How to File a Borrower Defense Claim if Your School Misled You

When can school misconduct qualify for borrower defense?

Borrower Defense to Repayment is a federal student loan discharge process administered by the U.S. Department of Education. It applies when qualifying conduct by a school you attended, or by a school attended by your child if you are a parent PLUS borrower, meets the borrower-defense standard applicable to your loan.

A common basis for a claim is a school making false or misleading representations that were important to a borrower's decision to enroll or remain enrolled. Depending on the regulation applicable to the loan, other qualifying theories can include certain omissions, qualifying breaches of contract or qualifying judgments against a school.

Examples addressed by the current federal application include misleading claims about:

• job placement rates or employment prospects;
• expected earnings after graduation;
• relationships with employers;
• whether a program would qualify a graduate for required licensing or certification;
• the availability or qualifications of instructors;
• whether credits would transfer;
• program costs or financial charges; and
• the availability or type of financial aid.

Simply being dissatisfied with a school does not automatically establish borrower-defense eligibility. Your application should connect the school's conduct to the legal standard that applies to your loan and explain how the conduct affected you.

Which borrower defense rules apply to your loan?

The Department's current application makes an important distinction based on when the loan was made or consolidated:

• Loans made or consolidated on or before June 30, 2017 are generally evaluated under 34 C.F.R. § 685.206(c).
• Loans made or consolidated from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2020 are generally evaluated under 34 C.F.R. § 685.222.
• Loans made or consolidated on or after July 1, 2020 are generally evaluated under 34 C.F.R. § 685.206(e).

If your loans fall into more than one period, the Department may evaluate different portions of your application under different standards. Federal Student Aid confirmed in March 2026 that the Department had resumed adjudicating borrower-defense applications not affected by the Sweet litigation using the applicable 1994, 2016 and 2019 regulatory frameworks.

Which loans can qualify?

Borrower defense primarily provides relief for William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program loans. Federal Student Aid servicer guidance states that FFEL Program and Federal Perkins Loans may become eligible for borrower-defense discharge if they are consolidated into the Direct Loan Program.

Consolidation changes the loan and can affect borrower-defense analysis because the Department's application states that, for consolidated loans, it evaluates the claim based on when the loan was consolidated. Review the consequences before consolidating solely for this purpose.

What evidence should you include?

Federal Student Aid strongly encourages borrowers to provide as much detail as possible. The application specifically asks borrowers to explain:

• what the school said, wrote, represented or concealed;
• who provided or concealed the information, including a person's name and title if known;
• when and where the interaction occurred;
• how the information was communicated, such as in person, by email, through advertising or on a website;
• why the representation was false or misleading;
• whether it was important to your decision to enroll or remain enrolled; and
• how the conduct caused harm.

Useful supporting records can include emails, advertisements, brochures, course catalogs, student manuals, enrollment agreements, transcripts, diplomas and other school communications. If the claim involves a court judgment or breach of contract, include the relevant judgment or contract when available.

The Department emphasizes that detailed facts matter. Record the approximate dates, names or titles of school representatives, what was said or promised, and what happened after you relied on that information.

How do you file the application?

Federal Student Aid recommends filing the Borrower Defense to Repayment application online through StudentAid.gov/borrower-defense. The online process requires access to your Federal Student Aid account.

If you prefer a paper application, the Department's current form says to mail the completed application and supporting documentation to:

U.S. Department of Education
Federal Student Aid Information Center
P.O. Box 1854
Monticello, KY 42633

The application must be truthful and complete to the best of your knowledge. The certification is made under penalty of perjury.

Do you have to keep paying while the claim is reviewed?

The current application allows you to choose whether applicable loans should enter forbearance or stopped-collection status during review. If you do not request otherwise, the Department states that nondefaulted federal student loans will generally be placed into forbearance and relevant defaulted loans into stopped-collection status while the application is reviewed.

Forbearance means you do not have to make scheduled payments on the covered loans during that period. For a covered defaulted loan, stopped collections means collection activity such as wage withholding or withholding federal income tax refunds is suspended while the borrower-defense application is pending.

You may instead choose to continue making payments. Federal Student Aid specifically notes that continuing payments can matter when you are pursuing another program, such as loan rehabilitation or Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you are trying to get a defaulted federal loan back into good standing, see the separate guide to federal student loan rehabilitation. If you are pursuing qualifying public-service employment, review the separate process for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

The application also warns that if your borrower-defense claim is denied, the amount owed may be higher. Contact your loan servicer if you want to make interest payments while a loan is in forbearance.

How long does a borrower defense decision take?

The Department does not publish one fixed processing time for individual borrower-defense applications. Its current application explicitly warns that adjudication is lengthy and that, depending on application volume, a borrower may not receive a decision for years.

In March 2026, Federal Student Aid stated that the Department had resumed adjudicating applications not affected by the Sweet settlement. The Department's process can include notifying the school and obtaining evidence or a response before substantive adjudication.

What happens after you submit your claim?

The Department reviews your allegations and evidence under the regulation applicable to the relevant loan. The current application states that the Department may ask the school to respond and will consider your application, supporting evidence, evidence already in the Department's possession and any response from the school before making a decision.

Federal Student Aid's 2026 guidance confirms that school notification is part of the fact-finding process for claims governed by the 1994 and 2016 regulations. A school's failure to respond does not automatically result in approval.

Keep your email, telephone number and mailing address current in your Federal Student Aid account so the Department can contact you during review.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing only that the school was bad or that the education was disappointing without identifying specific qualifying conduct.
• Failing to explain who said what, when it happened and how the statement influenced your decision.
• Leaving out the harm caused by the alleged misconduct.
• Discarding advertisements, emails, enrollment agreements or other evidence from the relevant period.
• Assuming every federal student loan is automatically eligible without checking the loan program and, where relevant, consolidation requirements.
• Assuming the same borrower-defense legal standard applies to every loan regardless of when it was made or consolidated.
• Ignoring the effect of forbearance on another repayment or forgiveness strategy.

Is borrower defense the same as other federal loan relief?

No. Borrower defense is specifically tied to qualifying misconduct by a school. Other federal discharge or forgiveness programs use different eligibility tests.

For example, borrowers with a qualifying total and permanent disability should review the separate Total and Permanent Disability discharge process. Borrower defense should not be used simply because another discharge or forgiveness program may be a better fit for your circumstances.