By MorraLee Keller, Senior Director, Strategic Programming
Reading time: Two minutes
The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) announced this week the six sites selected for the first
round of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) beta testing. The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is excited that all the organizations are/were NCAN members! These organizations include: Alabama Possible (AL),Bridge2Life(FL), College AIM (GA), Education is Freedom (TX), theScholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara (CA), and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria (VA). We look forward to learning from the testing and these organizations assisting FSA with ironing
out any bugs before the full launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA.
FSA also released information about the Beta Testing for rounds two through four. The purpose of the additional testing is to conduct it on a much larger scale than the first round. Groups such as community-based organizations (CBOs), school districts,
state agencies, and higher education institutions are eligible to participate in these rounds.
According to the Electronic Announcement, participating organizations are ideally
expected to:
Recruit students to submit the FAFSA form. These may be new college applicants (for CBOs, high schools, states, and institutions) or returning students (for states and institutions).
Support students in the process of identifying contributors and obtaining FSA IDs for themselves and their contributors.
Ensure that students and contributors submit the FAFSA form within the first four days of the Beta period launch.
Collect feedback and provide it to the US Department of Education (ED).
CBOs and high schools are expected to:
Recruit at least 100 students to submit the FAFSA form. This expectation may be relaxed for certain CBOs or schools, as discussed below.
Hold in-person FAFSA completion sessions for students.
Postsecondary institutions are expected to:
Recruit at least 200 returning students to submit the FAFSA form. This expectation may be relaxed for certain institutions, as discussed below.
Download ISIRs into their financial aid systems and test those ISIRs according to criteria determined by ED, such as verifying the calculations of SAIs and Pell eligibility amounts; checking consistency between comment codes and data fields; and determining
whether aid can be packaged correctly.
Provide feedback to ED on the accuracy of ISIR processing as early as possible, ideally within seven days of the beta period launch.
To participate, organizations must complete an interest form no later than September 20 at 3:00PM ET. ED expects to notify those selected for round two on September 24 and future round shortly thereafter.
NCAN encourages our members who believe they can meet the requirements to submit an interest form and help lead the way towards a much smoother user experience for next year’s FAFSA.
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