A critical debt deadline has passed — and for legions of borrowers, it could mean the difference between discharged debt and continued, crushing payments.
April 15 was the deadline for the Education Department to issue its decision on applications filed by a group of post-class applicants under the Sweet v. McMahon settlement agreement.
According to the Project on Predatory Student Lending, the legal organization representing borrowers in the case, the Department’s failure to meet the deadline entitles borrowers to student loan discharge, refunds of past payments, and amended credit reporting.
In 2022, a settlement was reached between the Education Department and hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers.
Under the terms of the Sweet v. McMahon settlement, the Education Department was ordered to implement mass loan forgiveness for borrowers who submitted a Borrower Defense application by June 2022.
Meanwhile, the post-class applicants submitted applications within the five-month window between the settlement’s finalization and court approval.
These post-class applicants were promised that their federal student loan debt would be eliminated if and when the department failed to review and decide their cases within three years.
As that window began to close early this year, the Trump administration sought an 18-month extension, a request that two federal district court judges denied.
However, the court subsequently separated the post-class applicants into two groups, each with a distinct deadline.
Group 1, comprising borrowers who attended schools listed in a settlement appendix known as Exhibit C, was given a deadline of March 30.
When the department missed this deadline, discharge notices were sent to 170,000 borrowers, nearly everyone in the group.
Group 2, comprising applicants who did not attend Exhibit C schools were given a deadline of April 15. Now that that deadline has passed, borrowers are reporting that no discharge notices have been received.
According to the settlement terms, the Education Department must issue discharge notices by June 15, 2026, and fulfill them within 12 months of delivery.
These discharges include the full forgiveness of student loans, retroactive refunds for prior payments, and rectified credit reporting to absolve borrowers of marks related to their discharged debt.
Meanwhile, the Education Department appealed both rulings and sought an emergency stay, which the appeals court denied. Presumably, this denial would allow for discharges for both groups to proceed as planned.
But the administration ain’t going down, or paying back, without a fight.
The Education Department’s appeal before the Ninth Circuit remains active, and in its filing, the department disclosed that it met its January 2026 review deadline for only roughly 60,000 of the 250,000 post-class applicants.
The department claims that, if automatic discharges are issued for the remaining group, it would amount to $11 billion in discharges and $600 million in refunds being sent to applicants whose cases were not properly reviewed.
However, borrowers and their legal representatives contend that the Education Department not only agreed to the terms of the settlement but is legally bound to honor them, regardless of its ability to meet its own deadlines.
The Project on Predatory Student Lending is expected to file its response brief before the end of the month.
These are not the only changes affecting student loans.
This summer, President Trump’s “big beautiful” spending legislation will take effect, and with it, repayment changes that include an income-driven repayment plan, new borrowing caps, and the end of a program that allowed graduate students to borrow the full cost of their attendance.
Some of these changes will be implemented in phases, with completion by 2028, while others, including the borrowing caps, will take effect on July 1.
Experts note that these changes could adversely affect borrowers.
Trump also eliminated the SAVE repayment plan, created by former President Joe Biden to give borrowers more affordable monthly payments and an abbreviated timeline for loan forgiveness.
Come July, the millions of borrowers enrolled in the SAVE program will have a 90-day deadline to switch to another repayment plan, albeit one with higher monthly payments, with some facing monthly increases of hundreds of dollars.
The Trump administration maintains that the repayment overhaul will simplify repayments and curtail “excessive” borrowing.
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