FAFSA 2027-28 Opens October 1: A Parent's Prep Guide

The FAFSA 2027-28 opens to all families on October 1, 2026, and this cycle brings the two biggest changes for parents in years: you can finally reuse your information across multiple children, and new federal caps limit how much you can borrow through Parent PLUS. If you have a high school senior or a college student refiling, the smartest work happens in September, before the rush.

Last reviewed 2026-08-30 by Olivier. Editorial policy.

When Does the FAFSA 2027-28 Open?

The 2027-28 FAFSA is scheduled to launch by October 1, 2026, according to the U.S. Department of Education. A public beta is already running, and any student or parent can request early access at StudentAid.gov/joinbeta.

This form covers aid for Fall 2027, Spring 2028, and Summer 2028. That means the class of 2027 (this year's high school seniors) plus every current college student who wants federal aid next year.

Should You Join the Beta?

The Department tested the form with a small group of schools and community organizations starting August 5, then opened a second beta phase on August 25 that any family can ask to join. New groups of users are admitted throughout September.

What's New on the 2027-28 FAFSA for Parents

Two changes announced by the Department of Education matter most for families, and both remove busywork rather than add it.

What's New	What It Means for Your Family
Parent info reuse across children	Enter your information once and reuse it on each child's application instead of retyping it for every child
Pre-populated data for returning filers	Students who filed before see their data carried over, so renewals take minutes instead of an evening
2025 tax information	The income picture for this form is already locked in, so you can gather documents now

The multi-child change is the big one. In the Department's words, "parents with multiple children applying for Federal student aid will be able to reuse their information across all applications instead of being required to reenter it for every child." If you have a senior and a college sophomore, this is the first cycle where you only do the parent section once.

On tax years: the FAFSA looks back two years, a rule schools call "prior-prior year" (University of Cincinnati explains the formula). For 2027-28, that means your 2025 tax return. Nothing you earn or save this fall changes this form's numbers.

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New Parent PLUS Caps Change the Math

This is the first FAFSA cycle fully under the new borrowing rules. For Parent PLUS Loans first taken out on or after July 1, 2026, NASFAA's guide for parent borrowers lays out the limits: $20,000 per dependent student per year, and $65,000 per dependent student in total.

The new aggregate limit of $65,000 means that borrowing the annual maximum for a four-year undergraduate program will cause parents to reach the aggregate limit before the student completes their degree.

— NASFAA, Federal Parent PLUS Loan Changes (2026)

The same NASFAA guide notes that new Parent PLUS Loans can only be repaid under a single tiered standard plan with fixed payments over 10 to 25 years, with no income-driven repayment and no Public Service Loan Forgiveness for those new loans.

Here is why that matters for the FAFSA: with borrowing capped, grant aid and scholarships have to carry more of the load, and the FAFSA is the key that unlocks nearly all of it. We covered the borrowing rules in depth in our Parent PLUS caps guide and the grant side in our Pell Grant changes breakdown.

Your September Action Plan, Step by Step

Everything below takes about an hour of actual work, spread across a few days. The order matters.

1. Create StudentAid.gov accounts this week. Your student needs one, and so does every parent who will contribute information. Start at the official account creation page. Iowa State's financial aid office recommends waiting up to 3 days for the Social Security Administration to verify your account before using it on the form, which is exactly why you do this step first.
2. Pull out your 2025 federal tax return. The form connects to IRS records once each contributor consents, but having the return handy makes the remaining questions faster and lets you sanity-check what appears.
3. Confirm who files as the parent. If you are divorced, separated, or remarried, sort out before October which parent needs to be the contributor on the form. Your student's school counselor or a college financial aid office can walk you through the current rules.
4. Map your real deadlines. The federal cutoff is the latest date, not the one that matters. States and colleges set much earlier deadlines, and some state aid runs out. Check your state on the official FAFSA deadlines page, and note that some private colleges also want the CSS Profile.
5. Put your student in the driver's seat. The FAFSA is the student's form; they start it and invite you as a contributor. A 20-minute kitchen-table session in late September beats a panicked evening in November.

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The FAFSA Unlocks More Than Federal Aid

On August 30, 2026, while getting Solyo's scholarship directory ready for the fall application cycle, I counted how many of our 335 active scholarships tie back to this one form: 97 reference the FAFSA directly in their eligibility rules, and 170 weigh financial need or family income. Skipping the form quietly disqualifies your student from a large slice of private scholarship money, not just federal grants.

Colleges also use FAFSA data to award their own need-based grants, which at many private schools are worth far more than federal aid. Filing early keeps every door open; you can always decline aid you do not want.

If your senior is building a scholarship list this fall, our scholarship directory shows real published odds for each award, so the hours go where they have the best chance of paying off.

Also Refiling for a Current College Student?

Federal aid is awarded one year at a time, so families with a student already in college go through this again every fall. This is the cycle where that chore finally shrinks: the Department says students' data "will be pre-populated from previous FAFSA forms, allowing for a much faster experience for returning students."

And if you have both a senior and a college student, the parent info reuse feature means the two applications share your section instead of doubling it. Do the senior's form first while everyone is at the table, then knock out the renewal in the same sitting.

Stay Ahead of Every Deadline with Solyo

October and November stack FAFSA, early applications, and scholarship deadlines on top of the usual flood of school email. Solyo reads the school and college messages you already receive and turns them into one clear list of dates and tasks, so nothing gets buried.

Pair this guide with our senior year fall checklist to see how the FAFSA fits into the full application calendar.