You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Colleges will get more time to report data related to their programs and students’ outcomes after the Education Department decided Friday to push back the deadline to submit that information from Oct. 1 to Jan. 15.
This is the second time the deadline has moved as colleges have repeatedly sought extensions, saying that delays and issues with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid made it more difficult to comply with the requirements. Last week, a group of 20 senators sent a letter to the Education Department requesting that the agency push the deadline back to July 2025. (The data was initially due July 31 of this year.)
Colleges have to report new program-level information about the total cost of attendance and the amount of private education loans disbursed to students, among other data points, under the department’s new gainful-employment rule aimed at providing prospective students with more information about whether college programs pay off.
The department said in the announcement that the new deadline “will ensure that institutions can prioritize critical activities that might still remain for the 2024–25 FAFSA as well as prepare for the release of the 2025–26 FAFSA.”
The data that colleges turn over will eventually be compiled and published on a public website, which is slated to launch by July 2026. The department is also planning to calculate whether graduates can afford their yearly debt payments and whether they earn more than an adult in their state who didn’t go to college. The department wants to publish the first round of results next year, in time “to help inform students’ college decisions next award year.”
That plan worries the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
“While NASFAA supports students making well-informed enrollment decisions, rushing the process will lead to inaccurate and incomplete information,” NASFAA interim president and CEO Beth Maglione said in a statement. “ED’s top priority should be helping students and institutions navigate the existing FAFSA crisis.”
NASFAA and other associations representing colleges said in statements that they appreciated this latest delay but wanted a later deadline like the senators requested.
“Already strained by the delayed and ongoing implementation of the new FAFSA, institutions need additional time and detailed guidance from the Department to successfully implement these new regulations,” Association of Public and Land-grant Universities president Mark Becker said in a statement.
Think tanks and advocacy groups that support the gainful-employment rule urged the department not to delay the reporting requirements beyond Jan. 15.
“Any further delay would leave students and families waiting far too long for the critical protections and basic information the [financial value transparency/gainful employment] rules will provide,” the Institute for College Access and Success wrote on social media. “We will continue to support a timely and accurate implementation of the rules and data collection.”
