We are pleased to announce that the initial volumes of the 2027–28 FAFSA Specifications Guide are now available. The guide is designed to meet the reference needs of financial aid administrators, programmers, data processing staff, and other Federal Student Aid partners who want to incorporate electronic Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) functionality into their institutional systems and communicate electronically with the FAFSA Processing System (FPS). It includes FAFSA-related processing information and guidance in a multi-volume resource.
For the 2027–28 processing cycle, this initial posting of the FAFSA Specifications Guide includes the Microsoft Excel version of the 2027–28 Institutional Student Information Record layout, the Introduction section, and Volumes 4A, 4B, and 8. We will publish additional volumes in July and August 2026. Refer to the “Planned Releases” schedule in the Introduction for publication timeframes.
Note: We will post revised versions of volumes throughout the processing cycle to implement new requirements or address issues in earlier published drafts. To assist in tracking these changes, we include a “Change History Table” in each volume to outline changes made to the volume over time, after its initial publication. Continue to monitor the Knowledge Center for updates throughout the 2027–28 cycle.
If you have questions, contact the FPS Help Desk at 1-800-330-5947 or support@fps.ed.gov. The FPS Help Desk provides customer service for the FPS, the Student Aid Internet Gateway, and the EDExpress for Windows software.