New FAFSA delay sparks fear after last year’s chaotic launch

The Department of Education’s new deadline for releasing free application forms for 2025-2026 federal student aid is leaving advocacy groups in a difficult situation as they say the change is the best of bad options, but it brings to light feelings of dread after last year’s FAFSA situation.

Experts said a decision had to be made whether to postpone this year’s applications or stick to the normal Oct. 1 deadline with applications that would be buggy and cause difficulties for students and families.

While the department is promising that the Dec. 1 deadline will mean fully operational applications for everyone, groups will be keeping an eye on last year’s FAFSA chaos, which left some colleges still processing forms.

“I will say that there is definitely not 100 percent trust on the part of the financial aid community, because it really was – the year 2024-2025 – it was really traumatic and there was definitely a breakdown of trust. Then [the Department of Education] There’s some work to do, I would say, to restore that trust, and I think they know that,” said Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

The Department of Education (DOE) announced on Wednesday that FAFSA forms for the upcoming school year would only be open to select individuals starting October 1. The forms will be rolled out in phases, with only a few being selected to process your applications early so the department can identify bugs in the system.

The new deadline for applications to be available to everyone is December 1, two months after the typical start date but before last year’s difficult launch.

“I think it’s a difficult trade-off between functionality and opportunity, and that’s an issue that NCAN [the National Collegiate Attainment Network] has been discussing with our members and discussing it internally and trying to resolve this. But ultimately, we conclude that the most important thing is that the form is fully functional, that financial aid counselors and administrators have confidence in the system and in the students, most importantly, and that requires ensuring that it is reliable and state-of-the-art functional. the tip, and that students can receive financial aid awards in a timely manner. S this announcement allows them to do the necessary testing to ensure it is fully functional. And that’s a positive development in our view,” said Catherine Brown, senior director of policy and advocacy at NCAN.

Republicans in Congress were less forgiving.

“For the second year in a row, the Biden-Harris administration will miss the traditional date to make the FAFSA form available to students,” said Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which last month introduced a bill requiring the forms to be released in October. “We saw last year that colleges cannot create financial aid packages without timely FAFSA information. Many students may drop out of college when they can’t choose a school because they don’t know if they are eligible for student aid.”

Along with complaints about the delay, there are some parts of the app that still won’t be ready in time, according to advocates.

There are two ways schools process FAFSA forms, individually and in batches. Universities typically process applications in batches because it is easier and less time-consuming.

“The Department of Ed has said that all FAFSA functionality will be available, including corrections, on December 1st, according to their schedule, and when we clarify with them — this includes both individual corrections and the ability to submit batches — have confirmed that it does not include the ability to batch submit fixes. And they don’t have an estimated release date for the batch fixes for 2025-2026, so that was kind of a disappointing part of the announcement they made this week, because they were saying full functionality by December 1st, and for us, the Full functionality includes batch fixes,” said McCarthy.

Frustrations and skepticism arose after the disastrous rollout of renewed FAFSA forms last year, which only began on December 30, when the forms were available for certain deadlines.

From there, months of bugs and errors plagued the system and created backups for students, families, and colleges.

In March, the DOE said there was a 40 percent gap between applicants for the 2024-2025 school year and the 2023-2024 school year. Currently, the department says the gap has narrowed to 4 percent, but Brown said his group’s FAFSA tracker, which is only for high school seniors, still has a 10 percent gap compared to last year. past.

“We are hopeful that this gap is closing, but it is still a major concern. And, you know, we could see that happen in terms of enrollment in the fall,” she added.

And fears of a repeat of the previous FAFSA cycle are leading schools and advocates to make alternative plans.

“In the worst case scenario, December 1st is not the date when forms will be fully functional and fully online, and so institutions just need to try to think ahead and be strategic in how they plan to communicate with those who are interested.” in enrolling at your institution, what help could they be given the constraints they face,” said Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story