More than a quarter of all high school seniors are estimated to have filled out the FAFSA in preparation for the next academic year, according to the National College Attainment Network.
Through Nov. 21, over a million students from the Class of 2026 have filed for financial aid, a critical tool in boosting student persistence and graduation. It represents a nearly 12% increase in completions over the Class of 2023, which is the last cohort to have received the FAFSA by the traditional Oct. 1 rollout.
“The conditions are here for us to set an all-time high for seniors’ FAFSA completions,” says Bill DeBaun, the National College Attainment Network’s senior director of data and strategic initiatives.
Simplified FAFSA, which experienced a calamitous rollout in its inaugural year, was unavailable to the majority of the Class of 2024 until the end of January. It caused a 10% year-over-year decrease in financial aid completion, according to the National College Attainment Network.
While re-tooled the next year, the form remained unavailable for the Class of 2025 until December to ensure a smooth rollout. Over half of all seniors completed the form by the summer, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels.
Congress has since passed a law mandating the Department of Education open FAFSA by Oct. 1.
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For the first time, this year’s FAFSA opened a week earlier than Oct. 1 and fulfilled the promise of the simplified form. Students are reportedly completing it in about 10 to 15 minutes, according to DeBaun.
Another important aspect of this year’s form is how the system automatically creates FAFSA IDs for new users. This allows students and parents to instantaneously begin working on the form, rather than forcing them to wait days for verification.
“In terms of the user experience and also advocates’ ability to assist students and families, it makes a big difference,” DeBaun says.
States with the highest FAFSA completion rates among high school seniors are Illinois (38.1%), New Jersey (33.2%), Tennessee (32.8%), Massachusetts (32.7%) and Hawai’i (32.4%).
Louisiana, which had the highest completion rate among the Class of 2023 at 71%, is among the lowest in this year’s cycle.
One reason for this is Louisiana’s repeal of Universal FAFSA, a state policy that mandates the form’s completion for high school graduation, DeBaun says.
New Jersey, which adopted Universal FAFSA in January 2024, has the third-highest rate of completion among the Class of 2026 thus far. Other states with policy in place include Alabama, California, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and New York.
The National College Attainment Network’s FAFSA Tracker pulls data from the Federal Student Aid Data Center, which accounts for high school-level data on submissions and completions.
