Editor’s note: This weekly update from the government relations office at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) provides the latest on what’s happening in Washington and how AACC is advancing policies to support community colleges and students. Send questions, feedback and more to: kgimborys@aacc.nche.edu.
Another year, another delayed FAFSA form
On Wednesday, the Department of Education (ED) announced a new “phased rollout” process for the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). On October 1, the online form will become available to a limited set of students and institutions who have volunteered to help the Department with testing. Additional students and institutions will gain access to the form throughout the fall, with “the goal” of having the form open to all students by December 1.
As the American Association of Community College’s (AACC) Matthew Dembicki covers in the Community College Daily, the announcement has been met with mixed reactions from the financial aid community. Under this rollout plan, the FAFSA will once again be delayed for students and families. For years, ED released the FAFSA on October 1 and institutions, states, and other entities have planned their application, admissions, and aid deadlines with that release date in mind. When the 2024-25 FAFSA was released in late December, it threw those timelines into disarray, delayed financial aid officers’ ability to package aid officers, and gave students less time to complete the form and to make informed college decisions. Another delayed release is a major blow for stakeholders hoping for more certainty for students and families and a return to regular order for colleges.
However, others are less concerned with the delayed release of the FAFSA and more worried about ensuring that all students and families can successfully complete the form, that the information generated and sent to colleges is accurate, and that any and all glitches are fixed early in the award cycle. To that end, the announcement of a testing period, using real student information and generating real Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs), was a welcome announcement, as was the Department’s promise that back-end processing functionalities will be in place by the official launch date (December 1 or sooner). The 2024-25 FAFSA was riddled with errors that prevented many students from completing the form, sent incomplete or inaccurate information to colleges, and prevented students and colleges from correcting submitted information. These errors may have been caught and addressed if the Department had utilized a testing period last year.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is carefully monitoring the rollout of the 2025-26 FAFSA. Please contact AACC’s Office of Government Relations (OGR) to discuss these issues further.