For the next FAFSA cycle, the Education Department revamped its planning processing, bringing in an outsider to lead the ...

For the 2024-2025 FAFSA, however, significant changes were made. Because of this, the renewal option wasn't available. That continues to be the case for the 2025-2026 form – which opened ...

Colleges say that so far, the system is working with relatively few hitches. The University of Illinois Chicago helped the department test the FAFSA over the past month. In that time it received 1,200 ...

If you've already submitted your FAFSA form, the Department of Education says it will process your online application within one to three days (paper form submissions take longer).

Last year, the FAFSA problems led to a 9% decline in submitted applications among first-time applicants, according to GAO, and an overall decline of about 432,000 applications as of the end of August.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s Education Department said it is further ahead processing FAFSA forms than the Biden administration at this same time last year. The agency announced on ...

The FAFSA requires tax information from the prior prior year. That means families will need tax information from 2023 when they’re completing the FAFSA for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The FAFSA website is back online and accepting financial aid applications for the 2025-26 school year. Applicants can start a new application, edit an existing one and complete the submission.