FSA to Start Beta Testing 2027-28 FAFSA in August
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
Federal Student Aid (FSA) on Tuesday provided details on plans to begin beta testing the 2027-28 FAFSA in August, in preparation for its October 1 launch deadline.
FSA has conducted beta testing on the FAFSA for the past two cycles in an effort to catch issues and deploy technical fixes before the form is available to the public.
This cycle’s beta testing will have two phases, with the first phase starting on Wednesday, August 5. During this period, the 2027-28 FAFSA will be beta tested by a limited group of school districts, community-based organizations, and institutions of higher education through in-person and virtual events.
For the second phase FSA will broaden beta testing to the general public. FSA indicated that this period of testing will occur sometime “in late August or early September” after the first phase concludes. FSA clarified that during the second phase of testing, any student or parent will be able to request to participate in beta testing on StudentAid.gov, and FSA will admit groups of users throughout the month. FSA said it will post an update to the electronic announcement when this participation request form opens.
As a reminder, under law October 1 is the official launch date for the FAFSA each year, and the Department of Education (ED) must certify by September 1 that the FAFSA will be ready by October 1.
As a result of FSA’s beta testing, institutions and state agencies may start receiving a small number of Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) in August, since students participating in beta testing are completing real 2027-28 FAFSAs. The number of ISIRs institutions receive will likely grow throughout August and September as beta testing continues.
FSA clarified that institutions do not need to do anything with these ISIRs before the regular award year begins. However, institutions and agencies are able to download these students’ ISIRs into their systems and process the records on their preferred timeline. FSA reminded institutions that it released test ISIRs in July, which can be used for system testing.
For the institutions that do download ISIRs before October 1 and experience any issues, FSA encourages these institutions to report their issues to both their software vendor, if applicable, and to the FPS Help Desk.
Publication Date: 7/23/2026
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