Institutions will want to take note of a recent update to one of the FAFSA questions.
The Department of Education announced an update made to the FAFSA to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.
The update to Question 11 now only includes the response options of “Male” and “Female.” While a response to this question is required in order to complete and submit the FAFSA, responses do not impact financial aid eligibility and are not shared with institutions, states, or any other partners.
No action is required of a student who has already submitted a 2024-25 or 2025-26 FAFSA prior to February 14 and does not require other corrections. Paper FAFSA forms with the outdated question that are submitted after February 14 will still be processed, regardless of the response selected and will not require a correction.
However, students who need to make any type of correction to their 2024-25 or 2025-26 form and previously answered “Non-binary” or “Prefer not to answer” will be required to update the question to “Male” or “Female” in order to resubmit their FAFSA.
Institutions making corrections to a student’s FAFSA will not be required to update the question, regardless of the student’s previous response. No changes will be made to the 2024-25 and 2025-26 Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) layout.
When the 2026-27 FAFSA is available by October 1, 2025, all students will be required to respond to the updated Question 11.
Students and families with questions may contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-433-3243. Institutions can contact the FPS Help Desk at 1-800-330-5947 or support@fps.ed.gov.
