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 the end of August.
The Department has received approximately 34,000 unduplicated paper applications, of which 25,000 are complete and will be processed. This makes up 3% of all FAFSA submissions for 2024-25. Students can track the status of their paper form via track its status online.
Paper corrections, which previously were to be available in the “first half of August,” have now been delayed until the “end of September” according to ED.
The Department is encouraging applicants and contributors, as well as financial aid administrators, to make corrections to processed paper FAFSAs online.
ED also announced certain extensions and flexibility to allow institutions to disburse aid. These include:
- extending the 2024-25 deadline for reporting Direct Loan, Pell Grant, and TEACH Grant program disbursements to the COD System to November 30 or 15 calendar days after the disbursement is made, whichever is later.
- situations where a student completed a paper FAFSA, enrolled only for the summer term at an institution where summer is treated as a “header” to the 2024-25 award year, and completed their enrollment before their paper FAFSA was processed.
Schools with questions about the Electronic Announcement should use the Contact Customer Support form link in Federal Student Aid’s Help Center. When submitting a question, enter name, email address, institution, topic, and question. Select “2024-25 FAFSA” as the topic.
