Department Provides National Default Rate Briefing Package
Overview
Early this morning the U.S. Department of Education (Department) posted on the Knowledge Center Electronic Announcement (LOANS 25-09) National Default Rate Briefing for FY 2022 Official Cohort Default Rates (fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2025-09-24/national-default-rate-briefing-fy-2022-official-cohort-default-rates) .
The relevant portions of the EA are two paragraphs which state:
“As expected, FY 2022 CDRs were significantly impacted by the pause on federal student loan payments that began March 13, 2020. During the pause, borrowers with student loans held by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) were not required to make any payments, and no borrowers with ED-held loans entered default.
Some schools have a small number of student loan borrowers entering repayment. At other schools, only a small portion of the student body takes out student loans. In such cases, the CDR should be interpreted with caution.”
The National Default Rate Briefing package, which is a substantial file and takes both time and persistence to load, provides a great deal of data and information comparing the rates over a two-year period and more.
The briefing, in PDF format, can be found here (edit.fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2025-09/2YearCDRComparisonwithPercentChange.pdf) .
What’s Next
Join us on this afternoon’s CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar to discuss more about the anticipated precipitous increase in CDRs as the looming issues student loan debt repayment impacts these rates in the future, a review of the discussion drafts for next week’s 2025 Federal Negotiated Rulemaking focused upon the student loan revisions enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill law, and how the strained negotiations on Capitol Hill over legislation to prevent a government shutdown continue to make it a very dynamic time for all of us!
