Wondering what's planned for the upcoming FAFSA® season? Or when that important document will be ready so you can use it with your students? You've come to the right place.
FAFSA® News and Enhancements
Changes on the 2021–22 FAFSA® Form
Availability of FAFSA® Materials and Websites
2021–22 FAFSA® Materials and Websites
2020–21 FAFSA® Materials and Websites
FAFSA® News and Enhancements
In the following sections of this page, you'll find the latest scoop on enhancements to the current FAFSA forms or plans for next year's FAFSA form.
Note: We'd like to request that you encourage students and parents to create FSA IDs as soon as possible, especially if they think the Social Security Administration might have incorrect information for them in its files. Send students and parents to StudentAid.gov/fsa-id/create-account to create an FSA ID. Meanwhile, we've developed several resources to help you get the word out about the FSA ID.
Changes on the 2021–22 FAFSA® Form
The 2021–22 FAFSA changes include the following:
- The income threshold for an automatic zero Expected Family Contribution (EFC) increased from $26,000 to $27,000 for the 2021–22 award year.
- When students and parents use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT), the IRS DRT will now transfer information about whether they filed a Schedule 1. The answer will be based on all current exceptions for filing a Schedule 1. The transferred data for the Schedule 1 fields will be masked.
- For students and parents who don't use the IRS DRT, the Schedule 1 help topics will be updated to include all current exceptions for filing a Schedule 1. "Capital Gains" has been removed as an exception and "Virtual Currency" has been added as an exception.
- Many FAFSA help topics referencing financial forms now feature images of those forms with relevant line numbers highlighted.
Tell your students: the first F in "FAFSA" stands for "free!" There are websites at which students can get help filing the FAFSA® form for a fee. These sites are not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education (ED). We urge you to advise your students not to pay these sites for assistance that is provided for free at ED's website.
Availability of FAFSA® Materials and Websites
FAFSA documents and websites become available throughout the late summer and early fall. Keep up with anticipated availability here.
2021–22 FAFSA® Materials and Websites
| FAFSA® Document or Website | Availability Estimate |
|---|---|
| fafsa.gov | Oct. 1, 2020 |
| PDF FAFSA form (English) | Available now |
| PDF FAFSA form (Spanish) | Available now |
| FAFSA on the Web Worksheet PDF (English) | Available now |
| FAFSA on the Web Worksheet PDF (Spanish) | Available now |
| Student Aid Report sample (English and Spanish) | October 2020 |
| SAR Acknowledgement sample (English and Spanish) | October 2020 |
| FAFSA demo site updated for 2021–22 | Sept. 30, 2020 |
| fafsa.gov screenshots (aka "fafsa.gov Preview Presentation") | Available now |
| myStudentAid App's FAFSA Preview Presentation (screenshots) | November 2020 |
| EFC Formula Guide | Available now |
| FAFSA summary of changes (Summary of Changes for the Application Processing System) | Available now |
| Federal School Code List (English and Spanish) | Updated quarterly (2/1, 5/1, 8/1, 11/1) |