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Source: The College Investor
- Delayed start despite warnings: The Department of Education knew as early as August 2022 that the FAFSA form would not be ready by its October 2023 release, but waited seven months before announcing the delay.
- Inadequate customer support: Of the 5.4 million calls received by the department's call center, 75% went unanswered, contributing to confusion and frustration among students and families.
- Untested processing systems: Key processing components of the FAFSA form were not completed at the time of publication, resulting in widespread calculation errors in student aid calculations.
In two scathing reports, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has exposed serious missteps made by the Department of Education last year in implementing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) program.
The reports released today (you can find them here and here) describe in detail how systematic failures in the Department's planning, communication, and testing led to a disastrous rollout of the new FAFSA form, leaving millions of students and families struggling to receive critical financial aid. One report focuses on the technical rollout of the simplified FAFSA form, and the other on the financial aid aspect of the FAFSA rollout.
The findings also raise concerns about the upcoming FAFSA cycle for the 2025-2026 academic year. GAO officials warn that similar problems could arise without significant reforms. GAO officials will testify today before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education to discuss the recommendations outlined in their report.
Missed warnings and delayed actions
The GAO report describes a pattern of warning signs that were ignored by the Department of Education and the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the agency charged with administering the FAFSA.
According to the report, FSA officials had already adjusted their timelines for the 2024-2025 FAFSA cycle in August 2022, pushing back contractor deadlines from October to December 2023. But it wasn't until March 2023 that they publicly acknowledged the delay, a move that disrupted college planning timelines for students across the country.
Despite these warning signs, the FSA introduced the new FAFSA form in December 2023 without adequately addressing significant system deficiencies. The consequence for families was that even after the form was introduced on December 28, many families were not able to submit it until March 2024.
The GAO revealed that 18 of 25 key system requirements, including the ability to make final eligibility determinations and communicate results to schools, had not been met before launch. These processing delays resulted in longer wait times and created significant barriers for students and families seeking financial aid.
Customer service issues
The GAO report also highlighted how difficult it was for families to receive assistance.
During the first five months of the application period, the Ministry of Education's call centre received over five million calls – four million of which went unanswered (that is, 74% of all calls).
With fewer call center agents available than in previous years and 200,000 fewer calls answered compared to the previous FAFSA cycle, the system began to struggle with the large volume of requests.
The GAO report highlights this lack of customer service as a critical issue, stating that many families were not given guidance on how to resolve technical issues. The FAFSA website often required students to “try again later” when errors occurred, causing confusion and further delaying the completion of their applications.
One of the most serious communication problems was the failure to inform over 500,000 students that their expected grant amounts had changed due to the correction of calculation errors.
Technical problems
The Department of Education's failure to properly test the new FAFSA processing system compounded the difficulties. Several technical errors persisted long after the form was rolled out, leaving many families relying on incorrect financial aid estimates when making important college decisions. These “unresolved deficiencies” were identified by the GAO as the most damaging aspects of the failed rollout, undermining public confidence in the FAFSA system and federal financial aid.
A critical defect was only discovered after the launch: the system overestimated the eligibility of some students because it did not take family assets into account. This error forced many students to adjust their study plans at the last minute.
The report also points to serious leadership deficiencies in the Department of Education, particularly in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The office, which is responsible for overseeing IT projects such as FAFSA, had six different CIOs since the FAFSA revision began in 2021According to GAO, this lack of consistent leadership hindered effective oversight and contributed to the project's mismanagement.
Recommendations for the future
The GAO has made six recommendations to the Department of Education on technology to avoid repeating this year's mistakes. It has also made seven recommendations to the Department of Education to improve the current FAFSA process based on this year's problems. These recommendations include:
- Identify and Contact students who did not submit a FAFSA application this cycle (2024-25) due to delays and technical problems, and to provide them with the information they need to apply in the next cycle (2025-26).
- The Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid should review the FAFSA application process to Identify ways to reduce the burden on students and families By addressing the remaining technical issues and streamlining the process for contributing parents or spouses, the overall time to complete the FAFSA form will be reduced.
- The Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid should Revised the filing process for students whose contributing parents or spouses do not have a social security number to cope with additional
Application barriers. - The Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid should Improving translation services by providing a clear path to support for languages other than English and Spanish through the call center menu
and progress in making the FAFSA application available in languages other than English and Spanish. - The Office for State Student Financial Aid should Plan and ensure the recruitment of sufficient staff to increase capacity in the Federal Student Aid Information Center call center to meet call demand and improve customer service.
- The Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid should Comprehensive plan to provide FAFSA applicants with timely updates on the status of their application and solutions for technical
barriers. - The Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid should Develop guidelines for communicating key FAFSA 2025-26 milestones and future cycles to universities and interest groups in a timely and reliable manner
Behavior.
If these systemic problems are not addressed, the report warns, similar delays and technical challenges are likely to occur in the 2025-2026 FAFSA cycle.
Richard Cordray, the FSA's former chief operating officer, resigned in April amid backlash over the problematic rollout. The department has since announced it will issue the next FAFSA form in December 2024, pushing the timeline back to allow for more testing and improvements. But as students and colleges prepare for the next application cycle, the GAO report raises doubts about whether enough has been done to prevent another chaotic year for financial aid applicants.
The Department of Education is expected to respond to the GAO's recommendations in the coming weeks as Congress tightens scrutiny. Because millions of students rely on the FAFSA program to afford college, it is important that the Department of Education resolve these issues quickly.
Don’t miss these other stories:
2025-2026 FAFSA Form: What you need to know 2025-26 FAFSA Form will be fully implemented on December 1. 2025-2026 Student Aid Index Chart (EFC/SAI Chart)
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