Should I Still Fill Out the FAFSA if the Department of Education Is Shut Down?

The Trump administration slashed employees on the Department of Education this week and a whole lot of customers reported that the studentaid.gov website was down for hours. It might all go away you questioning when you ought to nonetheless submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 

The FAFSA is designed to assist college students shoulder the price of school by figuring out their household’s eligibility for monetary help, together with Pell Grants, scholarships, work-study packages and pupil loans. Most specialists agree there’s little or no motive to not fill out the FAFSA, even with the Department of Education in flux. 

“If the Department of Education is shuttered, there definitely is a chance there might be adjustments to the FAFSA. What these adjustments is perhaps, nonetheless, is basically anyone’s guess and never a motive to chorus from filling out the shape,” mentioned Kevin Ladd, COO and co-creator of Scholarships.com.

Here’s what you have to know when you’re filling out the FAFSA.

What’s totally different about FAFSA this yr?

The 2025-26 FAFSA turned out there to all candidates in late November because the Department of Education labored by means of points based mostly on early testing and suggestions.

The kind is just like the 2024-25 FAFSA, which drastically lower the variety of questions and utilized a brand new method to find out a household’s contributions. Delays and glitches brought on widespread chaos through the 2024-25 rollout.

Although the 2025-26 rollout was smoother, the transition to a brand new administration has created questions concerning the FAFSA amid President Trump’s name to abolish the Department of Education. If the division’s duties are reassigned and one other authorities company takes over FAFSA processing, specialists say any adjustments to this yr’s utility course of seemingly can be minor. 

“There is perhaps adjustments to issues like the place to search out the FAFSA on-line,” mentioned Elaine Rubin, director of company communications for Edvisors. “If it’s shifted, we’ll have loads of time to find out how it should be managed and processed.” 

How does FAFSA assist me get federal pupil help?

Based on the solutions you present to questions on the FAFSA, the monetary help workplace calculates your Student Aid Index. The SAI elements within the incomes and belongings of the scholar and their “contributors” — mother and father or partner — to find out the anticipated household contribution towards school prices, which might vary from -1,500 as much as 99,999. 

A decrease quantity means there is a increased chance you will obtain need-based monetary help. Schools use the SAI to calculate the quantity of economic help they give you.

Should I fill out the FAFSA?

Unless you’re ready to pay for school with none help, it is in your finest curiosity to fill out the FAFSA, no matter your monetary standing. The federal pupil help website notes that a number of elements, together with the scale of your loved ones and your yr at school, are thought-about along with your loved ones’s earnings.

“Not submitting simply screams, ‘I will pay full worth,'” mentioned Danilo Umali, founding father of Game Theory College Planners. 

Even when you consider your loved ones’s earnings is simply too excessive to qualify for need-based help, filling out the shape should still be price your time. “Some colleges require FAFSA to qualify for advantage help by means of their faculty,” Rubin mentioned. 

Concerns about disclosing citizenship

While a pupil have to be a US citizen or eligible non-citizen to finish the FAFSA, your mother and father or partner might not be. Although the studentaid.gov website says your contributor’s citizenship or immigration standing will not have an effect on your eligibility, there may be concern that data submitted on the FAFSA is perhaps shared with different authorities companies. 

Nancy Goodman, founding father of the nonprofit group College Money Matters, mentioned this can be a legitimate concern for school college students with undocumented mother and father. “Under the earlier administration, sharing data between authorities departments was not allowed except specified and accredited,” she mentioned. “Under this administration, it continues to be unclear the place data sharing is feasible and with whom.” 

If your loved ones has considerations about citizenship and needs to forgo the FAFSA, contemplate contacting schools the place you are making use of to search out different choices to safe help. Some could supply various purposes or different financing choices. Also contemplate personal, merit-based scholarships, which can not require details about your mother and father or partner.

“Citizenship and authorized everlasting residency is a really sophisticated matter,” Rubin mentioned. “It’s going to be a really private resolution on proceed.”

What you have to fill out the FAFSA

 Before you’ll be able to fill out the FAFSA, you and your contributors should every create your personal FSA ID. You’ll want the next:

• Your authorized title 
• Date of beginning
• An e-mail handle
• Social Security quantity — contributors who don’t have a Social Security quantity will want to have the ability to reply questions on themselves to confirm their id

If you will have a cell phone quantity, you can too add it to your account for two-step verification.

Note that verifying your Social Security quantity to your FSA ID could take one to 3 days. If you propose to submit your FAFSA utility by a selected deadline, ensure that everybody will get their FSA IDs at the least a number of days earlier than.

How to fill out the FAFSA

Preparation is vital when filling out the FAFSA. You’ll need to collect related monetary and authorized paperwork earlier than you begin. This will prevent time through the utility course of.

There are 5 sections within the 2025-26 FAFSA kind: 

• Student 
• Student’s partner 
• Parent 
• Parent’s partner or companion 
• Preparer (if somebody aside from the scholar, pupil’s partner, father or mother, or father or mother’s partner or companion accomplished this way on the applicant’s behalf)

The Federal Student Aid workplace recommends that college students log in to studentaid.gov to fill out their portion of the FAFSA first, then invite your contributors. You can pause the appliance at any time and return to finish it.

You’ll every want the next data to finish your sections of the shape: 

• Personal data: title, contact data, Social Security quantity and beginning date 
• Bank statements (for checking and financial savings account balances) 
• Investment information 
• Income statements, together with W-2s 
• Tax returns 
• Records of any little one assist acquired

You’ll even be requested which colleges you need your FAFSA data shared with so hold your school record helpful. You should record at the least one school however you’ll be able to add extra schools later. 

If you and/or your contributors filed a US tax return, you might be eligible to switch your tax data straight from the IRS into your on-line FAFSA utility. Select “Proceed to the IRS” to make use of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. 

Double-check your work all through. All of your data for the scholar and contributors should match their StudentAid.gov account precisely. Don’t use nicknames or suffixes (similar to Jr.). Most of the data you will want to supply about earnings, investments, tax credit and account balances will come out of your tax returns or financial institution statements. 

How to submit the FAFSA

You and your contributors should every signal and submit your portion of the shape whenever you’re completed. You can monitor the standing of a FAFSA utility together with your studentaid.gov account (utilizing your FSA ID) underneath the My Activity web page. You’ll even be notified when contributors signal and full sections.

After efficiently submitting the FAFSA, you will obtain a affirmation web page that features your estimated Pell Grant eligibility and estimated SAI. The colleges you listed on the FAFSA will use the SAI to find out your monetary help bundle and ship you a proposal after you have been accepted.

When is FAFSA due?

The opening date for the upcoming FAFSA and the deadline for the earlier faculty yr’s FAFSA overlap, which might make preserving monitor of all of the dates tough.

In normal, the FAFSA utility interval opens on Oct. 1 earlier than the next faculty yr. So for highschool college students, you’ll be able to submit FAFSA to your freshman yr of faculty on Oct. 1 of your senior yr. However, the 2024-25 and 2025-26 openings had been delayed due to glitches with the brand new kind.

The federal deadline for FAFSA purposes is June 30 at 11:59 p.m. Central time for that tutorial yr. Here’s a chart for FAFSA deadlines to assist:

Many states and colleges have their very own deadlines for accepting the FAFSA, typically sooner than the federal deadline. You can discover your state’s deadline on the federal pupil mortgage website. Check your school’s admissions website for his or her deadline.

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