Education Department announces rollout of financial aid forms will be delayed until December

The Education Department on Wednesday announced that the rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms for the 2025-2026 school year will be delayed again until December.

The roll out of the forms, which are normally released Oct. 1, was delayed this past school year due to difficulties with revamped system. The new forms will be available to a limited group on Oct. 1 of this year for a trial period where they can fix any problems that pop up, and the rest will be available on Dec. 1.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the department listened to feedback from students, parents, and higher education officials and made the necessary changes to the forms and the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office.

"[The department] is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” Cardona said in a statement. “Thanks to the partnership of our stakeholders, we’ve developed a better implementation process for 2025-26. I look forward to continuing to work with our partners to ensure this school year’s FAFSA implementation better serves our nation’s students."

The new rollout date is slightly earlier than last year, when most students could not access the forms until January. Even when they did, there were many issues that impacted their decision on what college they could afford to go to. There was a 40% gap in submissions between the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 cycle as of March, according to The Hill.

The delay, however, is still a problem to lawmakers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The committee's ranking member Bill Cassidy said the delay was "unacceptable."

“For the second year in a row, the Biden-Harris administration is going to miss the traditional date to make the FAFSA form available to students,” Cassidy said. “We saw last year that colleges cannot create financial aid packages without timely FAFSA information. Many students may forgo college when they cannot choose a school because they do not know their eligibility for student aid.”

Cardona said that the department will be sending more information out on how the testing period this October will work in the "coming weeks." It is not clear how many students and families will be used in the trial period.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.