Tom Lietz, Associate Director for Training and Development
We all remember the promise and then disappointment with the FAFSA roll-out in 2023. Every school had a story of delays, overcomplicated processes despite promises of simplification and frustration abounded. The Federal Student Aid office in the US Department of Education took note and has made another round of significant iterations to ensure last year’s debacle was not repeated. And so far, knock on wood, it has been significantly better!
Yes, the FAFSA is out and accessible to seniors. Yes, the FAFSA should be filled out by all seniors as it is the gateway to potential financial aid and support as well as myriad scholarships both private and public. Yes, it is need based but also first-come first served. If you apply late many opportunities will be gone so, the early bird gets the worm fits here!
Last year’s challenges left a sour taste for many parents, but despite that FAFSA remains the gate-keeper for most federal, state, and institutional aid. This year promises to be a new and better experience!
In last week’s MDE Weekly Communication, the revised (revised) FAFSA process was unveiled at length, two months after it went live as a beta testing period on October 1. That soft open demonstrated that the new revisions had successfully taken effect and simplified the process while correcting errors that plagued the 24-25 FAFSA rollout. As of December 1, the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form available to all students and families. FAFSA has updated its “Aidan” virtual assistant for the 2025-26 rollout and has increased human staffing support at the Federal Student Aid Information Center significantly and added evening and Saturday hours during the first few months to support families in real time. The MDE shared the following resources that all Principals (and counseling staff) should likely be familiar with and share with families as appropriate:
- 2025-26 FAFSA Roadmap – highlights key dates for the FAFSA form launch, as well as timelines for the release of resources to assist partners.
- 2025-26 FAFSA Preview Presentation – provides financial aid administrators, advisors, and counselors with reference tools for staff trainings and financial aid nights.
- 2025-26 FAFSA Prototype – provides the financial aid community an advance opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the FAFSA user experience ahead of its broad release.
- Federal Student Aid Estimator – supplies an estimate of the 2025-26 Student Aid Index (SAI) and federal Pell Grant eligibility calculation;
- “Who’s the Parent on the FAFSA Form?” Wizard – a new, stand-alone tool to help students and families determine who will need to provide contributor information on the 2025-26 FAFSA form before starting the application.
- “Creating Your StudentAid.gov Account” Page – a resource that explains everything families and partners need to know about creating a StudentAid.gov account.
- Pro Tips for Completing the FAFSA Form – updated information for preparing to complete and submit the FAFSA form.
- Federal Student Aid YouTube Channel: FAFSA Videos – videos to help students and families understand the importance of the FAFSA form, who is a FAFSA contributor, and what happens after submitting the form.
- Additional resources and training to support the effective administration of Title IV programs may be found on the FAFSA Simplification Information page.
- The latest information and outreach tools for counselors, college access professionals, and other advisors may be found in the Financial Aid Toolkit.
- And, information and updates regarding FAFSA Beta testing may be found on the Beta Central site.
According to CNBC the beta testing period saw a 95% satisfaction rate from submitting participants with over 14,000 students submitting since October 1. This is critical for principals as chief communicators and narrators in our schools. Last year’s challenges left a sour taste for many parents, but despite that FAFSA remains the gate-keeper for most federal, state, and institutional aid. FAFSA is also the gateway to the Michigan Achievement Scholarship which can be uses for community college, public or private universities as well as career training! This year promises to be a new and better experience! While the deadline for submitting the 2025-26 FAFSA is June of 2026, most schools and states have far earlier deadlines, so get while the getting is good! And, this time it appears to be just that, good!