2025-26 FAFSA Roadmap

The changes to the 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form build upon the significant improvements made in recent application cycles. New features for the 2025-26 cycle include a standalone “Who Counts as a Parent on the FAFSA form?” wizard, and improved question text and instructions on both the online and paper forms.

To help ensure that students and families—and the partners critical to getting student aid dollars into the hands of students—are best prepared for a successful 2025–26 FAFSA cycle, we have launched the FAFSA Roadmap.

Partners (Institutions, State Partners, Counselors and Advocates)

Resource

Delivery Date

2025-26 Provisional Final FAFSA Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) Layout

This near-final ISIR record layout will allow software developers to support institutions and states in determining eligibility for student aid.

August 2024

2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide

This multi-volume technical reference provides financial aid administrators and software vendors critical technical details for upcoming changes and software systems updates. Near-final draft versions of the Specifications Guide will be published in August, followed by the publication of final versions in the following months.

  • Volumes 1–2 cover the summary of changes and implementation schedule of the FAFSA processing system.

  • Volumes 3–7 cover technical changes to the ISIR layouts including reject, comment, and processing codes.

  • Volumes 8–9 cover technical changes to agency matches, testing data, and the web demo system.

August 2024 – December 2024

Policy Guidance for the 2025-26 Award Year

Official guidance documents will help ensure institutions are legally compliant in their implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act and the FUTURE Act. The guidance will cover topics including Federal Pell Grant award amounts, use of federal tax information, verification requirements, and FAFSA reporting requirements.

Fall 2024 through Summer 2025

Financial Aid Administrator Training

These webinars will provide detailed training about changes for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle. Trainings will be held live and available on-demand on the FSA Training Website.

Fall 2024 – Winter 2025

Outreach Resources

Updated outreach resources and information for college counselor and advocacy groups—including the Counselor Handbook, fact sheets, and presentation templates—will be available. All materials will be available for download on the Financial Aid Toolkit website.

Fall 2024 – Winter 2025

2025-26 FAFSA Prototype

A web-based tool that allows users to navigate specific scenarios that many applicants will encounter within the live 2025-26 FAFSA form. The financial aid community may use this tool to prepare staff and college access professionals for the upcoming application cycle.

Note: The prototype is not a complete replica of the 2025-26 FAFSA form and has limited functionality.

September 2024

Sample ISIR Datasets for Testing

Sample student records will be available for software developers to test their eligibility calculations.

September 2024

Final ISIR Layout 

A final student record layout will be available for institutions and software providers to finalize their financial aid management systems.

September 2024

Federal Student Aid Training Conference

Training conference topics will include a Federal Update, FAFSA Updates, Federal Tax Information and FAFSA Data Use Under the FUTURE And FAFSA Simplification Act, Translating the New ISIR, Assisting Non-SSN Contributors With Completing the FAFSA Form, Verification and Conflicting Information, and FAFSA Simplification and Electronic Application (E-App) for Foreign Schools.

December 3 - December 6, 2024

Standalone Parent Wizard Tool

This online tool will be available, outside of the FAFSA form, for students and families to determine “Who Counts as a Parent on the 2025-26 FAFSA Form?”

October 1, 2024

Federal Student Aid Estimator

The estimator tool will be updated with the 2025-26 need analysis calculation. The online tool will be available on StudentAid.gov for students and families to get an early estimate of their Student Aid Index and potential federal student aid eligibility.

October 1, 2024

FAFSA Beta Period Begins

The 2025-26 FAFSA form will be released to a limited group of users during a testing period for the purpose of identifying and resolving errors prior to making the form broadly available by December.

October 1, 2024

2025-26 FAFSA Preview Presentation Available

The purpose of the 2025–26 FAFSA preview presentation is to provide financial aid administrators, mentors, and counselors with information and screenshots of the 2025-26 online form for use in staff trainings and financial aid nights.

November 1, 2024

2025–26 FAFSA Form Available

The form will be broadly available to all students on or before December 1. Both online and paper versions of the form will be available, including the FAFSA form for incarcerated students.

Once the 2025-26 FAFSA form is generally available, functionality will include application submission, ISIR processing, and corrections (student-initiated corrections via StudentAid.gov and institution-initiated corrections via FAFSA Partner Portal).

Additional functions and features will be rolled out later.

December 1, 2024

Students and Families

Resource

Delivery Date

2025-26 FAFSA Outreach Campaign

A communications campaign—delivered via FSA websites, emails, training webinars, and social media platforms—directed to students and families will highlight what they should do to prepare for and complete the 2025-26 FAFSA form.

August 2024 – September 2025

Webinar: Financial Aid Bootcamp

This webinar will help participants learn about federal financial aid eligibility and how to complete the 2025-26 FAFSA form.

October 2024

Standalone Parent Wizard Tool

This online tool will be available, outside of the FAFSA form, for students and families to determine “Who Counts as a Parent on the 2025-26 FAFSA Form?”

October 1, 2024

Federal Student Aid Estimator

The estimator tool will be updated with the 2025-26 need analysis calculation. The online tool will be available on StudentAid.gov for students and families to get an early estimate of their Student Aid Index and potential federal student aid eligibility.

October 1, 2024

FAFSA Information Updates on StudentAid.gov

Updates to FAFSA information and help resources will be posted to StudentAid.gov to reflect information specific to the 2025-26 application cycle. A new article for Creating Your StudentAid.gov Account is included with these resource updates.

Fall 2024 through Winter 2025

FSA YouTube Channel Updates

FSA will develop and update videos to engage students and families. Topics will include “Preparing for the FAFSA Form” and “FAFSA FAQs”.

September through October 2024

2025–26 FAFSA Form Available

The form will be broadly available to all students on or before December 1. Both online and paper versions of the form will be available, including the FAFSA form for incarcerated students.

Once the 2025-26 FAFSA form is generally available, functionality will include application submission, ISIR processing, and corrections (student-initiated corrections via StudentAid.gov and institution-initiated corrections via FAFSA Partner Portal).

Additional functions and features will be rolled out later.

By December 1, 2024

Published: 10/28/2024