2025-2026 FAFSA Changes

The Standalone Parent Wizard will serve as a tool outside the online 2025–26 FAFSA form that will guide dependent students through a series of dynamically displayed questions to help them identify their FAFSA parent contributor(s) before completing the FAFSA form.  

The following roles can start an online FAFSA form:  

• Student (Applicant)  
• Parent (for a dependent student)  
• Preparer  

For an online FAFSA form to be considered complete, the student and identified contributors must complete their respective sections. Once the FAFSA form is complete, any role or contributor can submit the form. 

The 2025–26 online FAFSA form has integrated with the following features on StudentAid.gov:

Dashboard 

• Users will see all the FAFSA forms that they have started or contributed to within their My Activity card.
• Users will see the status of their FAFSA forms. Application statuses include
  • Draft
  • In Progress
  • In Review
  • Action Required
  • Processed
  • Closed 

Status Center  

• Users who have been invited into a FAFSA form will see the invitation on Status Center and will be able to accept or decline their invitation.
• Users can view the status of their FAFSA form and re-enter their form via their Details page.
• Students can view their invited contributor(s) and selected colleges from their Details page.
• Students can view their FAFSA Submission Summary through entry points via their Details page.   

• The student can receive the following FAFSA notifications:  
  • Student invited (Alert)
  • Contributor invited (Informational) 
  • Contributor signature provided (Informational) 
  • FAFSA processed successfully (Informational) 
  • Action Required – Make a Correction (Alert)
  • Contributors can receive the following FAFSA notification:  
    Contributor invited (Alert) 
    

Account Settings  

• Within the FAFSA form, users can link to Account Settings to update their personal information.