AFT and ED Lawsuit Paused While ED Commits to Publish IDR and PSLF Reports
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
After the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) sued the Department of Education (ED) for blocking borrowers' progress toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) by removing the online application for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, the two parties on Friday agreed on a plan to pause the lawsuit from further litigation.
Earlier in March, AFT filed a lawsuit against ED, alleging that, for nearly a month, ED blocked access to IDR plans by taking the online application down. According to the AFT, this action harmed borrowers' ability to receive PSLF since they must be enrolled in an IDR plan and make 120 qualifying monthly payments to receive the loan forgiveness. The lawsuit also alleged that over 1 million borrowers remained in a backlog waiting for their IDR application to be processed.
ED initially disabled the online applications for IDR plans and loan consolidation in February due to an injunction, which continues to block the implementation of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan. However, in late March, in response to the lawsuit, ED returned the online applications for IDR plans and loan consolidation, with the exception of the SAVE plan.
In April, as part of this lawsuit, ED published a memorandum in opposition to AFT’s lawsuit, providing more details on its plans for IDR in anticipation of an imminent court order stemming from the ongoing SAVE plan litigation. In this memorandum, ED announced that federal loan servicers are expected to resume processing new applications for ICR, PAYE, and IBR, including placing current SAVE borrowers into these plans if they applied to be moved, by May 10, 2025.
In Friday’s most recent filing, ED and AFT agreed to pause the lawsuit from further litigation while ED creates a series of status reports to provide public information about the status of IDR applications and PSLF buyback applications.
Specifically, ED will publish reports every month, for the next three to six months, that include:
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information about the number of IDR applications that were pending at the end of the preceding month;
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the number of IDR applications that were approved or denied during the preceding month;
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the number of PSLF Buyback applications that were pending at the end of the preceding month; and
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the number of PSLF buyback applications that were decided during the preceding month.
The first report is due May 15 and will cover the above metrics for the month of April. In this first report, ED will also provide a list of forbearance types that are eligible for PSLF Buyback.
Publication Date: 4/28/2025
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