Close up of federal financial aid application. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Department of Education using a staggered approach in opening up the 2025-26 application period for federal financial student aid, the agency said Tuesday it will partner with a small number of community-based organizations to participate in the first testing period beginning Oct. 1.

Earlier in August, the department said it would use a phased rollout to launch the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — more commonly known as FAFSA — in an attempt to address any issues before the form is available to everyone.

The form will be open to hundreds of students and contributors during the first beta testing period this fall, increasing to tens of thousands by the final testing stage and available to everyone by Dec. 1.

Community-based organizations interested in participating in the initial testing can fill out an interest form from Tuesday until Sept. 5.

The department said it will select two to six of those groups and notify them by Sept. 9.

“In our prep, just to give some confidence, we’ve hit every milestone so far on time,” Jeremy Singer, FAFSA executive adviser, said on a call with reporters regarding the framework for the 2025-26 FAFSA testing period. “That bodes well for us being able to meet the beta testing period and a solid path to actually open it up to real users on October 1.”

Singer, who leads FAFSA strategy within the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, said “each (community-based organization) will recruit students to participate in the beta, and then they’ll host FAFSA night in very early October.”

He said these organizations will also identify a partner college that will receive Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) and that the goal is to “test the system end-to-end.”

Singer said that in later beta tests, the department will also partner with high schools and higher education institutions.

In March, the department said it received roughly 40% fewer FAFSA applications than the same time period in 2023, but as of Tuesday, the gap is now under 3%.

The 2024-25 FAFSA form witnessed its share of hiccups, both when the form soft launched last December and officially debuted this past January. The 2024-25 form got a makeover after the FAFSA Simplification Act passed in December 2020.

The department has worked to fix a series of glitches and errors, including concerns from advocates over the form’s failure to adjust for inflation, its formula miscalculation and its?tax data errors.