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The U.S. Education Department will open up the 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid for testing Tuesday evening and is on track for open the form to all students by Dec. 1, officials said Monday.
The first of four testing phases known as Beta 1 will include six community-based organizations and “close to 1,000 students,” Education Department officials said Monday on a call with reporters. The testing phase is a change from last year’s bungled launch of the application and aimed at identifying any bugs or issues with the form before it’s rolled out to more students.
The department and its partners are planning to host FAFSA completion events throughout the week.
Beta 1 will last for the first half of October and then the Education Department will open up the application to more students over the following six weeks. For the next three rounds of testing, the department said Monday that it picked 20 nonprofits, 10 high schools or school districts, and 48 institutions of higher education. Ultimately, the department wants to reach tens of thousands of students during the testing phases. More information is available at fafsa.gov/beta.
