Financial aid professionals can now plan for the upcoming FAFSA verification season with the latest guidance from the Department of Education.
An October 23 Federal Register Notice announced that the Secretary of Education has published a notice regarding the FAFSA information that an institution and an applicant may be required to verify, as well as the acceptable documentation for verifying FAFSA information for the 2027-28 award year.
The Federal Register Notice (PDF version) includes two charts outlining the following:
- details on the FAFSA Information and the acceptable documentation for each
- the FAFSA items that an applicant must verify based upon the Verification Tracking Group to which the applicant is assigned.
More detailed information on the verification process can be found in the following resources that will be available on the Knowledge Center web page at https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center:
- 2027-2028 Application and Verification Guide
- 2027-2028 FAFSA Specifications Guide: Volume 6 (ISIR Guide) and Volume 7 (Comments Codes) Codes
- 2027-2028 COD Technical Reference
- Program Integrity Information – Questions and Answers on Verification at https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/program-integrity-questions-and-answers-verification
