The Education Department released new details last week on the timeframe for borrowers to move their student loans out of the SAVE plan and into other repayment programs. The information provides new insights for borrowers who are struggling to navigate a rapidly changing landscape for student loan repayment.

The updates, which the department included in a new court filing last Thursday as it faces a fresh legal challenge over the Trump administration’s efforts to kick student loan borrowers out of the SAVE plan, suggest that borrowers will have a bit more time than they may realize to transition their student loans to other payment plans. But many questions remain unanswered. Here’s the latest, and what borrowers should know.

Student Loans Expected To Be Transitioned Out Of SAVE Plan

The Education Department is preparing to initiate the process of moving borrowers with federal student loans enrolled in the SAVE plan, an income-driven plan created under the Biden administration, into other repayment programs starting in just a few days.

SAVE has been the subject of legal battles for more than two years, and millions of borrowers have been stuck in a forbearance since the summer of 2024 after a federal appeals court issued a nationwide injunction blocking the program. But the Trump administration and the GOP-led states that had challenged the SAVE plan reached a settlement agreement last December that ends the SAVE plan. That agreement was entered into court in March, paving the way for the department to terminate the program and start forcing borrowers to move their student loans to other repayment plans.

“On March 10, 2026, a federal court issued an order preventing the U.S. Department of Education (ED) from implementing the SAVE Plan,” said the department in online SAVE plan guidance updated shortly after the federal district court overseeing the SAVE plan litigation effectively endorsed the settlement agreement to end the plan. “With one exception, the most recent court action invalidated most of the July 2023 rule titled ‘Improving Income........

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