Education Dept. may miss Oct. 1 deadline for redesigned FAFSA form

The Education Department may miss the Oct. 1 deadline for launching its redesigned Free Application for Federal Student Aid, raising the ire of advocates who say a delay could be detrimental to students from lower-income households.

Speaking at a National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators conference Tuesday, a senior department official said the agency is working hard to carry out a bipartisan law simplifying and easing requirements for the FAFSA form but could not commit to the form’s traditional launch date.

“We are, as I said, deep in the thick of it,” Melanie Storey, director of policy implementation and oversight at Federal Student Aid, told conference attendees Tuesday. “But right now ... we’re not committing to a launch date this fall. We are moving toward it as aggressively as we can. But I can assure you that we will launch in the fourth quarter of 2023.”