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.
- Senators urge Biden Administration to delay Gainful Employment/Financial Value Transparency reporting
- Department of Education releases new information on the 2025-26 FAFSA testing period
- Higher education bills advance in House committee markups
Senators urge Biden Administration to delay Gainful Employment/Financial Value Transparency reporting
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of twenty senators sent a letter to the Department of Education (ED) asking them to delay the institutional reporting deadline for Gainful Employment (GE) and Financial Value Transparency (FVT) to July 2025.
Originally, ED had a July 31 reporting deadline in place. In March, the agency extended it to October 1 after significant delays in delivering the user guide and related detailed reporting requirements to colleges. However, many colleges do not feel that they will be able to fully come into compliance by the new deadline. Most importantly, colleges have still not received accurate “completers lists” from ED– a critical data set that will be used to undergird the GE determinations and the information on program outcomes presented to students and families. In fact, because of errors detected in the completers list, institutions were told by ED on August 30 to pause in reviewing them.
As the senators cite in their letter, institutions’ capacity concerns also loom large as the October 1 deadline approaches. Institutional GE/FVT reporting will require significant involvement from financial aid offices, who continue to deal with the fallout from the flawed rollout of the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). As a result, many of these offices are still working around the clock to address issues with students’ FAFSAs, to package aid offers, and to do so without key functionalities, like batch corrections. The senators urge the Department to delay GE/FVT reporting to allow these offices to devote their time to ensuring that students receive financial aid and enroll in and succeed in college during a difficult award year.
AACC has also communicated with ED, both formally and informally, in an effort to persuade the Department to delay the October 1 reporting requirement.
Department of Education releases new information on the 2025-26 FAFSA testing period
On Wednesday, ED released a new Electronic Announcement (EA) with additional details on the next “beta testing” periods for the 2025-26 FAFSA rollout. As a reminder, ED previously announced a new “phased rollout” process for the 2025-26 FAFSA, with the online form set to become available to a limited set of volunteer students and institutions on October 1. Additional students and institutions will gain access to the form throughout the fall during specific beta tests, with the goal of having the form open to all students by December 1. Each beta test will look at student and contributor experiences filling out and submitting the form, transmission of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) to states and institutions, and student- and institution-initiated corrections. In August, the Department announced information on the first beta testing period (Beta 1), with an application open to community-based organizations (CBOs) that work directly with students.
This week’s announcement details more information on Betas 2-4, including an interest form for colleges and universities that want to partner with ED during one of the testing periods. Beta 2 will begin in mid-October, followed by Beta 3 in early November, and finally, Beta 4 in mid-November. Selected colleges will be asked to work with 200 or more returning students and with ED to ensure accuracy when processing their Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and notify ED to answer errors during the application and transmission process. The interest form is due September 20.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is carefully monitoring the rollout of the 2025-26 FAFSA and will be submitting comments to ED on this process. Please contact AACC’s Office of Government Relations (OGR) to discuss these issues further.
Higher education bills advance in House committee markups
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology advanced a series of bipartisan bills to promote incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into education and workforce training programs. Of note, the Committee reported the NSF AI Education Act, which could establish new “Centers of AI Excellence” at community colleges, in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Also on Wednesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce reported three bills, including the bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act. The bill would require additional training and protocol development around preventing hazing and greater transparency around hazing incidents that occur on campus or are affiliated with a student organization.