- Office of Federal Student Aid releases 2025-26 FAFSA preview
- Department of Education sends GE/FVT Completers List to schools
- Biden Administration unveils new debt relief proposal for borrowers experiencing financial hardship
Office of Federal Student Aid releases 2025-26 FAFSA preview
On Monday, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) issued an Electronic Announcement (EA) containing new resources for institutions, counselors, and partner organizations ahead of the planned December 1 launch of the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). These resources include the FAFSA Preview Presentation, which allows users to walk through student and contributor experiences with the form and corrections process utilizing screenshots from the online application.
The FSA Training Center will hold a live webinar on Friday, November 8 for financial aid officers interested in learning more about the 2025-26 FAFSA, the 25-26 beta testing process, and continued updates on the 2024-25 FAFSA.
Department of Education sends GE/FVT Completers List to schools
On Monday, the Department of Education (ED) began sending schools revised Gainful Employment and Financial Value Transparency (GE/FVT) Completers Lists. The Completers Lists will be used to calculate the debt-to-earnings (D/E) and earnings premium (EP) measures that will be used in GE determinations and made public through FVT consumer-facing tools. How cohorts are reported depends on whether the program had 30 or more completers. To ensure that cohorts are appropriately determined and that D/E/ and EP measures are accurate, institutions are asked to review and correct their Completers List.
Initial Completers Lists were sent to schools for their review in August. However, issues were identified, and ED asked institutions to pause their review as the agency worked to issue new lists. The challenges with the Completers Lists, alongside the continued strain on financial aid officers due to the rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA, influenced the Department’s decision to delay GE/FVT reporting from October 1 to January 15.
Schools will now have until January 15 to review and correct the new Completers Lists. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is carefully monitoring the implementation of the new GE/FVT regulations and their impact on our members. Please contact the Office of Government Relations (OGR) to discuss these issues further.
Biden Administration unveils new debt relief proposal for borrowers experiencing financial hardship
Last week, the Biden Administration released a draft of its proposed regulations to provide debt relief to student borrowers experiencing financial hardship.
As a reminder, the Department of Education (ED) led a round of negotiated rulemaking considering paths to student debt relief for five groups of borrowers, citing authority under the Higher Education Act (HEA). In April, ED issued proposed rules to cancel debt for borrowers whose balances had grown due to unpaid interest, who were still in repayment after 20 or 25 years, who enrolled in institutions that had lost their Title IV eligibility, and who would have seen their debts forgiven under the terms of the SAVE income-driven repayment plan but had not yet enrolled. This first set of proposed rules did not include relief for the fifth set of borrowers discussed during negotiated rulemaking – those experiencing “financial hardship.”
The new proposed regulations aim to support these borrowers in two distinct ways.
First, loans will automatically be discharged for borrowers who are deemed likely to default within the next two years based on a “predictive assessment” using factors including:
- Household income;
- Assets;
- Types of loans and debt balances;
- Current repayment status and repayment history;
- Student loan debt balances and required payments as a share of income;
- Total debt balances and required payments as a share of income;
- Pell Grant receipt;
- Type and level of institution attended;
- Typical student outcomes associated with program attended;
- Degree or certificate completion status;
- Age;
- Disability;
- Age of borrower’s loan;
- Receipt of means-tested public benefits;
- High-cost of essential expenses like healthcare, housing, and childcare;
- Likelihood of the hardship persisting; and
- Other factors identified by the Secretary.
Second, borrowers can petition for their loans to be discharged and ED will evaluate their hardship claims using a “holistic assessment” of the factors listed above. The Department estimates that more than 8 million borrowers will see their loans discharged under the proposed rules.
After a 30-day public comment period, ED hopes to finalize the rules in 2025, meaning they will not be implemented until July 1, 2026 at the earliest under master calendar rules. If implemented as proposed, the new regulations will face certain legal challenges.