Photo of Trump Administration Shares Update on FAFSA

Department of Education Seeks Comments In Advance of 2026-2027 FAFSA Release Announces Ongoing Efforts to Fix Prior Year FAFSA Problems and Revisions to the Current FAFSA Form

Overview
Late last night the U.S. Department of Education announced the publication of a series of FAFSA actions including resolution of problems with the 2024-2025 form, revisions to the 2025-2026 form, and requests for comments within the next sixty (60) days on what changes the community would recommend prior to the mandated October 1, 2025, launch of next year’s data collection form.

The entire email with all the details is provided below.

“Dear colleagues,

Today, the U.S. Department of Education published the information collection (t1.info.ed.gov/r/?id=h222434b,1ba92c5,1babf8a) for the 2026-27 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form in the Federal Register, the first public step in the FAFSA development process. The Department is on track to launch the 2026-27 FAFSA form by Oct. 1, 2025 as mandated by the FAFSA Deadline Act (t1.info.ed.gov/r/?id=h222434b,1ba92c5,1babf8b). You can read more in our press release (www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-improvements-fafsar-form) or electronic announcement (fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2025-02-04/notice-draft-2026-27-federal-student-aid-application-materials).

The Department also announced that current and future FAFSA forms will rightfully reflect the biological reality that there are only two sexes: male and female. Department officials will remove “nonbinary” as a gender identification option from the current year’s FAFSA form.

The public has 60 days to suggest improvements to the 2026–27 FAFSA form via the Federal Register. Following the 60-day period, the Department will review the suggested improvements and publish a revised draft for an additional round of public comments. This process puts the Department on track to meet the new statutory deadline and give parents and students enough time to prepare to complete and submit the form.  

Resolving Problems with the 2024–25 FAFSA Form
The Department is currently beta testing the ability of colleges and universities to make batch corrections to FAFSA forms, allowing colleges and universities to more efficiently update information on the form after it has been completed and submitted by the student and family. Batch corrections will reduce the university staff time spent on FAFSA edits. The Department plans to release full batch correction capability by the end of February, which is on schedule to the previously announced plan.

The Department also expects to complete the substantial backlog of features left incomplete by the Biden-Harris Administration in the coming months. This includes providing post-screening data from the National Student Loan Database System, notifying schools about changes in student eligibility, and other important changes.

Commonsense Revisions to the 2025–26 FAFSA Form
Consistent with Executive Order 14168, the Department is modifying the current question about “gender” on the 2025–26 form to collect data about applicants’ sex.

Proposed Reforms to the 2026–27 FAFSA Form
The Department is proposing a redesign to the FAFSA contributor invite process, which is the source of the largest drop-off of students who decide not to complete the FAFSA form. The redesign will increase completion and satisfaction and ultimately reduce the volume of support calls.

Ensuring a timely and smooth FAFSA process is a top priority for the Trump Administration. The FAFSA technical team has been hard at work to improve the FAFSA form for all students and their families.”

What’s Next
In addition to this announcement CSPEN has learned that the Department appears to be moving forward with resolution of a number of backlogs within agency. The new Trump Administration is not only working to ensure that the FAFSA process is back on track, but is also looking at responding to a number of different areas where determinations from the Department have been stalled (e.g. PPA determinations, audit and program review findings and decisions, program approvals etc.).