2026-2027 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Section 483 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), mandates that the Secretary of Education “…shall produce, distribute, and process free of charge common financial reporting forms as described in this subsection to be used for application and reapplication to determine the need and eligibility of a student for financial assistance...”. The determination of need and eligibility are for the following Title IV, HEA, federal student financial assistance programs: the Federal Pell Grant Program; the Campus-Based programs (Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) and Federal Work-Study (FWS)); the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program; the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant; and the Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship. Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the U.S. Department of Education (the Department), subsequently developed an application process to collect and process the data necessary to determine a student’s eligibility to receive Title IV, HEA program assistance. The application process involves an applicant’s submission of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®). After submission and processing of the FAFSA form, an applicant receives a FAFSA Submission Summary, which is a summary of the processed data they submitted on the FAFSA form. The applicant reviews the summary, and, if necessary, will make corrections or updates to their submitted FAFSA data. Institutions of higher education listed by the applicant on the FAFSA form also receive a summary of processed data submitted on the FAFSA form, which is called the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR). The specific questions that applicants are asked to answer in the application process are described separately in the Data Elements and Justification document. The document identifies the data elements associated with each FAFSA question and provides the justification for including each question on the FAFSA form. In addition to the calculation of financial need for the various Title IV programs, the FAFSA form also collects data that allows for a determination of an applicant’s eligibility for state and institutional financial aid programs. If these data elements were not collected, the Department and institutions of higher education would be unable to make a determination of financial need and subsequently would be unable to award any Title IV, HEA program assistance, as mandated by the HEA. Many states would also be greatly hindered in their calculation of state aid to applicants. This is a request for revisions of a current information collection, and important changes to the FAFSA form are described separately in the 2026-27 Summary of Enhancements document.

The latest form for 2026-2027 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) expires 2026-06-30 and can be found here.