About This OBBBA Resource
An independent reference hub for students, parents, and financial aid professionals navigating the federal student aid changes introduced by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21).
What This Site Does
FAFSA Guide 2026 translates the legislative text and FSA guidance of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into plain-English explanations and interactive calculators. Every policy value displayed on this site is sourced from a single versioned JSON policy file (docs/obbba-policy.json) to prevent drift from the statute.
The site covers the primary OBBBA provisions effective July 1, 2026: Parent PLUS loan caps, Graduate PLUS loan elimination, the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), Workforce Pell Grant for degree holders, legacy borrower protections, and updated FAFSA verification rules.
Interactive Calculators
RAP vs. Legacy IDR Comparator
Side-by-side monthly payment and lifetime cost comparison across RAP, IBR, PAYE, ICR, and SAVE/REPAYE using the OBBBA §4101 marginal bracket formula.
FAFSA Legacy Borrower Status Checker
Step-by-step questionnaire that determines whether a borrower is grandfathered under legacy OBBBA provisions or subject to new caps.
Federal Pell Grant Eligibility Calculator
Estimates the 2026-27 annual Pell Grant based on Student Aid Index (SAI), with a full lookup table.
Parent PLUS Loan Gap Calculator
Quantifies the annual funding gap when the OBBBA $20,000/yr cap falls short of Cost of Attendance.
Workforce Pell Grant Screener
Checks whether a short-term career program meets the OBBBA criteria for bachelor's degree holders.
All calculators are client-side only. No data you enter is transmitted to any server.
Operator
Moises Lopez
Independent Researcher · Not affiliated with any government agency
Welcome to FAFSA Guide 2026. My name is Moises Lopez, and I created this resource to help students and families navigate the most significant shift in federal student aid in decades. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has introduced complex changes to the 2026–2027 FAFSA — from the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) to the updated $20,000 Parent PLUS loan cap — and clear, accurate information has been hard to come by.
As an independent researcher, I built this site because I believe every student and family deserves access to plain-English explanations of how these changes affect them — without having to wade through dense legislative text or conflicting news coverage. Everything on this site is sourced directly from official FSA guidance and the statutory text of P.L. 119-21.
This site is an independent personal project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid (FSA), or any government agency. It is not a law firm, financial advisory service, or official aid counseling resource.
Contact
If you have questions about the data used on this site or want to suggest an update, please reach out at contact@FAFSAupdates.com.
Primary Sources
Policy values are derived from the following official and authoritative sources, as recorded in docs/obbba-policy.json:
Always verify current Federal Direct Loan limits and repayment plan options at studentaid.gov before making financial decisions.
Policy data last updated: April 3, 2026 (obbba-policy.json). Site legislation reference: P.L. 119-21 (H.R. 1), signed July 4, 2025.