(GENERAL-24-125) Resources to Assist with Preparation for the 2025–26 FAFSA Cycle

Author
Federal Student Aid
Electronic Announcement ID
GENERAL-24-125
Subject
Resources to Assist with Preparation for the 2025–26 FAFSA Cycle

This Electronic Announcement includes information about new and updated resources for institutions, state aid agencies, software vendors, supporting organizations, and students and families as they begin their preparations for the 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) cycle. It also includes information about recent technical fixes to the FAFSA form and system. The Department is on track to make the 2025–26 FAFSA form broadly available by Dec. 1.

New and Updated Resources for the 2025–26 FAFSA Cycle

In preparation for increased activity once the 2025–26 FAFSA form is broadly available by Dec. 1, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) has been applying lessons learned from both the FAFSA Beta period and 2024–25 cycle to make improvements to the resources and contact centers used by students and families. These improvements include updates to the Aiden® virtual assistant to reflect 2025–26 information. They also include investments in training and staffing levels at the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC), including an increase in the number of agents by more than 80% and the addition of evening and Saturday hours during the first few months that the 2025–26 FAFSA form is broadly available.

We are also pleased to announce the availability of the following resources—released throughout the fall—that will assist our partners in preparing for and navigating the 2025–26 FAFSA cycle:

Additional resources and training to support the administration of the Title IV programs may be found on the Knowledge Center’s FAFSA Simplification Information page. Updated information and outreach tools for counselors, college access professionals, and other advisors may be found on the Financial Aid Toolkit. And information and updates about FAFSA Beta testing can be found on the Beta Central website.

Upcoming Webinar

The Department will host a webinar: FAFSA: Preparing for 2025–26 and Updates on 2024–25 from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, Nov. 8. The webinar will provide current information about 2024–25 FAFSA processing, an update about the 2025–26 FAFSA Beta testing, and information to help partners prepare for the general availability of the 2025–26 FAFSA form by Dec. 1.

Technical Fixes

The Department recently implemented technical fixes to a set of bugs identified during the 2024–25 cycle and during the FAFSA Beta testing period. In addition to resolving known issues, these updates enhance the user experience and improve functionality of the FAFSA form for both the 2024–25 and 2025–26 cycles.

Fixes include addressing issues that, among others, required students and their contributors to re-sign forms in certain situations; required applicants to provide assets on an initial application when they were not required; prevented students from seeing an invitation from a contributor to complete the form; and made it challenging for users with a military address to submit a FAFSA form. In addition, the fixes improved security and internal tracking processes.

In the weeks leading up to the general availability date, we will continue to prioritize the resolution of issues that block form submission or impact student eligibility for federal student aid programs. We will continue to list issues and provide status updates on the FAFSA Issue Alerts page and in the Technical Frequently Asked Questions and Known Issues guide and bug fixes will be reflected in these resources in the coming days.

We are continuing to expand the universe of applicants, institutions, and community partners participating in FAFSA Beta testing as we move into the third beta testing period. Throughout the beta testing process, the Department has not uncovered any critical bugs and is targeting additional updates for next week. We remain on track to make the 2025–26 FAFSA form broadly available by Dec. 1.

We thank our partners for your ongoing commitment to helping students complete and submit the FAFSA form to access the financial aid programs for which they are eligible.

Contact Information

Technical Issues

For support with your Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) agreement and mailbox, or for help with technical issues related to ISIR processing, the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP), or EDExpress, contact the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) Help Desk (formerly CPS/SAIG Technical Support) at 1-800-330-5947 or by email at support@fps.ed.gov.

General Questions

The Department welcomes our partners to continue using the Contact Customer Support form in FSA’s Partner Connect Help Center. To submit a question, please enter your name, email address, topic, and question. When submitting a question, please select the topic “FAFSA.”

Students and families with questions regarding the FAFSA form, should refer to the FAFSA Help Center.

Last Modified: 10/30/2024