The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was among the 2,000-plus higher ed institutions that served as the initial beta testers for the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
UNC-Chapel Hill received just over 2,800 FAFSA submissions during the beta testing period, Rachelle Feldman, the university’s vice provost of enrollment, said Thursday.
The Education Department officially debuted the form Thursday after tens of thousands of students participated in several rounds of beta testing.
“After months of hard work and lots of feedback from students, schools, and other stakeholders, we can say with confidence that FAFSA is working and will serve as the gateway to college access and affordability to millions of students,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
However, this year will mark the second year in a row that the Education Department delayed the rollout of the FAFSA past Oct. 1 — the date it has been released to students and prospective students since 2017.
The department’s release of the revamped FAFSA form during the last aid cycle was mired in technical glitches and delays. The chaos created challenges for college administrators, who often worked overtime trying to process the forms and resolve corrections on an abbreviated timeframe.
But, despite the latest delay — and some outstanding technical glitches — financial aid experts believe this year’s rollout will be much smoother. They recommend several strategies for colleges to help their financial aid staff avoid burnout and process forms if issues do occur again this year. That includes improving communication with prospective students and their families, reviewing and reporting technical issues, and providing more support for financial aid teams.
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators is among the groups anticipating an easier rollout this cycle, thanks to the beta testing period. Sarah Austin, a NASFAA policy analyst, said before the official launch that she expected the beta testing period to allow the Education Department to work out “most of the kinks.”
This year, the Education Department has also been more transparent about the testing period, issues impacting the form, and the delayed rollout — chronicling all the updates and trouble areas on its website, Austin said. Last year, financial aid administrators didn’t learn about delays until “it was too late to proactively plan for them,” Austin said.
“We do know that this delay is happening well in advance so they really can plan for how to make their timeline work this year,” Austin said.
Issues could still arise
Despite the expected smoother rollout, outstanding technical issues will still likely challenge financial aid offices.
For instance, batch corrections — in which financial aid administrators make bulk adjustments to FAFSA records — aren’t included in the form’s rollout. That means Feldman’s office at UNC needs to go through a more tedious process to correct FAFSA forms individually, something “that’s taking a lot longer, and it’s double the work,” she said.
The Education Department said Thursday that it expects to make batch corrections available in the “coming months.”
During the beta testing period, Feldman saw some submission issues arise.
For instance, students have hit snags if they have parents who lack a Social Security number, or if they write their full name in one spot on the form and their nickname in another.
The Federal Student Aid office has resolved some issues during the testing period.
For instance, Institutional Student Information Records, which contain FAFSA applicant information, were sent to the wrong financial aid office at a higher ed institution in one instance “due to a confusing student experience.” FSA resolved that issue through an Oct. 27 software release.
A Nov. 7 update also noted that roughly 560 students whose contributors lacked a Social Security number submitted their FAFSA forms.
But the persistent issues have slowed down Feldman’s team, taking time away from other important functions like providing individual student counseling, she said before the form launched.
“I think there’s a road to go with the FAFSA simplification delivery that’s going to be longer than one year,” Feldman said. “It’s going to take us a few cycles to really get it.”
The Education Department also noted Thursday that it’s hired hundreds of additional workers for its contact centers to meet student demand. Still, the agency noted that callers may experience “longer than usual wait times” during periods of high demand.
Not all smooth sailing
Skepticism among higher ed leaders about this year’s rollout is “pretty universal,” said Jeff Spear, founder of CFO Colleague, a contractor specializing in financial processes at higher ed institutions.
But it is particularly prevalent at smaller institutions that rely on FAFSA applicant data to devise the right financial aid strategy for their students — who are often low income and need a lot of assistance in figuring out if they can afford higher education, Spear said.
Spear said he and “most people do not believe it’s going to be the disaster it was this past year.” But the cycle could include some added challenges.
The Education Department, for instance, suspended some of their normal regulatory activities during the last cycle to help colleges grappling with the glitches and delayed rollout. That included reducing FAFSA applicant verification requirements and temporarily suspending certain reviews of institutions’ compliance with various federal standards.
Spear believes the return of those regulations could challenge financial aid administrators as they try to verify applicants who may be missing certain data.
College administrators may also lack confidence in the Education Department.
“If anything goes wrong, I think people will respond somewhat negatively right away. … Here we go again,” Spear said. “If it means that they wind up having to reprocess applications because of errors, that’s going to add to the angst of the financial aid offices.”
Strategies for a smoother rollout
Financial aid offices can implement several strategies to navigate potential issues that arise during this year’s rollout, experts say.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s financial aid office has been “really working on our communication with students and families so they understand that it’s not just their case or, we’re not trying to ignore them,” Feldman said.
That communication with prospective students is critical, according to Spear. Last year, institutions that communicated with their prospective students did better than colleges that simply told their applicants they didn’t know what was happening with the FAFSA process, he said.
“You need to be sending out detailed information that promotes the institution, that talks about the value of the place, and encourages that student to visit again and to remain engaged,” Spear said.
If financial aid administrators do run into issues once they start receiving the forms, they should report the problems to software vendors and the Education Department so they can be investigated and resolved as quickly as possible, Austin said.
Staffing challenges
The constantly changing timelines and technical issues that arose during last year’s financial aid cycle were “emotionally draining and frustrating” for the UNC-Chapel Hill’s financial aid staff, Feldman said.
“It hasn’t really stopped yet,” Feldman added. “We’re going into the next cycle without all of the problems from the last cycle being resolved yet.”
The financial administration profession struggled with high turnover even before last cycle’s rollout. Then administrators worked long hours throughout much of the past year trying to address the barrage of errors, potentially leading to burnout.
To avoid burnout, Feldman’s office does its best to take care of the entire financial aid administration team.
UNC officials hired additional financial aid counselors and are trying to give their staff “grace” — buying the office pizza or holding shorter customer service hours so employees can complete needed paperwork, Feldman said.
Spear recommended that financial aid office administrators meet with their staff daily so they can gauge their feelings and identify the issues they’re facing. And they should consider paying their financial employees more, he said.
If technical issues repeat this year with the delayed rollout, institutions may also want to hire help for their financial aid offices, Spear said. That could include temporary administrative assistance for mandatory work that does not require technical expertise, such as data entry, he said.
One silver lining from last cycle’s challenging rollout is more colleges are realizing how critical their financial aid offices and staff — as well as financial aid in general — are to the entire institution, Austin said.
“I know there has been burnout and I know it has been a hard year,” Austin said. “But they are some of the most hardworking and dedicated staff and I know they are going to continue to get things done for those students and families.”
