Student financial aid applications and processing services are continuing without major disruption, despite the ongoing federal government shutdown, according to federal and state officials.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Office of Federal Student Aid said in an announcement on Oct. 1 that most of its processors, contact centers and websites remain operational.<\/p>\n
While some federal offices are closed during the lapse in appropriations, the FAFSA website and processing system are still accepting and transmitting applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents and their contributors can continue to start, fill out and submit a FAFSA form at FAFSA.gov<\/a>,\u201d the release from Federal Student Aid said.<\/p>\n FSA added that loan servicers such as MOHELA, Nelnet and Aidvantage continue to process payments and deferments, although some refunds and discharges may be delayed.<\/p>\n At Cal State Fullerton, operations within the Office of Financial Aid remain unaffected.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s business as usual with the shutdown in regards to financial aid activities,\u201d said CSUF Director of Financial Aid CSUF Nick Valdivia.<\/p>\n He said about 72% of CSUF students receive some form of financial aid, including federal, state and institutional grants, loans or scholarships.<\/p>\n Valdivia added that the department continues to disburse funds and assist students without interruption.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re able to continue paying awards to students,\u201d Valdivia said. \u201cWe pay our students first and then collect the federal money from the Department of Education.\u201d<\/p>\n The office is also working with the Titan Hub to host financial aid workshops several times a week, helping students complete applications for the 2026-27 financial aid cycle that opened Oct. 1.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have made good on their promise to make the process easier and streamlined for our students and families,\u201d Valdivia said.<\/p>\n At the state level, the California Student Aid Commission also reported no service interruptions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get updates from some of the federal organizations who are contacting us and giving us updates on what they\u2019re hearing on the ground and what they\u2019re seeing, and services are continuing to be available for students who are contacting Federal Student Aid,\u201d said Catalina Mistler, chief deputy executive director for the California Student Aid Commission, in an interview with ABC affiliate KRCR.<\/p>\n She added that there has been no impact in California with the state\u2019s call center.<\/p>\n California\u2019s demand for college financial aid continues to rise.<\/p>\n According to CSAC, applications from the class of 2025 increased by 11% compared to last year, with nearly 340,000 high school seniors submitting aid forms by the state\u2019s Sept. 2 deadline.<\/p>\n The growth reflects a record 72.7% of California public high school seniors completing either the FAFSA or California Dream Act Application, up from 64.2% the previous year.<\/p>\n \u201cThese trends are showing us that California\u2019s students want to enroll in higher education, and that families need financial aid to make college affordable,\u201d said Dr. Daisy Gonzales, executive director of CSAC.<\/p>\n CSAC administers nearly $3.9 billion in aid programs, including Cal Grants and Middle Class Scholarships, for more than 2.2 million students. The priority deadline for state aid is March 2, 2026, and FAFSA applications must be submitted by June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n Students seeking more information or assistance can visit StudentAid.gov<\/a> for federal updates or csac.ca.gov<\/a> for California-specific financial aid resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Student financial aid applications and processing services are continuing without major disruption, despite the ongoing federal government shutdown,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,14520,3005,14521,638],"class_list":["post-16700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-csac","tag-csuf","tag-fafsa","tag-government-shutdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}