Education Department Plans to Ramp Up Transmission of FAFSA Data to Colleges

The U.S. Department of Education said Tuesday that it began transmitting Free Application for Federal Student Aid data to colleges over the weekend. The department said it has started sending larger batches of FAFSA applicant data, with plans to ramp up these transmissions in the coming weeks. Once the agency begins sending data “at full scale,” it said, the backlog of FAFSA applications that have already been submitted will take two weeks to process. It also announced it had fixed a number of glitches preventing applicants from submitting the form, including students without Social Security numbers and those born in 2000. However, the department also flagged new issues with the form.