2025-26 FAFSA Now Available for All Students, Families as Part of Beta

This article was originally published in EducationNC.

Update, Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. — As of Monday, Nov. 18, the 2025-26 FAFSA form is now available to all students and families, as part of the Department’s Expanded Beta 4 testing.

Students and families interested in completing the online 2025–26 FAFSA form can do so at fafsa.gov.

“The Department will make the decision to end the beta testing and announce the official release of the 2025–26 FAFSA form based on platform stability, customer satisfaction, and contact center capacity, no later than Dec. 1,” the Department’s website says.

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced on Thursday, Nov. 14 the launch of the final stage of testing (Beta 4) for the 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) — which is on track to officially launch for all students and families by Dec. 1.

As part of the final beta testing, the DOE will open the FAFSA to all students and families under what they are calling “Expanded Beta 4” before the end of November.

“During that time, the Department will continue to carefully monitor the FAFSA form, overall system performance, and support operations, such as our contact center, and adjust operations as needed,” a DOE release says. “This will allow the Department to test the FAFSA system with higher volumes of users, while giving students an opportunity to submit online 2025–26 FAFSA forms before Dec. 1.”

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Once the DOE determines the “FAFSA system is operating smoothly with high volumes of users” during Expanded Beta 4, the 2025-26 FAFSA form will officially be released.

“Allowing more students to access the FAFSA form is the final state of beta testing as we prepare to officially launch the form no later than Dec. 1,” DOE Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said.

Since testing started on Oct. 1, more than 14,000 students have successfully submitted their 2025-26 FAFSA forms, according to the DOE release. The forms of those students have been processed, and the DOE has sent more than 81,000 records to more than 1,850 schools across 43 states.

“The Department has not found any critical bugs during the beta testing period, and the FAFSA system is working end-to-end,” the release says. “In addition, the Department has focused on addressing issues and improving the user experience in the application. Students and families are benefiting from these enhancements, leading to a satisfaction rating for beta participants of 95%.”

The beta testing for the 2025-26 FAFSA follows the rocky launch of the “Better FAFSA” earlier this year, which saw multiple glitches and delays and caused stress for students and families seeking help paying for college.

While many students experienced delays, students from mixed-status families, or those whose parents don’t have a social security number, were particularly impacted by the glitches. DOE officials previously told members of the press that “many” mixed-status students successfully submitted their applications during Beta 1, which started Oct. 1.

Beta 2 testing started on Oct. 15, and Beta 3 started in early November. The final stage of testing, Beta 4, started on Wednesday, Nov. 13, expanding the testing to thousands of additional students recruited by various community and education organizations.

“We are in a radically different and better place than last cycle,” FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer told reporters during a call on Thursday. “Our systems have been fully tested, and they are ready to go.”

Singer said the Department has successfully tested this year’s application with several different subgroups, including active duty military members, veterans, students with dependent children, students experiencing homelessness, and students from mixed-status families.

On Nov. 15, the DOE is visiting a Texas prison with a community organization to assist incarcerated students with filling out the paper form, Singer said.

“We’ve been determined to make sure that last year’s delays and errors were not repeated again this year,” Kvaal told reporters.

Bennett College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington are participating in Beta 3 and 4 testing stages.

In addition to the expanded beta testing, the Department has also “significantly staffed up” its call center, Singer said, adding more than 700 agents since last January. Once the FAFSA officially launches, the Department also plans to offer extended hours at night and on Saturdays.

“This new phase of expanded Beta 4 gives us an opportunity to comprehensively test the FAFSA application at an even larger scale than we have to date,” Singer said. “We understand that after last year, we are still in the process of rebuilding trust with families, with institutions, and it led us to take these extra precautions.”

You can read more about Beta results and testing on the department’s website.

FAFSA resources

The Department recently released several new resources to assist students and families in completing and submitting the FAFSA form during the 2025–26 cycle:

“Creating Your StudentAid.gov Account” Page: A new resource that explains what families and partners need to know about creating a StudentAid.gov account.
Pro Tips for Completing the FAFSA Form: Updated tips for preparing to fill out and submitting the FAFSA form. This resource will also be linked from the StudentAid.gov Dashboard to promote easier access for students and their required contributor(s).
Federal Student Aid Estimator: Provides an estimate of the 2025–26 Student Aid Index (SAI) and Federal Pell Grant eligibility calculation.
“Who’s the Parent on the FAFSA Form?” Wizard: A new, stand-alone tool to help students and families determine who will need to provide contributor information on the 2025–26 FAFSA form prior to starting the application.
Federal Student Aid YouTube Channel: FAFSA Videos: Updated videos to help students and families understand the importance of the FAFSA form, who is a FAFSA contributor, and what happens after submitting the form.

Here are other resources:

Financial Aid Toolkit: Updated resources for school counselors, college access professionals, and mentors with information about the FAFSA process.
FAFSA Issue Alerts page: A list of known issues with the form updated in real-time as bugs are fixed in beta testing.
FAFSA videos: Updated videos to help students and families understand the importance of the FAFSA, who is a FAFSA contributor, and what happens after submitting the form:
The College Foundation of North Carolina
North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority
Federal Student Aid

This article first appeared on EducationNC and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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