Federal Student Aid has released volumes of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The volumes contained in this guide contain FAFSA Processing System (FPS) technical information for the 2025-26 award year and are only available as PDF documents at this time.
Update on October 23, 2024: FSA has added additional 2025-26 ISIR Test Files to Volume 9. This additional set of system-generated ISIRs provides a broader array and higher volume of test data than contained in the initial release. The test ISIRs, as well as an open-source tool that can be used to view the ISIRs, are stored in a public Department of Education GitHub repository. Those interested in these materials can access this repository to view and download files. As noted below, the test ISIRs are also available as an attachment to the 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide under Volume 9 – Testing and Web Demo System.
How Download the 2025-26 Test ISIR Data File:
- Open the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide on the Knowledge Center website
- Locate the file within the Volume 9 – Testing and Web Demo System section
- Download the .TXT files that are included in the zip file
The following volumes remain unchanged:
- Introduction
- Volume 1 – Summary of Changes
- Volume 2 – FPS Schedule and Getting Help
- Volume 3 – Electronic Data Exchange and FAFSA Processing
- Volume 4A – Record Layouts
- Volume 4B – Processing Codes
- Volume 5 – Edits and Rejects
- Volume 6 – ISIR Guide
- Volume 7 – Comment Codes
- Volume 8 – Agency Matches
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