On February 14, 2025, the sex question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form was updated to comply with the President’s Executive Order, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. The question will be updated to include only two response options, “Male” and “Female.”
The FAFSA Simplification Act requires students to respond to this question to complete and submit a FAFSA form. As a reminder, responses to this question do not impact eligibility for aid and are not shared with institutions, states, or any other partners.
2024–25 and 2025–26 forms
Students who have already submitted a 2024–25 or 2025–26 FAFSA form before February 14, and do not require other corrections, are not required to take any action. Additionally, current versions of the paper FAFSA form submitted after February 14 will still be processed, regardless of the answer selected, and will not require a correction. Institutions do not need to take any action.
If a student previously answered “Non-binary” or “Prefer not to answer” and goes to submit a correction to their 2024-25 or 2025-26 form for any reason, they will be required to respond to the updated sex question in order to successfully resubmit their FAFSA form. Students will be prompted to do so as part of submitting the correction.
Corrections that are initiated by institutions, regardless of method (FAFSA Partner Portal or EDE), will not require an updated response value to be entered, regardless of the student’s previous answer to question 11.
The current Institutional Student Information Record layout for 2024–25 and 2025–26 will remain unchanged.
2026–27 form
All students will be required to respond to the updated question when the 2026–27 form becomes available by Oct. 1.
Contact Information
Students and families who have questions may contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-433-3243 (1-800-4 FED AID). Institutions who have questions may contact the FPS Help Desk at 1-800-330-5947 or support@fps.ed.gov.