After a trouble-plagued software overhaul, U.S. Division of Training officers have launched subsequent 12 months’s Free Software for Federal Pupil Assist, greater than every week earlier than its Dec. 1 goal date.
After final 12 months’s rollout catastrophe, Training Division officers declare to have improved the applying course of following suggestions from stakeholders. Greater than 167,000 college students have efficiently submitted their FAFSA software since Oct. 1, following 4 rounds of testing. The division can now “say with confidence” that the applying is working and can function “the gateway to college access and affordability to millions of students.”
Hundreds of scholars confronted quite a few challenges when making an attempt to finish their monetary assist software final 12 months, following a type overhaul meant to simplify the applying course of, which as an alternative made issues harder. Consequently, 29% fewer college students accomplished their software in Might in contrast with the identical time in 2023.
The division stated it has made varied enhancements to make sure the identical points don’t happen throughout this 12 months’s software cycle. Staffing has been elevated by virtually 80% to make sure college students and their households can join with representatives when calling for monetary assist assist.
Greater than 700 brokers have been added to the division’s contact heart and an extra 225 brokers are set to be employed within the coming weeks, to offset lengthy wait occasions confronted by callers final 12 months.
“We need a better FAFSA form to deliver financial aid to students going to college and other forms of education after high school,” James Kvaal, the undersecretary of training, stated. “Thank you to everyone who has helped the 2025-26 FAFSA launch successfully and ahead of schedule, including students and families, Department staff, and financial aid administrators and counselors across the country.”
Whereas final 12 months’s technical glitches have been addressed with the FAFSA type and system now in a “strong position,” one group was left weak within the wake of the technical errors that occurred. College students whose dad and mom didn’t have a Social Safety quantity had been reported to be blocked from filling out the monetary assist type, leading to practically 9% fewer highschool seniors and first-time candidates based on a latest report from the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace.
The workplace of Federal Pupil Assist suspended the id verification course of that had barred contributors with out Social Safety numbers from logging into the net monetary assist type for the 2025-26 software.
Nevertheless, forward of his inauguration in January, President-elect Donald Trump’s administration has introduced plans to close down the Division of Training, posing important threats of economic assist cuts, in addition to plans to start mass deportations. In keeping with Stephen Barker, communication director for OneGoal — a Chicago nonprofit that assists college students to enroll and graduate from postsecondary applications — this might depart mixed-status households weak.
OneGoal is wanting rigorously on the implications for college students making use of for monetary assist for the primary time or these from mixed-status households, Barker stated, the place a number of of their contributors don’t have Social Safety numbers.
Whereas the Nationwide Faculty Attainment Community has signaled that college students “should use caution” when finishing their FAFSA type, Barker stated OneGoal doesn’t imagine it’s “responsible to advise students whether they should or should not submit their FAFSA.” As an alternative, the nonprofit is being as clear with college students as doable in regards to the potential dangers.
The Increased Training Act prohibits the usage of college students’ information for any goal aside from figuring out monetary assist eligibility and awards to college students. However with the incoming Trump administration signaling its priorities, Braker stated there’s no approach to make sure “this administration is not going to sort of supersede or overturn the rules of the Higher Education Act in order to sort of use this as a lever for accessing information.”
“We can’t imagine a scenario where that’s likely, but we’re not policy experts, and can’t say for sure what an unpredictable administration is going to do,” Braker stated. “We’re going to make sure that students have the information that they need and then they’re going to have to work with their families and their school counselors to determine if it’s safe for them to fill this out and provide that information.”