U.S. Department of Education Announces Additional Participants in 2025–26 FAFSA Beta Testing and New Resources to Support Students, Families, and Institutions

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) today announced the next cohort of organizations selected to participate in the testing period for the 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®). The first stage of testing, Beta 1, will begin tomorrow, Oct. 1. Over the next few days, a small group of students recruited by six community-based organizations (CBOs) will begin submitting FAFSA forms, and the Department will begin processing Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and sending them to institutions of higher education and state agencies.

As announced previously, the Department will work with members of the college access and financial aid community—CBOs, high schools, institutions of higher education, state financial aid agencies, and software vendors—to test the 2025-26 FAFSA form prior to making it available to all students and contributors on or before Dec. 1. The beta testing period allows the Department to maximize a positive user experience by identifying and resolving system errors that could impact students, contributors, and institutions.

“We are grateful for the efforts of all our partners in this beta testing – CBOs, high schools, colleges and others – who are working so hard to ensure that the first group of participating students can begin submitting their forms October 1,” said FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer.

Beta 1 will continue through the first half of October. The next stages of testing are: Beta 2, beginning in mid-October; Beta 3, beginning in early November; and Beta 4, beginning in mid-November. In each stage, CBOs, government entities, high schools, and institutions of higher education will recruit a growing number of students to fill out the FAFSA form. Beta 2 will include thousands of students, and later beta stages are expected to include tens of thousands of students. Institutions of higher education will also download ISIRs into their financial aid systems and help test them to ensure that FAFSA processing is working properly.

For Betas 2–4, the Department selected 20 CBOs and governmental entities that support students in submitting the FAFSA form, 10 high schools or school districts, and 48 institutions of higher education based on the goals of beta testing. This selection ensures a wide variety of high schools, institutions of higher education, and states are represented, including students from specific populations that encountered issues with the 2024-25 FAFSA form. Additionally, organizations participating in Betas 2-4 are recruiting tens of thousands of students to test the system at scale from every region of the United States, including the territories.

The CBOs selected include organizations that work with students from low-income backgrounds, first-generation college students, mixed-status families, and students experiencing homelessness or incarceration, among others. Betas 2–4 will include individual public, public charter, private preparatory, and private religious high schools. In addition, the Department will work with large school districts that include several different types of schools and significant populations of students in the foster care system, students with disabilities, and students from mixed-status families.

The Department selected institutions of higher education that include:

• Schools that use financial aid systems developed by the leading software vendors, to ensure that those systems can be tested during the beta period.
• Schools in the U.S. territories, including schools with students from the Freely Associated States, and a school in an unassociated foreign country.
• Multiple Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions.
• Four- and two-year public institutions and private, nonprofit universities (both religious and unaffiliated).
• Institutions that currently serve a large number of people in specific populations that are relevant for testing purposes. These populations include students experiencing homelessness, veterans and military family members, students in mixed-status families, eligible non-citizens, students from the foster system, students with contributors with foreign addresses, and students with disabilities.

The Department will reach out to state agencies that provide financial aid or track FAFSA completions in the states where beta testing participants are located. Those agencies can participate in beta testing by downloading ISIRs.

The Department is committed to sharing information about FAFSA beta broadly with all stakeholders. Visit fafsa.gov/beta for regular updates. New Resources and Tools to Support Students, Families and the Financial Aid Community.

This week, the Department is also releasing important resources to support the financial aid community and students and families in preparing for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle, including:

• A revised Federal Student Aid Estimator, which provides an estimate of the 2025-26 Student Aid Index (SAI) and federal Pell Grant eligibility calculation.
• Updated resources to support creating a StudentAid.Gov account including a new stand-alone ‘parent wizard’ or contributor tool to help students and families determine who will need to provide contributor information on the 2025-26 FAFSA prior to starting the form.
• An updated 2025–26 FAFSA prototype, which provides the financial aid community an advance opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the FAFSA user experience ahead of its release.

The Department’s Continued Efforts to Improve the FAFSA Experience 

After the first major overhaul of the FAFSA system in more than four decades, as of early September, approximately 500,000 more students are eligible for Federal Pell Grants than were eligible at the same point in 2023, which represents a 6% increase. On Sept. 23, the Department shared an update about its review of the 2024–25 FAFSA implementation and its progress in meeting the recommendations received from students, families, institutions, and partners.

The update outlined ten actions the Department has taken to improve the FAFSA experience for students, families, and institutions since launching the 2024–25 FAFSA form in December 2023. This update is a part of the Department’s efforts to modernize its office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) to ensure students, borrowers, and families have a better experience with FSA and drive the office to achieve better outcomes for the millions of Americans it serves.

“With the help of college counselors and advisors across the country, we continue to help more students complete the FAFSA and access financial aid,” said U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal. “We won’t rest until we reach all students who need help completing college without excessive student debt.”

As described in Secretary Cardona’s letter in May, FSA efforts include revamping the leadership team, positioning FSA to attract and onboard highly skilled information technology staff, including a new chief technology officer and project management talent, enhancing vendor oversight and accountability, and engaging closely with stakeholders to solicit productive feedback.

2025-26 FAFSA Beta 2-4 Participants: