WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday began the first testing period for the 2025-26 phased rollout for applying for federally funded student aid, with more students than originally expected entering this initial testing phase. We plan to participate in the event.
In August, the department adopted a phased approach to address potential issues before opening the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to everyone by Dec. 1. announced that it would start. The number of students able to fill out the form will gradually increase through four separate testing phases, with the first phase starting on October 1st.
The phased rollout will make the form fully available two months later than usual, and the 2024-25 form, which was revamped after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020, will It has faced a series of reported problems, which the ministry has been working on. repair.
The ministry announced in early September that six community-based organizations had been selected to participate in the initial testing period. Bridge 2 Life, Florida. University of Georgia AIM. Education is free, Texas. Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation, California. and the Alexandria Scholarship Fund of Virginia.
“Thanks to our amazing organization, we now have nearly 1,000 Beta 1 students, instead of the 100 we originally thought,” FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer said Monday in a call with reporters about the 2025-26 form. I expect it to be,” he said.
During this initial testing phase, U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvar said the department will process students’ FAFSAs and “give students the opportunity to make corrections as needed and send their records to colleges and state agencies.” said.
“Universities will now be able to utilize these same records when making financial aid offers,” said Kvar, who oversees higher education and financial aid, including the Office of Federal Student Aid.
3 more test periods
The department on Monday also named 78 community-based organizations, government agencies, high schools, school districts and higher education institutions to participate in three subsequent testing periods for the 2025-26 form.
Three of the community-based organizations selected to participate in the initial testing period are Bridge 2 Life in Florida; Education in Texas is free. and the Alexandria Scholarship Fund of Virginia will also participate in subsequent testing phases.
To help students and families prepare for the 2025-2026 application cycle, the department this week released revised federal student aid estimates, updated resources for creating a StudentAid.Gov account, including a “Parent Wizard” , and announced the release of the latest version. 2025-26 FAFSA prototype.
The department released a report last week outlining 10 steps it is taking to improve the FAFSA application process. As part of these efforts, in addition to the vendor adding more than 700 new call center agents, the department will strengthen its leadership team to address the issue of families not having a Social Security number when filling out forms. Includes initiatives.
