What link should we be sharing with students for sign-up?
You should have received a unique link for your organization. If you did not, contact BetaQuestions@ed.gov.
What and when will FSA communicate to students about their eligibility to participate?
For Beta 2:
Each student who filled out the sign-up form before Oct. 1 will receive one of two emails on or before Oct. 3:
- A confirmation email saying the student can participate in beta testing, OR
- An email saying FSA could not confirm the student’s or contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, and the student should resubmit the student sign-up form.
Each student who fills out the sign-up form before Oct. 8 will receive one of two emails on or before Oct. 11:
- A confirmation email saying the student can participate in beta testing, OR
- An email saying FSA could not confirm the student’s or contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, and the student will not be able to fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form until FSA makes it generally available on or before Dec. 1.
Both confirmation emails indicate that the student will find out from the organization that recruited them for the beta testing how and when the student should fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form.
For Beta 3:
Each student who filled out the sign-up form before Oct. 16 will receive one of two emails on or before Oct. 21:
- A confirmation email saying the student can participate in beta testing, OR
- An email saying FSA could not confirm the student’s or contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, and the student should resubmit the student sign-up form.
Each student who fills out the sign-up form before Oct. 28 will receive one of two emails on or before Nov. 1:
- A confirmation email saying the student can participate in beta testing, OR
- An email saying FSA could not confirm the student’s or contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, and the student will not be able to fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form until FSA makes it generally available on or before Dec. 1.
Both confirmation emails indicate that the student will find out from the organization that recruited them for the beta testing how and when the student should fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form.
For Beta 4:
Each student who filled out the sign-up form before Oct. 23 will receive one of two emails on or before Oct. 28:
- A confirmation email saying the student can participate in beta testing, OR
- An email saying FSA could not confirm the student’s or contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, and the student should resubmit the student sign-up form.
Each student who fills out the sign-up form before Nov. 6 will receive one of two emails on or before Nov. 13:
- A confirmation email saying the student can participate in beta testing, OR
- An email saying FSA could not confirm the student’s or contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, and the student will not be able to fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form until FSA makes it generally available on or before Dec. 1.
Both confirmation emails indicate that the student will find out from the organization that recruited them for the beta testing how and when the student should fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form.
With whom will FSA communicate?
Only students will receive emails from FSA during the beta testing periods. Contributors listed in the sign-up form will not receive any communications from FSA.
For each beta stage, FSA will give participating organizations the number of students who successfully and unsuccessfully signed up using their unique link.
What are common reasons students who submitted an interest form won’t be confirmed to be part of beta testing?
The primary reason a student would not be confirmed for a beta testing period is that the student and/or contributor email addresses they entered in the sign-up form do not match existing StudentAid.gov accounts.
To ensure students are confirmed to participate in a beta testing period, FSA recommends that students and their contributors each create a StudentAid.gov account and confirm that they can log in before submitting the student sign-up form.
Do students have to fill out the 2025–26 FAFSA form by a specific date?
Students should attempt to submit the 2025–26 FAFSA form before Oct. 18 (Beta 2), Nov. 7 (Beta 3), or Nov. 18 (Beta 4) because having as many forms as possible submitted as early as possible is best for testing the form and resolving bugs we may find.
If a student and/or contributor approved for beta testing is unable to fill out and submit the 2025–26 FAFSA form by that date, they can complete and submit the form later and even access their FAFSA form later to make corrections.
Is there a special technical support line or process for students or contributors experiencing technical issues during beta testing?
FSA has a dedicated phone number for beta testing participants and is sharing the phone number and hours of operation directly with organizations participating in beta testing. The phone number will also be shared with students who are confirmed to participate in beta testing.
Is there any messaging available to share, or anything else we should keep in mind as participating organization in the beta periods?
As in any beta test, participants should expect to encounter system issues that may cause challenges or delays, including difficulty creating StudentAid.gov accounts (FSA IDs), issues submitting the 2025–26 FAFSA form, or errors in ISIRs.
FSA is grateful to the organizations and individuals who are willing to work with us during the beta testing periods to identify and address issues to ensure a more reliable 2025–26 FAFSA form for the broader community.
What is my organization expected to do that’s different from what we usually do to support students filling out the FAFSA form?
Not much. FSA would like your organization, as usual, to be the first line of support for your students as they fill out the FAFSA form.
If you and/or students and their contributors encounter issues that you cannot troubleshoot on your own, you should do two things:
- Call FSA’s dedicated technical support line for beta testing.
- If you or the technical support line cannot resolve an issue, or if you have other feedback you would like to provide, report it to FSA on the 2025–26 FAFSA Beta Feedback form.
FSA is using the beta feedback form to identify potential new issues and will provide a link to the form to participating organizations.
What if we don’t get our target number of students to participate?
That is fine. FSA only asks that participating organizations attempt to recruit the number of students they originally expected to be able to recruit.
When will students get access to the FAFSA form?
Students and their contributors who are successfully confirmed to participatewill be able to access the 2025–26 FAFSA form at approximately noon Eastern time on Oct. 15 (Beta 2), Nov. 4 (Beta 3), or Nov. 15 (Beta 4). The precise time could vary by as much as 60 minutes earlier or later.
Can FSA share the email addresses of students who are confirmed to participate in beta testing?
Unfortunately, no. For privacy reasons, we cannot share the email addresses that we receive from students. We can and will share the counts of students who were accepted and rejected based on their entries on the student signup form.
How will students access the 2025-26 FAFSA form?
Student should use the following link to access the 2025-26 form: https://studentaid.gov/fafsa-apply/2025-26. Alternatively, they can log into StudentAid.gov and find a button to start the 2025-26 form on their Dashboard.
Note that both of those methods will work only for students who are confirmed to participate in beta testing and only after their beta testing period begins.
How will students learn how to access the 2025-26 FAFSA form?
On the day that each beta period begins (Oct. 15 for Beta 2, Nov. 4 for Beta 3, Nov. 15 for Beta 4), FSA will send an email to every person who has successfully signed up for that period. That email will tell students:
- If they were recruited to participate in a FAFSA event, they should attend that event.
- If they were not recruited to participate in a FAFSA event, they can fill out the form on their own time.
The email will provide all students with instructions on how to access the 2025-26 FAFSA form. It will also provide the support phone number for beta participants and a link to the Issue Intake Form for providing feedback about the FAFSA form.
What if our organization also wants to email students who are participating in beta testing?
Your organization may want to email students, for example to remind them of a FAFSA event or to provide information about support that you are providing. Unfortunately, as discussed above, FSA cannot provide the email addresses of students who successfully signed up for beta testing. This means that you may have to email all of the students whom you initially emailed inviting them to sign up for beta testing.
If your email system allows you to keep track of which students clicked on a link in your initial email (in this case, the link to the signup form), you could send a follow-up email just to those students.
Alternatively, your recruiting email could direct students to a form that you create. That form could capture their email address and then provide the link to the signup form. That way you would have a list of the students who were interested in participating in beta testing.
If students submit the FAFSA before their college or university submits work-study earnings data to COD, will their ISIRs be reprocessed?
We are not planning to reprocess ISIRs to correct missing work-study earnings data. It is important that colleges and universities report their work-study wages data to COD before their students begin submitting the FAFSA.