Financial aid applications are open: What you need to know after last year’s mess

(NEW YORK) — The college financial aid application used by millions of American families is now officially open for the 2025-2026 school year — 10 days ahead of schedule.

Top officials from the Department of Education said on a call with reporters Thursday they’re “confident” in this year’s FAFSA form after the botched rollout of a new form last year led to delays and glitches for students seeking financial aid.

What do I need to know about applying for financial aid?

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form is the main gateway for students and their families to qualify for financial aid through the federal government. It helps determine access to aid packages from colleges and universities, Pell grants and other loans.

The FAFSA form is now available here.

The first step is for students and their parents to create an FSA ID, which can take several days to be approved. The application itself should then take about 15 minutes to complete, Department of Education officials estimated to ABC News. Though last year officials were overly optimistic about the timeline to fill out the form.

Most of the information required on the application are basic questions like your name, address and schools you are interested in attending, officials said.

The FAFSA must be completed every year students are enrolled in school.

Why was last year’s FAFSA rollout such a disaster?

In 2023, the Department of Education overhauled the form for the first time in 40 years. It was part of a mandate from Congress to streamline the application, making it simpler and faster to fill out.

Changes to the FAFSA formula also allowed more students to qualify for Pell grants — awards from the federal government that do not need to be repaid.

But the rollout was plagued by constant errors and delays, ultimately resulting in fewer students applying for financial aid.

About 430,000 fewer students — mainly from low and middle-income families — took advantage of the FAFSA last year because of the Department of Education’s failures, according to a September report by the Government Accountability Office.

The report also found that nearly three out of every four calls to the Department of Education’s call center went unanswered during the first five months of the rollout due to understaffing.

Responding to the new FAFSA rollout Thursday, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, one of the Biden Education Department’s loudest critics, said she was glad the form was out, but “the Education Department now needs to ensure that the processing of applications is accurate, that missing capabilities are implemented quickly, and that future applicants never have to deal with this sort of botched rollout.”

How will the financial aid process be better this year?

This year’s form already went through four rounds of “beta testing,” with about 167,000 students submitting their applications.

“Simply put: the 2025-2026 FAFSA form is ready for prime time and is available both online and on paper,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters Thursday.

The Department of Education said it has boosted staffing at its call centers by nearly 80% compared to last year. It added more than 700 agents since January — with an additional 255 agents coming on board over the next few weeks as applications ramp up.

Starting Friday, it will also expand the opening hours for call centers for families seeking help with their FAFSA forms — from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET on weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. ET on Saturdays.

Officials said they expect to see a “surge of users today” after the announcement that the form is live, which could result in delayed wait times.