After Botched Rollout, FAFSA Is Delayed for a Second Year

The Education Department announced on Wednesday that availability of the federal student aid application form would be delayed for a second year in a row, after months of last-ditch troubleshooting and contingency planning failed to fully fix significant problems with last year’s revised application.

Instead, the form, known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, will go live for “testing with a limited set of students and institutions” in October to iron out issues before launching fully on Dec. 1 for the 2025-26 academic year. The form is traditionally available on Oct. 1.

The FAFSA form has been the source of continuing dread for officials, students and college administrators since the department introduced a shortened and redesigned version last year that was intended to streamline the application process.

Far from becoming easier, however, the process has been plagued by a steady stream of bugs and data entry issues that locked students out, returned inaccurate aid calculations and severely tied up the enrollment process that plays out in the spring, when colleges typically notify accepted students how much they can expect to pay.

The delay announced on Wednesday mirrored the problematic launch last year, when initial delays in October foreshadowed much deeper problems that affected the form for months after it became fully available.

As recently as last month, the department was still running into problems with 2024-25 applications.