FAFSA Website Outage Follows Massive Education Department Layoffs

The outage occurred a day after the Department of Education cut its workforce in half, including key IT staff responsible for maintaining the FAFSA system.

• The FAFSA website experienced an hours-long outage on Wednesday, leaving students unable to access the federal financial aid application system.
• The outage followed the Education Department's announcement of over 1,300 layoffs, including more than 300 from the Federal Student Aid division, with two dozen from its technology team.
• Laid-off IT staffers, including those responsible for the FAFSA system, reportedly had limited access to department resources, complicating troubleshooting efforts.
• The Education Department has not commented on the outage, which was labeled as 'planned maintenance' on the website Wednesday evening.
• Advocates and critics warn the layoffs may jeopardize critical services, with some linking the downsizing to broader efforts by President Trump to dismantle the department.

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