Department of Education

By Marlene Seeklander As schools are ramping up for the start of the 2024-25 school year, the COD system is doing the same. In an announcement from the Department, the following peak processing reminders were shared: Questions can be directed to the FSA Partner and School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978 or via email at CODSupport@ed.gov.

By Marlene Seeklander There’s one item that you may want to have near the top of your financial aid reading list. An August 23 Electronic Announcement from ED announced the availability of the Appendices of the 2024-25 Federal Student Aid Handbook. The Appendices, which includes general interest information that isn’t appropriate for just one volume of

By Marlene Seeklander This past academic year has been one of change for the Department of Education and, as a result, for financial aid professionals. To help financial aid professionals with the changes, Federal Student Aid (FSA) has made available a video about making corrections in the FAFSA Partner Portal. To access the video: No-cost technical

By Marlene Seeklander The long-awaited processing of 2024-25 paper FAFSAs is now underway but won’t be complete until after the fall semester begins for many institutions. The Department of Education (ED) announced on July 30 that they had started processing paper FAFSA forms and an August 19 update stated that they anticipate to complete this processing

By Marlene Seeklander Accurately completing the FISAP is important and those responsible for it can complete an online, self-paced training course. The Department announced that the 2025-26 FISAP course is now available on the FSA Training Center to assist with completing the FISAP for 2023-24 and Application to Participate for 2025-26. The FISAP, available on the

By Marlene Seeklander Many schools may now need to dedicate staff to performing individual corrections to FAFSA information. In an already frustrating award cycle, the Department of Education announced that it will not offer schools the ability to do batch corrections for 2024-25 and has deferred this functionality until 2025-26. The news was released via a

By Marlene Seeklander The Department of Education is among the federal offices closed for the Labor Day federal holiday on Monday, September 2. The August 19 announcement states that the Federal Student Aid (FSA) processors and contact centers will be closed on September 2. All FSA websites will be operational on the holiday. The following additional

By Marlene Seeklander A flexibility that allowed students and their family members without a Social Security number to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA will be extended to the 2025-26 FAFSA. In a July 30 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education (ED) said it will extend this flexibility to continue temporarily enabling FAFSA applicants and other contributors without

By Marlene Seeklander With the 2024-25 FAFSA work still underway, an important guide for 2025-26 is now available for financial aid professionals. In an August 13 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education said the 2025–26 Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide includes information on methodology for determining eligibility for federal student aid, and