The Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2025-26 academic year will be fully available by Dec. 1 — two months later than the form’s usual debut, according to an announcement Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Education.
Starting Oct. 1, the Education Department will test the new form with a limited number of students and institutions. This phased approach is aimed at ensuring complete functionality when the form fully launches, officials said in a news release.
The delay comes after a fraught financial aid cycle.
The Education Department released a new FAFSA form for the 2024-25 academic year in late December — roughly three months later than usual.
Per a congressional mandate, the Education Department revamped the application with the aim of making it easier for families and students to fill out. But the rollout was plagued by chronic delays and technical issues.
Agency officials cast the second delay in two years as a way to avoid those problems for the next aid cycle.
During a call with reporters Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona stressed that the Education Department has made recent moves to change the operations and oversight of the Federal Student Aid office, which manages the FAFSA.
“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,” Cardona said in a Wednesday statement.
In June, the Education Department brought on Jeremy Singer, who is taking a temporary leave of absence from his role as president of the College Board to serve as the agency’s FAFSA executive advisor for the 2025-26 form.
“Our team at FSA is still hard at work trying to address the issues from the past year, and we've identified areas working with this team that are going to be different as we move into the new year,” Singer said during a call with reporters on Wednesday. “In particular, we've learned there is a lot that we can do to improve testing.”
When the form launches, Singer said, “key features will be available on day one.”
That means students will be able to submit FAFSA forms and colleges will be able to receive their applicant data — information that is key to creating financial aid packages. Students and colleges will also be able to immediately make any corrections needed to their FAFSAs.
This past aid cycle, the Education Department didn’t start sending FAFSA applicant data to colleges until March — sharply compressing the time colleges had to compile aid packages. This data is usually available shortly after the FAFSA opens on Oct. 1.
Many institutions wound up pushing back the traditional student commitment deadline of May 1 because of the delay.
Students also couldn’t submit corrections to their FAFSA forms until April.
And delays have continued late into the aid cycle. Just last week, the Education Department told colleges they wouldn’t be able to submit batch corrections for the 2024-25 FAFSA, meaning officials would have to submit them manually for each form.
It made that move to focus its resources on the 2025-26 FAFSA, a senior department official said during the call with reporters, adding that the agency realizes that this put an extra burden on colleges.
For the 2025-26 FAFSA, batch corrections still won’t be available by Dec. 1.
However, the Education Department will add features such as batch corrections for institutions during regular releases sometime after the form is fully live, an agency spokesperson said in an email Wednesday evening.
The testing period for the 2025-26 FAFSA will begin with hundreds of students on Oct. 1, before progressing to tens of thousands of students in November, Singer said. Those submissions will trigger deliveries of FAFSA data to colleges.
“This will surface bugs and issues that we will be able to address before the application is open to the full public,” Singer said.
The Education Department will work with colleges, high schools and other organizations to invite students to participate in the testing process, a senior department official said.
The news was met with mixed reactions Wednesday from higher education groups and lawmakers.
Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement that an Oct. 1 debut would have been ideal.
“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,” Maglione said.
Catherine Brown, senior director of policy and advocacy at the National College Attainment Network, echoed those comments.
“This delayed release date is not what we had hoped, given that in years past, 50% of FAFSAs were filed prior to the end of the calendar year,” Brown said in an announcement.
But Brown noted that the move is consistent with an earlier recommendation from NCAN and other higher education groups. Those organizations, which included NASFAA, urged the Education Department to “conduct the necessary testing” on the new form — even if that meant moving the release to "as late as" Dec. 1.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House education committee, panned the announcement, blaming the delay on the Education Department’s efforts to cancel student debt.
“Ensuring a working, timely, and accurate FAFSA should have been the Biden-Harris administration’s priority from day one,” the North Carolina Republican said in a statement Wednesday. “Instead, it has continually shown that illegal debt transfer schemes are far more important than ensuring low-income students can afford college.”
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently advanced a bill that would mandate the Education Department to release the FAFSA by Oct. 1 each year. Currently, the agency has until Jan. 1 to make the form available but has historically released it Oct. 1. The bill awaits floor action in the House.
