With the current lapse in appropriations to fund the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Education (ED), we would like to remind the community that there is minimal impact on students, borrowers, schools, lenders, and guaranty agencies and their ability to participate in the Title IV programs. While our federal offices, including those located in the regional cities, are closed during a lapse in appropriations, the majority of our Federal Student Aid (FSA) processors, contact centers, and websites remain operational.
In this announcement, we provide details about FSA's operations during a lapse in appropriations, including impact on communications, customer service contact centers, processing systems, and training events.
We are operating as follows:
Communications on the Knowledge Center website will be on hold during the lapse in appropriations. Please monitor the Knowledge Center website for information following the reopening of the federal government.
We will update many of our student-facing websites, including StudentAid.gov, with general information for students, parents, and borrowers about the lapse in appropriations. Users can log in to StudentAid.gov. However, we will not routinely update StudentAid.gov.
Most of our customer service contact centers remain open, including 1-800-4-FED-AID. Contact information for each FSA customer service and processing center is available in the Help Center on the FSA Partner Connect website.
Note: Contact centers that are staffed by FSA employees are closed during a lapse in appropriations and calls and email messages will not be returned until after the federal government reopens. This includes the eZ-Audit contact center (at 1-877-263-0780 and fsaezaudit@ed.gov) and the School Eligibility and Oversight Services Branch (at caseteams@ed.gov. Automated messages are in place to inform customers of the closure.
All core operations are continuing at the federal loan servicers—MOHELA, Nelnet, Aidvantage, CRI, Edfinancial, and ECSI, as well as the Default Resolution Group—including contact center operations, billing, receipt of payments, and deferment and forbearance processing. Borrowers should still make payments on federal student loans. Processing of refunds and discharges could be delayed.
The Office of Consumer Education and Ombudsman is unable to respond to requests during a lapse in appropriations. Accordingly, resolution of pending and new cases may be delayed. Customers can continue to submit complaints online at StudentAid.gov/feedback.
Campus-Based Program Processing—The Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website is operational during a lapse in appropriations.
As a reminder, the deadline for submitting the Fiscal Operations Report for 2024–25 and the Application to Participate for 2026–27 (FISAP) for the Campus-Based Programs is 11:59 p.m. Eastern time (ET) on Oct. 1, 2025. Transmissions must be completed prior to midnight. Additionally, the signature page must be printed, signed, and mailed by the Oct. 1, 2025, deadline. Refer to the Sept. 12, 2025 Electronic Announcement for details. If you are experiencing issues accessing the COD website to submit the FISAP, you may submit it after the published deadline. Please contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978 to document your access issue.
The ECSI Federal Perkins Loan Servicer and Perkins Loan Assignment System website is operational, and authorized users can submit assignments. Requests for user access continue to be processed.
COD System—The COD System continues to process Direct Loan promissory notes, accept and process data for all programs from schools, and send back responses/acknowledgments. Schools can receive federal student aid funds. Users can submit and retrieve data and access the COD Reports area of the COD website.
The modified processing schedule and Sept. 30, 2025, processing deadline described in recent communications is not impacted by a lapse in appropriations, while ED finalizes its processing and accounting for fiscal year 2025. For more information, refer to the Sept. 12, 2025 Electronic Announcement, as well as two related announcements (one is about the 2024–25 TEACH Grant Closeout deadline, and one is about the Pell Grant 2024–25 award year data submission deadline).
During the lapse in appropriations, borrowers and TEACH Grant recipients can complete all actions and view correspondence on StudentAid.gov.
Electronic Cohort Default Rate Appeals (eCDR Appeals)—The eCDR Appeals website remains operational. Challenges, adjustments, and appeals will be accepted but will not be processed until the federal government reopens. All deadline dates will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for any users experiencing technical issues.
FAFSA® form and the FAFSA Processing System (FPS)—Students and their contributors can continue to start, fill out, and submit a FAFSA form at fafsa.gov. The FAFSA Partner Portal is available to schools. FPS continues to accept data from schools and applicants and process Institutional Student Information Records and send FAFSA Submission Summaries.
FSA Partner Connect—The FSA Partner Connect website is operational, including the Application for Approval to Participate in the Federal Student Financial Aid Programs (E-App) and FSA Systems and Services Enrollment.
G5—As described in a Sept. 12, 2025 Electronic Announcement, the G5 website is unavailable until 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, while ED finalizes its processing and accounting for Fiscal Year 2025. After the conclusion of this scheduled outage, the G5 website will be operational, and schools will be able to draw down funds.
HEAL Online Processing System (HOPS)—HEAL claims may be filed by lenders during a lapse in appropriations; however, there will be no claim processing until after the federal government reopens.
National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®)—NSLDS Professional Access is available to all authorized users. NSLDS users can request and receive both automated and on-demand reports. Data providers can submit information to the NSLDS website.
As a reminder, Oct. 1, 2025, is the deadline for reporting data to NSLDS for the Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment (FVT/GE) 2025 cycle. In addition, the deadline for the 2024 cycle for reporting and the evaluation of the Completers List was previously extended to Sept. 30, 2025. The draft Completers List for the 2025 cycle will be generated after the federal government reopens. Institutions will have at least 60 days to make any corrections to their data in NSLDS following receipt of the list. If you are experiencing issues accessing NSLDS, you may report FVT/GE data after the published deadline. Please contact the NSLDS Customer Support Center at 1-800-999-8219 to document your access issue.
Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG)—The TDCM Web Portal and the FTI-TDCM Web Portal are operational. Schools can send and receive data using their SAIG mailbox and receive data using their FTI-SAIG Mailbox.
Scheduled system outages and other weekly maintenance outages will occur, as planned.
Schools can continue to submit eligibility actions using FSA Partner Connect. We will address all applications submitted during the closure after the government reopens. Schools that need assistance with system access or application submission should contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978. The caseteams@ed.gov mailbox will not be monitored during the closure.
All schools currently on HCM2 may submit a reimbursement claim during the lapse in appropriations. However, the claim may not be processed until the government reopens.
Compliance audits and financial statements can be submitted through the eZ-Audit website.
Any program reviews scheduled during a lapse in appropriations will be rescheduled.
FFEL Program lenders and guaranty agencies will continue their operations during the lapse in appropriations. FSA will not process the ED Form 799/LaRS or the Form 2000 because of scheduled year-end closing activities. Please direct all questions to either fsa_lr@ed.gov or fsa_gar@ed.gov.
The FSA Training Center website is operational; however, any webinar or training workshop scheduled during the lapse in appropriations will be canceled, including Fundamentals of Federal Student Aid Administration training workshops. Following the reopening of the federal government, we will provide information about rescheduled sessions through Training Announcements posted on the Knowledge Center website.
FSA staff cannot attend national, state, or regional conferences during the lapse in appropriations. We will make every effort to contact the conference chair to inform them of the situation.
For information about the schedule for the 2025 Negotiated Rulemaking; Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) Committee sessions, please monitor the Negotiated Rulemaking for Higher Education 2025 website.
If you need assistance during the lapse in appropriations, please contact the appropriate customer service contact center. Contact information for each FSA customer service and processing center is available in the Help Center on the FSA Partner Connect website. As explained above, most of our contact centers are open. Otherwise, we will be ready to serve you once the federal government reopens.