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4.30.25 | |

Top Six April 2025 Announcements for Higher Education Institutions

Please check out our recent article on Quick, Easy Wins to Help Your Institution Prevent Title IV Compliance Findings and share it with your Financial Aid office. Since this is the first year that higher education institutions’ annual compliance audits* will include testing on data acquired with the new Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, we have provided simple procedures to help your institution identify errors before your annual audit and avoid compliance issues.

 

Here is a summary of the top six April 2025 U.S. Department of Education (ED) announcements that apply to higher education institutions. We’ve also provided information on a new webinar, updated guides, and a link to Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP) resources.

Upcoming Title IV Requirements
  1. U.S. Department of Education to Begin Federal Student Loan Collections, Other Actions to Help Borrowers Get Back into Repayment – ED announced that its Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will resume collections of its defaulted federal student loan portfolio on May 5, 2025. ED has not collected on defaulted loans since March 2020. This article from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) provides additional information.
  2. Intent To Receive Public Feedback for the Development of Proposed Regulations and Establish Negotiated Rulemaking Committee – ED has said it intends to host public hearings and establish negotiated rulemaking committees to prepare proposed regulations on various programs authorized under Title IV. ED invites public feedback on Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Pay As You Earn, Income-Contingent Repayment, and other topics related to current federal student financial assistance programs. Comments are due May 5, 2025.
  3. FSA Electronic Announcement CB-25-07, 2025–26 Final Funding Authorizations for the Campus-Based Programs (Updated April 10, 2025) – FSA announced that the final 2025–26 Campus-Based programs funding worksheets and the 2025–26 Statement of Account for each of the Campus-Based programs have been posted to the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website.
  4. FSA Electronic Announcement GRANTS-25-02, 2024–25, Verification Reporting and Verification Status Code “W” Warning Message – For each 2024–25 Federal Pell Grant award disbursed to a student selected for verification, institutions must report the student’s verification status to ED via the COD System. Institutions must include a verification status code (“W,” “V,” or “S”) in the Common Record document they submit to the COD System via batch processing or when they create the award online using the COD website. This FSA announcement discusses the reporting requirements and the verification status codes.

 

FAFSA Simplification Announcements
  1. FSA Electronic Announcement GENERAL-24-26, Keeping You Informed – Updates to the 2024-25 FAFSA Simplification Information Area on Knowledge Center (Updated April 10, 2025) – This announcement provides links to the updated Technical FAQ and Known Issues Guide, which has information specific to production Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs).
  2. FSA Electronic Announcement APP-25-11, 2024–25 and 2025–26 FAFSA Updates – FSA has provided updates related to the 2024–25 and 2025–26 FAFSA forms, including the ISIR request functionality. On March 30, 2025, ED restored the ability for institutions to request a single ISIR or a specified group of ISIRs from the FAFSA Processing System. This particularly benefits institutions that have incarcerated students.

 

Webinars, Updated Guides, and FISAP Form, Instructions, and Desk Reference
  1. FSA Electronic Announcement ANN-25-02, Live Internet Webinar – Submitting Corrections in the FAFSA Partner Portal – This webinar on May 9, 2025, will provide guidance and reminders about submitting corrections in the FAFSA Partner Portal. More information is available in the FSA Training Center.
  2. FSA Electronic Announcement GENERAL-25-17, Volume 3, Volume 7 Now Available [2025-26 Federal Student Aid Handbook] – FSA announced that Volume 3 and Volume 7 of the 2025–26 Federal Student Aid Handbook are now available.
  3. FSA Electronic Announcement CB-25-08, Final 2026–27 FISAP Form, Instructions, Desk Reference, and Technical Reference – The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the 2024–25 Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate for 2026–27 (FISAP) and the FISAP Form, Instructions, and Desk Reference are available in the Knowledge Center. FSA has indicated that the online FISAP will be made available on the COD website by August 1, 2025.

Please contact us if you have questions or would like to discuss how these announcements apply to your institution.

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