An early launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms by the Trump administration may have given the process, which has been marred with trouble the past few cycles, a leg up despite the current government shutdown.

The FAFSA forms were released last Wednesday, a week ahead of their Oct. 1 deadline. In the past two cycles, the forms, which were undergoing changes, missed their mandated rollout schedule, causing chaos for students and schools.

“It's very positive. From my perspective, we haven't heard a lot, which in this situation, I say no news is good news, because our members are definitely quick to tell us if something is not working correctly. And as we've seen in the last couple of years, if there were issues like major disruptions to the FAFSA, we've heard from our members very, very quickly. They're very on top of things,” said Sarah Austin, policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

“So, I'd say that the fact that we have not heard that is all good and positive, and we're hopeful that means everything is working as intended,” Austin added.........

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