Education Dept. details FAFSA strategy for the 2025-26 application year [Video]

“While we wish we could have an earlier FAFSA open date, we support end-to-end testing to ensure the product released on December 1 works for students, families, and schools,” said Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Although “testing and improving usability can help,” higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said he is skeptical that the department will be able to address all of the challenges within this time frame.

“Two months is not a lot of time to implement changes,” Kantrowitz said. 

“A key concern is that they seem to be acting as though there will not be any problems and that this beta testing is mainly an opportunity to build confidence in a perfect system,” he added.

“Even without last year’s FAFSA fiasco, Murphy’s Law suggests …