ED Begins Processing FAFSA Batch Corrections
By Hugh T. Ferguson, NASFAA Managing Editor
The Department of Education (ED) has begun processing batch corrections for both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 FAFSA cycles, having completed its beta testing period marking the first time that institutions will be able to utilize the process since the implementation of FAFSA Simplification.
According to the department, batch corrections officially went live on Thursday, February 27, at 12:01 p.m. ET, and any files transmitted prior to that time stamp will be cleared from the queue and not processed.
During the beta testing period, ED successfully processed 16 batch files, which contained corrections for over 200 records from both award years.
The department also outlines a list of implementation scenarios for institutions to reference since submitting corrections via Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) may differ from the submission process under the legacy Central Processing System (CPS).
“General tips for successfully submitting batch corrections may be found under ‘Tips for EDE Corrections” in Volume 3 of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide,” ED’s guidance reads. “Additional guidance for avoiding common edits and rejects, and resolving verifiable and non-verifiable rejects is outlined in the “Data Edits” portion of Volume 5 of the FAFSA Specifications Guide.”
NASFAA held a webinar on February 27 featuring member institutions who participated in the batch corrections beta testing phase, who shared their experiences with submitting batch files and tips for successfully processing batch corrections.
ED has also provided an update on a known issue causing ISIRs with blank Student Aid Indexes (SAIs) and “No Reject” code in which schools do not need to take action to correct these records. Instead, during the week of February 28, the department began temporarily assigning reject code 68 and comment code 329 to impacted records with plans to implement a permanent fix by reprocessing all those records “within a few days” after assigning the reject code.
“Schools will receive new system-generated ISIRs with the FPS Correction Reason code set to “A,” which reflects the FTIM Result Update,” the guidance explains. “These records will no longer have the Reject Code 68 and will have a calculated SAI.”
Publication Date: 2/28/2025
Matthew G | 4/4/2025 9:6:50 AM
Has there been any update on Ed reprocessing the students with Reject 68 and Comment Code 329? I have a student whose FAFSA still has not yet been reprocessed, and that correction was made about 5 weeks ago.
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