New forgiveness today

It looks like another round of student loan forgiveness went out today.

I’ve heard from two people already who had their loans discharged.

Here’s one email I got a few minutes ago:

The other person was Susan. I want to tell you her story because her battle with these student loans means a lot to me. (All of your battles do, but this one really stuck with me due to the sheer effort and patience it took.)

We met over two years ago. At that time, her husband’s loans had been forgiven by the Biden administration. But her’s hadn’t been.

That confused her because they had been repaying for the same amount of time. Nearly 30 years. But for whatever reason, her account didn’t move.

So she began digging.

She pulled records, filed complaints, contacted FSA, contacted her servicer. She was told not to worry. She was told the records were “on microfiche.” She was told it would all correct itself when the payment count updated.

It didn’t.

When I reviewed her file, the issue was straightforward. There was a ten-year hole in her repayment history — September 2001 through August 2011. Roughly 121 months were simply missing from the federal system. No credit. No explanation.

That gap was the only thing standing between her and forgiveness.

By the time she hired me in early 2025, she had already spent nearly months on top of months trying to fix it on her own. She had done what most people would do — escalate, document, follow instructions, andassume someone would eventually correct it.

On our first call, I didn’t promise a result. I told her what I tell everyone in this position: we fix the payment history first. We deal with plan politics second. There are no guarantees. The timeline is uncertain — especially during an administration change.

From there, we got to work.

We started by filing fresh complaints with various Ombudsman channels. She had already tried this on her own. But this time we had greater clarity about what the issue was — the missing payment history — and what the fix was — add the history back to the National Student Loan Data System.

We also worked with leadership contacts at her servicer. We flagged requests as urgent. We looped in elected officials. And we kept documenting every step.

Then the administration changed.

ICR forgiveness paused. Litigation created uncertainty. System updates lagged behind policy announcements. New rules were published before servicers were ready to process them.

The whole thing took so long, and her frustration with the ordeal got so bad that I ended up giving her my personal cell phone number and asked her to text me any news she got.

I hadn’t gotten a text from her in weeks.

But then today, with no warning at all, she received this:

“The U.S. Department of Education will work with your loan servicer to process your discharge.”

A few minutes later, I received a text from her:

“OMG I am crying! I am so grateful. Thank you.”

I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to get that type of message.

She placed her faith in me and my team all that time ago. And today, that faith was rewarded by this administration.

I share Susan’s story in hopes it encourages you to keep working towards that thing you think will never happen for you. It will. (And if you’re reading this, Liz and Marquita, I’m especially talking to the two of you.)

So long as you have your ducks in a row — i.e., you’re in the IBR, PAYE, or ICR plan and your payment history is in tack — you will reach your finish line. I believe that in my heart of hearts.

For some of you, it might take correcting your records. For others, it might simply be a waiting game.

If you want to walk through your file and determine whether the issue is eligibility or a record error, you can schedule a consultation here:

https://www.tateesq.com/book-a-call

I don’t know if you saw this in the first screenshot I shared earlier, but please note what the person shared with me: they were enrolled in the ICR Plan when their loans were forgiven today. That might mean that for those of you who consolidated your Parent PLUS Loans or are in an ICR plan, or made too much money to get into any other plan, you may not need to switch in order to get your loans forgiven.