What Should Mixed-Status Students Know About FAFSA This Year?

Applying for student aid can be a stressful, fraught process at the best of times.

But in the past two years, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been a particular source of anxiety for mixed-status students: college applicants who have a Social Security number, but with one or both parents who don’t, due to their immigration status.

According to 2023 numbers from the California Immigrant Data Portal, 20% of Californians under 18 are either undocumented or living with undocumented family members.

And after this group faced the challenge of a glitch in the 2024-25 FAFSA that locked many mixed-status students out of their applications entirely, a new concern has emerged for this year’s applicants.

Between President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and news of an agreement between the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, some mixed-status students are concerned that filling out the FAFSA can put their family members at risk of deportation.

According to the National College Attainment Network, the Higher Education Act prohibits the use of data for any purposes other than financial assistance.

However, the network warned mixed-status students and their families that it can no longer “assure” them that data submitted through the FAFSA “will continue to be protected.”

“While the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) has confirmed that ED has not and will not share information that breaks the law, we understand many families’ confidence in this statement may not be as certain under the current administration,” the network’s guidance reads.

The Department of Education did not respond to KQED’s request for comment.

The priority application deadline for most colleges and institutions is just a few months away, on March 2, 2026. Keep reading to see what guidance is available for mixed-status students — while bearing in mind that this is not legal advice, and you should consult with an expert on your specific situation.

• Jump straight to: Where can mixed-status families find more information or support?

What advice do California officials have for mixed-status students about financial aid?

The California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) maintains that mixed-status students, as well as undocumented students, can apply to the state-based California DREAM Act (CADAA). This application allows access to state aid but not federal aid.

“We encourage all mixed-status families to use that application,” said Daisy Gonzales, the Executive Director of CSAC, during a Dec. 3 press conference. “That is California’s solution to access financial aid.”

According to the California Dream Act website, “any information you provide on a CA Dream Act Application (CADAA) is only used to determine eligibility for state financial aid.”

“Your information is never shared with the federal government or used for immigration enforcement,” the notice reads.

If a mixed-status student chooses to complete the FAFSA, the state emphasized that they “should be prepared to provide consent to direct data exchange with the IRS.”

Since “direct data exchange does not yet work for non-SSN contributors,” these applicants “will also be asked to manually enter their tax information from 2024,” the California Dream Act website explains.

What advice do advocates have for mixed-status families?

Ultimately, there isn’t one simple answer for a student and a family, said Catherine Marroquín, senior director at Mission Graduates, a San Francisco-based organization that helps immigrant and low-income students go to college.

“It really just comes down to individually talking to families and figuring out what they feel the most secure doing,” she said. She recommends families decide how much of their own information they are willing to share with state and federal agencies — and identify what they have already shared in the past.

“If a student was born here, their parents are undocumented, but the parents have done taxes before or have an ITIN number, then the IRS already has their information,” Marroquín said. If families have never filed taxes or requested an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, they may choose to skip FAFSA and avoid any interaction with the federal system for now.

It’s still possible to receive financial aid for college by only completing CADAA and not FAFSA, but students may need to put in extra work and look for private scholarships to make up for the loss in federal financial aid. In fact, Mission Graduates is even “encouraging students to also apply for private schools, just because their funding can be more generous,” she said.

Some students could also go to institutions that offer free tuition to eligible students — like City College of San Francisco — and transfer in the future if federal policy changes. In all this uncertainty, Marroquín said that programs like hers want to emphasize “power, not panic.”

“How do we prepare our families?” she said. “For them to feel safe [with] their kids going to college and the college choices they’re making … this is all part of the universe of concerns that the families are having right now with this administration.”

Where can mixed-status families find more information or support?

Marroquín recommended consulting a spreadsheet of aid available to mixed-status and undocumented students created by the Northern California College Promise Coalition. The group Immigration Rising also has a list of scholarships and fellowships that don’t require proof of U.S. citizenship.

Other places you can find support include:

• First Gen Empower
• National College Attainment Network
• California Student Aid Commission’s guidance for mixed-status students
• ContingoEd
• Immigrants Rising
• Mission Graduates