ED: First Round of Beta Testing for 2025-26 FAFSA Set to Begin for Hundreds of Students
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
The Department of Education (ED) on Monday gave another update on its first round of beta testing for the 2025-26 FAFSA, with the form becoming available to hundreds of students on Tuesday.
This first round of beta testing is part of ED’s rollout of the 2025-26 form, which the department detailed in August and September. Under ED’s planned four rounds of beta testing, community-based organizations (CBOs), high schools, institutions of higher education, states, and other stakeholders volunteered to test the FAFSA system and help students complete a 2025-26 FAFSA prior to the full launch of the form on or by December 1.
According to Education Under Secretary James Kvaal on Monday, Federal Student Aid (FSA) is “on track” and starting Tuesday, October 1, close to 1,000 students will begin beta testing the FAFSA.
On Monday, ED released its full list of CBOs, government entities, high schools, and institutions of higher education volunteering for beta testing rounds 2-4. ED said through this beta testing, the volunteer organizations are recruiting tens of thousands of students to test the FAFSA system “at scale from every region of the United States” including U.S. territories.
FSA noted in an electronic announcement that during beta testing any institution and state agency may start receiving Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) since students participating in the beta testing will be filling out their real FAFSAs. As a part of the application a student can include up to 20 institutions’ school codes.
FSA wrote that it expects some institutions and state agencies will not download these ISIRs for several weeks, and added “there is no need to do anything with these ISIRs right now.” These ISIRs will not be archived from mailboxes, so institutions and agencies can process them on their preferred time.
However, institutions and state agencies are free to download and test these ISIRs once available. FSA reminded institutions and state agencies that the number of ISIRs will grow throughout October and November during the beta testing process.
Institutions and state agencies should expect to encounter system issues with these ISIRs during the beta testing phase. FSA wrote it will “prioritize resolution of issues during each of the beta periods” before the FAFSA is available to all students by December 1. If an institution encounters an issue, they should report it both to their software vendor and the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) Help Desk.
“FSA is grateful to all members of the financial aid community who are willing to work with us during the beta testing period to help ensure a more reliable FAFSA form for the broader community,” FSA wrote in its electronic announcement.
FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer, during a press call on Monday, also announced the launch of FSA’s 2025–26 FAFSA Beta Central website. The website will serve as a resource to report on the progress of all four FAFSA beta testing periods, including statistics on FAFSA completion and error rates, and “detailed” progress reports about technology releases.
Additionally, Singer said that FSA, along with its six CBOs selected for the first round of beta testing, will be holding FAFSA events throughout the week to help students and families complete the 2025-26 FAFSA. The goal of this testing is to identify issues before the application is open to the general audience, he said. ED detailed more of its “seven-layer quality and testing strategy” in a white paper released last week.
NASFAA will continue to urge the department to provide timely and transparent updates on the beta testing process to ensure that stakeholders, including financial aid administrators, are best prepared for the form’s official launch.
“We support end-to-end testing to ensure the product released on December 1 works for students, families, and schools,” said NASFAA Interim President and CEO Beth Maglione. “We’ve also long called for the Department to be proactive and transparent in its communication with institutions throughout the process, so that those working on the ground at college campuses can help address any potential issues as they arise.”
During Monday’s call Singer gave a brief update on testing the corrections functionality for 2024-25 paper FAFSAs. ED is working closely with its contractor and more information will be released by ED in the “next day or so,” Singer said.
Kvaal said during a press call on Monday that along with the start of beta testing, ED will release this week its Federal Student Aid Estimator for the 2025-26 cycle, and a “Parent Wizard” tool to help applicants identify which family members need to complete a FAFSA.
Along with updates on the FAFSA, Kvaal noted that ED was making progress “overhauling” FSA, including bringing on new senior leaders to focus on key initiatives.
“Students and families expect and deserve better support from FSA, and unless FSA has the leadership resources and strong management practices it needs, even the best policy ideas will remain only promises on paper,” Kvaal said.
Publication Date: 10/1/2024
Kevin M | 10/1/2024 8:20:47 AM
Financial Aid Estimator seems to be a good tool
You must be logged in to comment on this page.