New Data Show Progress Toward FSA ID Creation for 2025-26
Friday, November 8, 2024
By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Two minutes
New data released by the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) estimates that the high school class of 2025 has already set up about 30% of the FSA ID total for the class of 2024 to-date. Helping students (and their FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student
Aid, contributors) to be “FSA ID Ready” (the author’s phrase, not FSA’s) is a good way to build momentum as we move toward a December 1 opening for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle. The data shows that, through November 4, more than 763,000 users born between September 1, 2006 and August 31, 2007 (approximately high school senior-aged
individuals) have created an FSA ID. This is relative to the approximately 2.65 million users from last year’s class who have created an FSA ID so far in the 2024-25 FAFSA cycle. Using the US Census’s estimates of the 17-year-old population in 2023, about 17% of the senior class has set up an FSA ID through November 4.
Last month we highlighted a new state-level toolkit for FSA ID creation, now we have a sense of what progress
is being made, and where, at the state and county levels. Many states have already started FAFSA and broader financial aid outreach, including messaging and assistance about how to create FSA IDs.
The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is displaying these data in an interactive dashboard available here and embedded below. We will update it on a weekly basis to show progress in FSA ID creation. Please note this data and dashboard are separate from NCAN’s FAFSA Tracker and are wholly unrelated to FAFSA completions.
Among states and territories, Guam (48%), the US Virgin Islands (47%), Hawaii (40%), California (39%), and Connecticut (38%) round out those furthest along toward matching or exceeding their FSA ID creation number from last year. Texas, Kentucky, and
Tennessee are the states with the largest number of counties at or above 50% FSA ID creation.
The more FSA IDs can be created now the lighter the lift when the cycle opens. Practitioners and policymakers across the country are working together to help the FAFSA rebound, and activities like FSA ID creation are one way to do so. To assist with these efforts, NCAN recently released our 2025-26 FAFSA Resources page.
Have questions or strategies for driving FSA ID creation? We’d love to hear them! Please reach out to me, Bill DeBaun, at debaunb@ncan.org.
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