FSA’s Plan for Soliciting and Incorporating Stakeholders’ Feedback in the 2025-2026 FAFSA Process

FSA’s launch of the 2024–2025 FAFSA was plagued by multiple system implementation issues that prevented students and families from successfully applying for financial aid within critical timeframes. As a result, FSA developed actions to improve the 2025–2026 FAFSA process and increase transparency and communication. The objective of our review was to describe FSA’s plans to solicit, analyze, and incorporate feedback from students, families, institutions of higher education, and other stakeholders for the completion, submission, and processing of the 2025–2026 FAFSA. We found that although FSA did not have a formal plan with specific details about how it would solicit, analyze, and incorporate the feedback it received regarding the completion, submission, and processing of the 2025–2026 FAFSA, FSA and the Department established multiple channels of communication for receiving feedback. On November 14, 2024, FSA announced that since the start of beta testing on October 1, 2024, more than 14,000 students successfully submitted their 2025–2026 FAFSAs and that the Department had successfully processed their applications, sending over 81,000 records to more than 1,850 schools and 43 States.