Next year's FAFSA will be available in December, behind schedule, but hopefully ready for prime time

The application prospective students use to get access to federal financial aid for higher education will be rolled out in phases this year, the Department of Education said Wednesday, to attempt to avoid the messy and confusing experience students had with a revamped version of the form made available this past year.

Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or the FAFSA form, went through constant setbacks as the Department of Education attempted to overhaul and improve it for the first time in 40 years. The upgrade was in response to a bipartisan directive from Congress to streamline the FAFSA -- which grants financial aid packages to incoming college students -- and make it more accessible for students and their families.

The goal was to allow everyone who should apply for financial aid to do so, rather than be daunted by a burdensome form and leave money for their college experience on the table, an all-too-common occurrence.

The revamped FAFSA was pared down to the fewest number of questions possible, officials who worked on the redesign said, and it pulls from information the government already has through the IRS to automatically input family income details. It ranges from 18 questions, which could take about 10 minutes, to around 50 questions for more complicated financial situations, which could take around an hour.

Officials have said that they hope improvements to the form's accessibility, as well as changes to the formulas to allow more students to qualify for financial aid, will ultimately result in 610,000 new Pell grants being awarded to students from low-income households. Pell grants are given to low-income students and do not need to be repaid, unlike a loan.

But the rollout of the form was plagued by constant errors and delays. Attempts to simplify instead lead to confusion and, at times, fewer students applying for aid. Back in March, there was a 40% gap in students who had applied compared to the year prior, though it has since been narrowed down to 4%, the Department of Education said.

On Wednesday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the agency is committed to improving next year's rollout. The Department of Education has held listening sessions and will attempt to post a fully functional application by Dec. 1 for the 2025-2026 year, with availability in small batches to select groups beginning in October.

Compared to past years, Dec. 1 is late. The ideal timeline is Oct. 1, to give schools time to process FAFSA forms and prepare aid packages for students, in turn giving them and their families the chance to make the best financial choice. But advocates say a phased rollout with an eventual Dec. 1 completion date is still better than last year, and comes with a promise that the form that comes out in December is ready for action.

"We listened, we learned and we're taking action," Cardona said on a call with reporters on Wednesday.

Cardona acknowledged that the FAFSA must be "more user-centered" and said the department has spent lots of time meeting with stakeholders over the last 10 months to improve everyone's experience, from students to parents to college counselors and universities.

"Change is hard," Cardona said. "But it's worth doing, and we're going to get it done."

Those who have been watching this process closely over the past year said they're cautiously optimistic that the upcoming school year will be smoother.

"The fact that we are still, to this day, dealing with the aftershocks of this year's FAFSA rollout shows just how imperative it is that the process is thoroughly tested from end to end and launched as a system, not in a piecemeal manner," the interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Beth Maglione said in a statement.

"Ideally, we would have a fully functional, well-tested FAFSA opening on October 1. But given where we are in the process, and the challenges that have plagued this year's rollout, we would rather wait until December 1 to allow time for the necessary testing to ensure a functional system when ED launches the 2025-26 FAFSA," she said.