Education Department cuts nonbinary option from FAFSA

The U.S. Education Department is eliminating the nonbinary gender identity option from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, according to a Tuesday news release. The option will not appear on future forms and will be removed from the current form effective immediately, and the question formerly about gender identity will now refer to applicants’ sex.

Acting under secretary of education James Bergeron said the change reflects “biological reality by referencing sex identifiers.” The Biden administration added the nonbinary gender identity option in 2023. President Trump signed an executive order last month declaring that there are only two sexes, male and female.

Bergeron also promised to “correct the failures of the last administration and ensure students and families can easily access the FAFSA form in a timely manner,” referring to the delayed and error-riddled rollout of the new federal aid form for the 2024–25 academic year. The department is currently beta testing batch-correction capabilities, which were suspended last summer.

“The Department also expects to complete the substantial backlog of features left incomplete by the Biden-Harris Administration in the coming months,” the release added. “This includes providing post-screening data from the National Student Loan Database System, notifying schools about changes in student eligibility, and other important changes.”

The release noted that the Education Department is on track to release the 2026–27 FAFSA on Oct. 1, which is now the legally mandated deadline. This cycle the form was released in late November; the prior year it wasn’t launched until Dec. 30, 2023.