If you are a post-class applicant from an Exhibit C School, you should have received a decision by January 28, 2026. If you are a post-class applicant from a non-Exhibit C school, you should have received a decision by April 15, 2026.

In most cases, if you did receive a decision, it would have arrived by email, from the email address noreply@studentaid.gov. Please check all of your email inboxes, junk/spam folders, and deleted/trash folders for messages from this address.

The Department most often sends messages to the email address that you currently have on file in your Federal Student Aid account. However, if you used a different email address on your BD application, the message might have gone to that address instead. If you do not have an email address on file with Federal Student Aid, or if your email address on file is no longer valid (that is, email sent there is returned as undeliverable), your decision might have been sent by U.S. Mail. In the vast majority of cases, though, the notices are sent by email.

If your Federal Student Aid online account still shows your BD application as “pending” or “in process,” it is likely that you did not receive a decision by the deadline.

At this time, we are not able to confirm whether individual borrowers did or did not receive a decision by the deadline. We hope to obtain that information from the Department, and will update this FAQ if and when we do.

The Department of Education should have sent you an email notice on March 30, 2026, informing you that you are entitled to Full Settlement Relief. If you did not receive that email, first check all email inboxes you have access to and all your spam/junk/deleted filters for messages from the Department of Education (usually from noreply@studentaid.gov). If you check these places and still do not have the email, please fill out our survey and we will investigate the situation.

 If you did receive your email, congratulations! Right now, there is nothing else you need to do—just make sure that your contact information is up to date on your FSA profile. You should receive Full Settlement Relief by March 30, 2027.

 The Department has asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to delay its deadlines for Exhibit C Post-Class Applicants. We are prepared to defend the Settlement in court. We will update this page in response to any developments.

The Department of Education should send you an email notice by June 15, 2026 informing you that you are entitled to Full Settlement Relief. Your relief should be delivered within one year of receiving that notice.

Right now, there is nothing else you need to do — just make sure that your contact information is up to date on your FSA profile. You should receive Full Settlement Relief by June 15, 2027.

Unfortunately, this is a normal part of the discharge process. As the Department of Education and its servicers unwind your loans, your balance may fluctuate. This is a good sign: it means your discharge is in process. Your relief is still on track to be delivered within a year from the date on your notice of relief. 

Post-Class Applicants who receive denials can request reconsideration through the FSA portal. Check out PPSL’s recent blog post, ​​Tips for Submitting a BD Reconsideration Application. All Post-Class Applicants who received denials are eligible to submit for reconsideration. There is no formal deadline for borrowers to submit reconsideration requests, but because there is also no formal deadline for the Department to return decisions on those requests, we encourage you to act quickly. 

 We are aware that some Post-Class Applicants have experienced issues with the reconsideration button in the portal and/or the size limit of attachments allowed in the portal. We recommend that Post-Class Applicants email a copy of any supporting materials that do not fit the file size limit, along with a copy of their reconsideration request, to sweet@ed.gov. State in the email that you are a Post-Class Applicant who is filing for reconsideration of a denial and you are requesting that the Ombudsman’s office associate the materials attached to the email with your account in the BD system. If you experienced issues with the button, also state that in the email and attach screenshots as evidence.

Under the settlement agreement, Full Settlement Relief consists of (i) discharge of the outstanding loans that were the subject of your borrower defense application, (ii) refunds of any amounts you paid to the federal government toward those loans, and (iii) deletion of the credit tradeline associated with those loans from your credit report.

Depending on the type of loan you had, it is possible that not all your payments were made “to the federal government” – even if your loans were called “federal student loans.” For more information about refund eligibility, please see “I am a Class Member with FFEL(P) loans, how does this affect my relief?” below.

We understand that recent actions by the current administration have raised a lot of uncertainty around the Department of Education. The situation with the Department seems to be changing every day, and we understand the stress this is causing. But these actions have not changed, and will not change, the Department’s obligations under the settlement, which is a legally binding contract overseen by the court. If necessary, as we have done before, PPSL will use the settlement agreement's enforcement provisions to ensure that the Department complies with all its obligations.

Please note that this notice may have been sent to an email you no longer have access to or been routed to your spam folder. Before contacting us about this issue, please search every email inbox, spam folder, and/or junk folder you have access to for an email from noreply@studentaid.gov. The email might have one of the following subject lines, as appropriate for your situation:

• Sweet v. McMahon Settlement: Borrower Defense Post-Class Notice

• Approval of Your Borrower Defense Case Under Exhibit C of the Sweet v. Cardona Settlement

• Sweet v. Cardona [or McMahon] Settlement: Borrower Defense Notice to Revise and Resubmit

• Sweet v. Cardona [or McMahon] Settlement: Borrower Defense Notice of Approval

• Sweet v. Cardona [or McMahon] Settlement Post-Class Applicant Borrower Defense Notice

If you are a member of the Automatic Relief Group or a Decision Group and you are unable to locate a notice/decision after searching for it, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, with your name, borrower defense application number (if available), and a description of the decision or notice that you believe you are missing. If you are a Post-Class Applicant and you did not receive a decision by the January 28, 2026 deadline, please see “I am a Post-Class Applicant, what does this mean for me?” below.

Borrowers who submitted a borrower defense application on or before June 22, 2022 (the day the settlement agreement was signed) AND whose borrower defense application relates to a school on the Exhibit C list are part of the automatic relief group. If you are in the automatic relief group, you should have already received Full Settlement Relief. If you have NOT received Full Settlement Relief, please email the FSA Ombudsman at sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, and let us know what relief you are missing. The FSA Ombudsman has been designated as the official point of contact at the Department of Education for Class Members to direct questions about the status of their relief. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied), and your borrower defense application number (if available).

We are unable to answer individual questions about refund amounts owed to Class Members. However, please be aware of the following:

Your refund might be disbursed via multiple checks and/or direct deposits. Before emailing sweet@ed.gov about missing refunds, please check your bank records for deposits from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Your refund checks will not necessarily have anything written on them that refers to the Sweet case, borrower defense, or student loan refunds. They might simply appear as checks from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Please also note that if you made payments on FFEL(P) loans, you might not be entitled to a refund on those payments. For more information, please see “I am a Class Member with FFEL loans, how does this affect my relief?” below. If you are not sure what type(s) of loans you have, please see the guidance under “Does the type of federal student loan I have (Direct, FFEL, Consolidated, etc.) affect my settlement relief?” below

The timing of your relief will depend on when you submitted your borrower defense application. 
Please see the descriptions below for a relief timeline:

Decision Group 1

Decision group members in group 1 (people who applied for borrower defense on or before December 31, 2017) whose applications were approved should have received Full Settlement Relief by December 20, 2024. If you were approved but have NOT received Full Settlement Relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied) and your borrower defense application number if you have it.

Decision Group 2

Decision group members in group 2 (people who applied for borrower defense between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018) whose applications were approved should have received Full Settlement Relief by January 28, 2025. If you were approved but have NOT received Full Settlement Relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied), and your borrower defense application number if you have it.

Decision Group 3

Decision group members in group 3 (people who applied for borrower defense between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019) whose applications were approved should have received Full Settlement Relief by July 28, 2025. If you were approved but have NOT received Full Settlement Relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied), and your borrower defense application number if you have it.

Decision Group 4

Decision group members in group 4 (people who applied for borrower defense between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020) whose applications were approved should have received Full Settlement Relief by January 28, 2026. If you were approved but have NOT received Full Settlement Relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied), and your borrower defense application number if you have it. 

If you are a member of group 4 who resubmitted your application after receiving a revise and resubmit notice, you should have received a decision on your resubmitted application by January 28, 2026. If you have not received a revise and resubmit decision, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining your situation. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied), your borrower defense application number if you have it, the date you resubmitted, and any evidence you have of your resubmission (such as screenshots). 

Decision Group 5

Decision group members in group 5 (people who applied for borrower defense between January 1, 2021, and June 22, 2022) whose applications were approved should receive Full Settlement Relief by July 28, 2026. Please be patient as the distribution of relief for this group is currently in process.  

The “revise and resubmit” deadline passed for decision group 5 on January 28, 2026. You should receive a decision on your resubmitted application within six months of the date you submitted it. If you had any problems submitting your revised application, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, as soon as possible. In your email, please include your full name (and any other name or email address you might have used at the time you applied), your borrower defense application number if you have it, and a description of the problem you encountered, including evidence if available (such as screenshots).

On December 11, 2025, the District Court confirmed that the Department had to decide all Post-Class applications relating to an Exhibit C school by January 28, 2026. The Court extended the decision deadline for Post-Class applications relating to other schools to April 15, 2026.  

 If your application has been approved, you should receive your settlement relief within one year of the date when you received your approval notice. 

If your application has been denied, there are still steps you can take. Please see “I am a Post-Class Applicant and I received a denial” below. 

If your Post-Class application is related an Exhibit C school and you did not receive a decision by January 28, 2026, then you are entitled to Full Settlement Relief. The Department of Education should have sent you an email notice on March 30, 2026, informing you that you are entitled to Full Settlement Relief. If you did not receive that email, first check all email inboxes you have access to and all your spam/junk/deleted filters for messages from the Department of Education (usually from noreply@studentaid.gov). If you check these places and still do not have the email, please fill out our survey and we will investigate the situation.

 If your Post-Class application did NOT relate to an Exhibit C school, then you should receive a decision on your application by April 15, 2026. It is possible that the Department will ask to extend this deadline; please check our case page for the latest updates.

As you may have heard, lawyers for the Department of Education have filed a motion with the court asking for more time to issue decisions on Post-Class applications. This request is directly contrary to the language of the Settlement Agreement and the binding court order approving the Settlement, which are clear that Post-Class Applicants who did not receive a decision by January 28 shall receive Full Settlement Relief. We are defending the Settlement in court and will fight to make sure that Post-Class Applicants do not wait a day longer for relief than the Settlement allows.

If you submitted borrower defense applications related to multiple schools, your applications may be in different groups. For instance, if you submitted two applications in January 2021, with one relating to an Exhibit C school and the other relating to a non-Exhibit C school, your first application would be in the automatic relief group and your second application would be in the decision group.

If you submitted more than one borrower defense application at different times, your applications may be in different groups. For instance, if you submitted an application relating to an Exhibit C school in January 2021 and another application relating to a different Exhibit C school in August 2022, your first application would be in the automatic relief group and your second application would be in the post-class.

There are two types of FFEL(P) loans: some are held by the government, and some are held by private bank lenders. Loans held by private bank lenders are known as “commercially held FFELs.”  

FFEL and FFELP loans are considered “federal student loans” for purposes of the settlement. This means that, if you are entitled to relief through the settlement, any FFEL and FFELP loans that were the subject of your BD claim(s) will be discharged. If you consolidated FFEL loans from multiple schools into one or more FFEL consolidation loans, only the portion of the consolidation loan(s) that relates to the school(s) covered by your borrower defense application will be discharged. 

If your FFEL or FFELP loans were commercially held and you made payments on those loans, then you will NOT be entitled to a refund of those payments. Although both are considered “federal loans” because they were authorized by federal law, payments that you made on commercially held FFEL or FFELP loans were made to bank lenders, not to the Department of Education. For that reason, such payments will not be included in any refund you receive under the Sweet settlement, because the Department of Education does not have the legal authority to refund payments made to commercial lenders. However, if you consolidated your FFEL or FFELP loans into Direct Consolidation Loans, then any payments you made on the Direct Consolidation Loans will be eligible for a refund. 

If you experienced Treasury Offset (seizure of your tax refund) or administrative wage garnishment on a defaulted commercial FFEL loan, then the amounts seized through those processes WILL be refunded. We are currently working with the Department of Education on a process to identify and refund these payments. Please be patient.  

If you are a Class Member or Post-Class Applicant, your application was approved, and you consolidated Sweet-eligible and non-Sweet-eligible loans together into one or more Direct Consolidation Loans, the entire balance of your “mixed” Direct Consolidation Loan(s) will be discharged, and you will be refunded all payments you made on that loan(s) and any underlying, non-mixed, Sweet-eligible loans.

If this refund amount is less than the sum of all payments you made to the Department of Education toward your Sweet-eligible loans, including payments you made on Sweet-eligible Direct Loans or Department-held FFEL loans before your final consolidation, you will be able to claim additional refunds through an administrative process. We are notifying eligible Class Members directly if and when they are able to submit requests for further refund calculations. For information about FFEL consolidation loans, please see “I am a Class Member with FFEL(P) loans, how does this affect my relief?” above.