start. Following a soft launch beginning in the last week of December, thousands of students were unable to log into the system or permit their parents’ access. Another delay from the Department in sending students’ completed data to institutions caused financial aid offices to defer rewarding students’ financial aid packages from Decision Day on May 1 until the summer.
“What this FAFSA ordeal has done is it compressed what is typically up to six months’ worth of work into six weeks,” says Kenneth Ferreria, director of student financial services at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.
The so-called “FAFSA fiasco” has continued, following an announcement last week that batch corrections on student forms would not be available by mid-August anymore. Instead, strained financial aid offices will have to submit individualized form corrections, a tall feat at large institutions with thousands of incorrectly filed forms.
“The Department’s poor planning has led to a stunning failure,” said Beth Maglione, interim president and chief executive of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “Some college students might not have financial aid dollars in their hands in time to start classes in the next few weeks.”
Some institutions are blaming lower enrollment and staff cuts on the FASFA delays.
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NASFAA, along with other higher education stakeholders, have diligently worked with the Department to launch an improved system this year. College Board President Jeremy Singer, who oversaw the digital SAT’s implementation, is taking a temporary leave to serve as FAFSA executive advisor. The department is promising to launch “full functionality” by its official release, including submission and back-end processing at the same time, according to a statement.
“We’ve heard from students, families, higher education professionals and other stakeholders loud and clear,” Singer said in a press release. “They want a better, simpler FAFSA process, and they want to know when they can reliably expect it. In close collaboration with partners, FSA is confident we will deliver not only a better product but also a smoother process than last year.”
However, concerns continue to linger. The department noted in its December rollout announcement that batch corrections for the 2025-26 form will not be available in time for the full launch and did not provide more information on when the function would become available.
“The fact that we are still, to this day, dealing with the aftershocks of this year’s FAFSA rollout shows just how imperative it is that the process is thoroughly tested from end to end and launched as a system, not in a piecemeal manner,” Maglione said.
