The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced that it has received more than 1.5 million 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) submissions from students and has successfully processed and sent 7 million student records to institutions of higher education and states to prepare and package aid offers.
The Department made the 2025–26 FAFSA form widely available on Nov. 21 after nearly two months of rigorous beta testing with 167,000 families and students in partnership with community-based organizations, high schools, institutions of higher education, and others. Since then, the Department has been processing FAFSA forms and delivering them to institutions of higher education within one business day of submission. With hundreds of extra Federal Student Aid Information Center (contact center) agents in place, the wait time for families and students calling for help is under two minutes.
“We are proud to say that the FAFSA form is working, and over 1.5 million students have successfully submitted their 2025–26 forms,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The steps we’ve taken to improve the system have created a smoother, more reliable experience for students and families, and we remain vigilant about addressing any issues that arise so that millions more can complete their forms this cycle. A fully functional, simpler process is just the beginning. Across the country, we now must collectively raise the bar to ensure all students get the financial aid they need to pursue their dreams of higher education.”
The Department continues to make technical updates to the FAFSA form to improve usability. This week, FSA successfully deployed a set of 49 updates that included improved accessibility when using certain web browsers and eliminated the need for both parents, or a student’s spouse, to fill out the form for households that have a “married filing jointly” tax status.
FAFSA Support Strategies
The Department invested in boosting submission rate among high school students in the previous FAFSA cycle, helping more than 840,000 students submit the FAFSA form and access financial aid for college. In order to continue the effort to ensure that every student who wants to can apply for federal financial aid, the Department is announcing the next phase of the FAFSA Student Support Strategy. This year, the Department will make another $50 million of federal funds available to states, school districts, non-profits, and other educational agencies and public and private organizations supporting 2025–26 FAFSA completion.
“Every year, millions of students and families rely on the help of college counselors, financial aid administrators, and other educators to navigate the college admissions and financial aid process,” said Under Secretary James Kvaal. “This year, we want to make sure those helpers get resources so that students can take full advantage of the new FAFSA and get the aid they need to pay for college.”
Additionally, the Department is making another $10 million of federal funds available for the next phase of the FAFSA College Support Strategy. The funds will support lower-resourced institutions of higher education in ensuring that their systems are prepared to process financial aid for the 2025–26 FAFSA form. This strategy will provide support from third-party technical assistance teams to help schools make system upgrades, adopt longer-term operational and technical changes needed for the improved FAFSA form, and train administrators and staff to develop internal policies and operations going forward.
FAFSA Week of Action
This week, the Department is holding a FAFSA Week of Action to rally high school counselors, principals and other school leaders, superintendents, after-school programs, parent groups, non-profit organizations, and other local and state education organizations to raise awareness about the 2025–26 form. The campaign will engage organizations to help students create their StudentAid.gov account and submit their FAFSA form.
Some of the activities planned for the week of action include:
- Guilford County Schools (North Carolina) is partnering with shift_ed and College Foundation of North Carolina to host two virtual FAFSA workshops. The district’s Southern Guilford High School will hold a “create your StudentAid.gov account” event.
- Michigan College Access Network is hosting a FAFSA Night at Alpenas Public Schools and using social media, robocalls, emails, and fliers to help promote it with students and families.
- Stand By Me NexGen (Delaware), a non-profit college access partnership of the United Way of Delaware and the Delaware Department of Education’s Higher Education Office, is hosting 11 in-school FAFSA completion workshops, two virtual presentations, and virtual appointment slots for students and families.
FAFSA Executive Leadership Team
The Department also announced today that it has created new, permanent FAFSA leadership positions to oversee the process and technology moving forward. After working on the FAFSA team at FSA for the last five months, Aaron Lemon-Strauss has been named the FAFSA Program Executive Director, and U.S. Digital Service expert Chris Cummings will serve as the Acting Technology Advisor for the FAFSA form. This transition comes as FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer and Acting Technical Advisor Jeff Olson concluded their six-month assignment at the Department on Dec. 6.
The Department made significant improvements to FSA’s management and operations that were vital to the execution of priorities this year. Creating permanent FAFSA leadership roles builds on the Department’s efforts to modernize FSA, lessons from the new beta testing processes, and the successful release of the 2025–26 FAFSA form.
FAFSA Help for Families
The Department is committed to ensuring students and families get the help they need to successfully submit a FAFSA form, including:
- The Department recently hosted a webinar for students, parents, and higher education professionals about completing and submitting the 2025–26 FAFSA form. The session included, among other highlights, a live demonstration of the form, an overview of the financial aid process, and a guide to creating a StudentAid.gov account. A recording is available at youtube.com/@FSAOutreach.
- The Department has recently released a suite of resources to assist students and families in completing and submitting the FAFSA form during the 2025–26 cycle.
For the contact center, students and families now have access to FAFSA-only hours that include evenings and weekends. The expanded hours extend through March 2, 2025. Students and families can reach agents at the contact center in English or in Spanish. Interpretation services in additional languages can be accessed at StudentAid.gov/interpreter.
U.S. Department of Education
