Sweet v. McMahon Update: 30,000 Discharge Emails Sent, June 15 Deadline Met, and the Ninth Circuit Appeal

Latest Updates

June 15, 2026 — The Department met its deadline to notify the final group. Discharge emails from noreply@studentaid.gov reached the roughly 30,000 non-Exhibit C post-class applicants whose applications it failed to decide by April 15. The Project on Predatory Student Lending confirmed the notices began going out that week. Relief is due within one year of each borrower’s notice.

June 2026 status — Every group under the settlement has now been notified: the original class members years ago, roughly 170,000 Exhibit C post-class borrowers earlier this year, and this final group of about 30,000. The Department’s own court filing describes the relief still at issue in its appeal as spanning hundreds of thousands of borrowers and billions of dollars. The merits appeal in the Ninth Circuit continues; oral argument has not been scheduled as of June 2026, and the appeal does not pause relief.

May 7, 2026 — The Department filed its reply brief in the Ninth Circuit, completing the briefing phase of the appeal. Oral argument has not been scheduled. Based on the Ninth Circuit’s typical timeline, a hearing is likely around September 2026.

April 23, 2026 — PPSL filed its answering brief opposing the Department’s appeal.

April 15, 2026 — The court-ordered deadline for the Department to decide all remaining non-Exhibit C post-class applications passed without decisions being issued. Automatic Full Settlement Relief triggered for this group — the same outcome as the Exhibit C post-class group in January. The Department met its June 15, 2026 deadline to send eligibility notices to affected borrowers (see the June 15 update above).

April 9, 2026 — The Department’s opening merits brief is due in the Ninth Circuit; PPSL will respond.

March 30, 2026 — The Department sent Full Settlement Relief eligibility notices to Exhibit C post-class applicants. If you attended an Exhibit C school and did not receive a decision by January 28, 2026, that email is your confirmation. Relief must be delivered by March 30, 2027.

March 25, 2026 — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously denied the Department’s emergency motion to stay the settlement deadlines pending appeal. Judge Wardlaw stated: “The time for negotiating is over. You missed your deadline.” This was the Department’s third consecutive court loss in this case.

March 20, 2026 — The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on the Department’s motion to stay.

February 27, 2026 — The Department filed an emergency motion to stay in the Ninth Circuit, one day after losing its second extension request at the district court level.

The Department of Education sent student loan discharge emails to the last group covered by the Sweet v. McMahon settlement — roughly 30,000 borrowers — the week of June 15, 2026, ahead of its court-ordered deadline. If you received one, from noreply@studentaid.gov, saying your federal loans will be discharged, it is real.

Who this final group is

This batch went to post-class applicants who attended a school that is not on the Exhibit C list. You are in this group if you filed a Borrower Defense application between June 23 and November 15, 2022, and your school does not appear on that list. The department was required to decide these applications by April 15, 2026. It did not, so full settlement relief triggered automatically — the same outcome the Exhibit C post-class group received when notices for roughly 170,000 of those borrowers went out earlier in the year.

The email spells out the basis for the relief. It references Paragraph IV.D.2 of the settlement agreement in Sweet v. McMahon, No. 3:19-CV-03674-WHA (N.D. Cal.), states that the department could not respond to your application on or before April 15, 2026, and identifies the school your Borrower Defense application was based on.

How to confirm the email is legitimate

Relief under this settlement is automatic, and the notice comes from the department through StudentAid.gov — not from a servicer asking you to act, and never from anyone asking for payment. Don’t click links inside any email about your loans. Log in to StudentAid.gov directly to confirm your status, and check spam, junk, and deleted folders if you’re expecting a notice and haven’t seen it. Anyone who offers to speed up your discharge, get you special access, or guarantee a faster outcome for a fee is running a scam. If your notice is instead about income-driven repayment forgiveness, that’s a separate process.

Check which loans are actually being discharged

The discharge covers the federal loans tied to the school named in your Borrower Defense application. Many borrowers hold loans from more than one school. Loans connected to a different school are not part of this discharge, so confirm exactly which loans the notice covers — and which it doesn’t — by reviewing the school named in your email against the loans listed in your StudentAid.gov account.

When the relief arrives

The department has one year from the date of your notice to complete the discharge, refund payments you made on the covered loans, and delete related negative credit reporting. Refunds come from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and may arrive in more than one payment. Nothing is required on your end to trigger the relief beyond keeping your contact information current in your Federal Student Aid account.

The appeal language in your email

The email notes that the timeframe for processing your application is the subject of ongoing litigation in the Ninth Circuit. That line has worried borrowers, but the relief is safe to count on. An appeal does not pause the settlement deadlines, and the Ninth Circuit already refused to stay them. If your payments are affordable and continuing to pay gives you peace of mind — particularly if you also hold other student loans that aren’t part of this discharge — you can keep paying while the discharge processes. Payments you make on the forgiven debt are refunded once the discharge completes. If you would rather not pay during the wait, you can ask your servicer for a forbearance. Either choice is fine.

The settlement covers three groups of borrowers. Which group you belong to determines your deadline and what to do next.

Sweet v. McMahon — formerly Sweet v. Cardona and before that Sweet v. DeVos — is a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 that accused the Department of Education of sitting on hundreds of thousands of Borrower Defense applications for years without issuing decisions. The settlement, finalized in November 2022, established binding deadlines for the Department to either issue decisions or automatically discharge the loans.

Original class members submitted a Borrower Defense application on or before June 22, 2022, and attended one of the 151 Exhibit C schools. They received automatic Full Settlement Relief — discharge, refund, and credit correction — years ago. If you are in this group and still haven’t received complete relief, email sweet@ed.gov and copy info@ppsl.org.

Post-class Exhibit C applicants submitted a Borrower Defense application between June 23 and November 15, 2022, and attended a school on the Exhibit C list. The Department was required to issue decisions by January 28, 2026. It did not. Automatic Full Settlement Relief has been triggered for this group. Notices went out on March 30, 2026.

Post-class non-Exhibit C applicants submitted a Borrower Defense application in the same June 23–November 15, 2022 window, but did not attend an Exhibit C school. The court set a decision deadline of April 15, 2026. The Department did not issue decisions by that date, and automatic Full Settlement Relief has now triggered for this group as well. Eligibility notices went out the week of June 15, 2026.

If you submitted a Borrower Defense application after November 15, 2022, you are not part of either post-class group. Your application is processed under the current Borrower Defense regulations.

Exhibit C is a list of 151 schools that the Department of Education identified as having strong indicators of substantial misconduct — credible allegations of fraud or, in some cases, confirmed findings. Attending one of these schools determined whether a post-class applicant faced the January 28, 2026, deadline or the April 15, 2026, deadline.

Check the Exhibit C school list PDF on StudentAid.gov directly. The list is four pages long and covers mostly for-profit institutions — Corinthian Colleges, ITT Technical Institute, colleges in the Education Management Corporation (EDMC) family (Art Institutes, South University, Argosy University), DeVry University, and others that drew significant attention from state attorneys general.

If your school appears on the list, you are an Exhibit C applicant. If it does not, you are a non-Exhibit C applicant covered by the April 15 deadline.

Full Settlement Relief is automatic when the Department misses its court-ordered decision deadline. It includes four components:

• Loan discharge — federal student loans tied to the school named in your Borrower Defense application are discharged in full

• Payment refund — payments you made to the federal government on those loans are refunded, including payments on Direct Loans and federally held FFEL loans

• Credit correction — negative credit reporting associated with those loans is deleted

• Federal aid restoration — eligibility for federal student aid is restored if it was lost

Payments made on commercially held FFEL loans that were never federally owned may not be refundable. If those loans were later consolidated into Direct Loans, the discharge applies to the consolidated balance.

Refunds are issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and may arrive in multiple payments. The Department has one year from the date of your eligibility notice to complete discharge, refunds, and credit corrections.

Your next step depends on which group you are in.

If you are an original class member who has not yet received complete relief

You submitted a Borrower Defense application on or before June 22, 2022, attended an Exhibit C school, and should have already received automatic Full Settlement Relief. If your discharge, refund, or credit correction is still incomplete, email sweet@ed.gov and copy info@ppsl.org with your name and application number. The FSA Ombudsman is the designated contact for unresolved class member relief.

If you are an Exhibit C post-class applicant who did not receive a decision by January 28, 2026

The Department sent eligibility notices from noreply@studentaid.gov on March 30, 2026. Check every inbox you have access to — including spam, junk, and deleted folders — for a message from that address.

If you received the email, no further action is required. Confirm your contact information is current at StudentAid.gov and monitor your loan account for balance adjustments. Your relief must arrive by March 30, 2027.

If you did not receive the email after checking all folders, fill out PPSL’s survey at ppsl.org. PPSL will investigate. Also email sweet@ed.gov with your name and application number.

Scam warning: Relief under this settlement is automatic. No company or individual can speed up your discharge, get you special access, or guarantee a faster outcome — not for free, and certainly not for money. Anyone who asks you to pay for help with your Sweet v. McMahon claim is running a scam. Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

If you are a non-Exhibit C post-class applicant

The April 15, 2026, deadline passed without decisions, which triggered automatic Full Settlement Relief — the same outcome as the Exhibit C post-class group. The Department sent eligibility notices from noreply@studentaid.gov the week of June 15, 2026, confirming your relief. Once you receive that notice, the Department has one year to complete discharge, refunds, and credit corrections.

No action is needed on your part to trigger relief. Check your email — including spam, junk, and deleted folders — for a message from noreply@studentaid.gov. If you did not receive a notice after checking all folders, email sweet@ed.gov and copy info@ppsl.org.

If you received a denial

A denial does not end the process. Check your Federal Student Aid portal at StudentAid.gov for a Request Reconsideration option. If no button appears, email sweet@ed.gov to request reconsideration manually. Compare the denial to your original application and identify any factual errors. Forward the denial to info@ppsl.org with the subject line: “Sweet post-class denial.”

If you received an approval

The Department must complete discharge, refunds, and credit corrections within one year of your approval notice. If that one-year window passes without complete relief, email sweet@ed.gov and copy info@ppsl.org.

If you applied after November 15, 2022

You are not part of the post-class group. Automatic relief does not apply to you. Your Borrower Defense application is processed under current regulations.

The Department’s appeal does not pause your relief — the Ninth Circuit confirmed this on March 25.

The Department filed a notice of appeal on February 24, 2026, and an emergency motion to stay the settlement deadlines on February 27. The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on March 20 and denied the stay on March 25. That ruling was unanimous.

To obtain a stay, the Department had to show it was likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal and that the other Nken v. Holder factors favored a pause. The Ninth Circuit found it failed on both counts — the Department did not demonstrate that the two district court judges who denied extension requests had clearly abused their discretion, and the equities favored borrowers, not further delay. The published opinion put it plainly: the Department could point to no changed circumstances that render it inequitable to apply the same settlement agreement it had bargained for years ago.

The merits appeal continues. The Department’s opening brief was due April 9, with PPSL’s response to follow. PPSL filed its answering brief on April 23. The Department filed a reply brief on May 7, completing the briefing phase. The Ninth Circuit has not yet scheduled oral argument. Based on the court’s typical civil appeal timeline — approximately four months after briefing — a hearing is likely around September 2026. The appeal does not pause settlement relief.

Could the Department claw back discharges if it ultimately prevails on appeal? Legal experts note that the automatic discharges flow from the Department’s settlement and compromise authority — not from a regulatory rule subject to rescission — making them unlikely to be clawed back even if the Department wins the appeal. That question has not been formally adjudicated, but it remains the prevailing view among practitioners tracking the case. The final non-Exhibit C group stands on the same footing as the borrowers notified in the earlier rounds — its relief is no more vulnerable to the appeal than theirs.

• June 22, 2022 — Settlement reached in Sweet v. Cardona (later recaptioned Sweet v. McMahon)

• June 23–November 15, 2022 — Post-class Borrower Defense application window

• November 16, 2022 — Court grants final settlement approval

• November 5, 2024 — Ninth Circuit dismisses appeals filed by three original intervenors

• December 11, 2025 — Court denies Department’s first extension request; sets April 15, 2026, deadline for non-Exhibit C applicants

• January 22, 2026 — Department files second Rule 60(b) motion seeking extension

• January 28, 2026 — Exhibit C post-class deadline missed; automatic relief triggered

• February 23, 2026 — U.S. Supreme Court declines review of separate challenge

• February 24, 2026 — Court denies second extension request; Department files notice of appeal

• February 27, 2026 — Department files emergency stay motion in the Ninth Circuit

• March 20, 2026 — Ninth Circuit hears oral arguments on the stay motion

• March 25, 2026 — Ninth Circuit unanimously denies stay motion

• March 30, 2026 — Department sends Full Settlement Relief eligibility notices to Exhibit C post-class applicants; relief due by March 30, 2027

• April 9, 2026 — Department’s opening merits brief due in the Ninth Circuit

• April 15, 2026 — Non-Exhibit C post-class deadline passes; automatic Full Settlement Relief triggered

• April 23, 2026 — PPSL files answering brief in the Ninth Circuit

• May 7, 2026 — Department files reply brief; briefing phase complete

• June 15, 2026 — Department sends eligibility notices to the final non-Exhibit C post-class group (~30,000 borrowers)

• Within one year of written notice — Discharge, refunds, and credit corrections must be completed

• Sweet settlement contact (Department of Education): sweet@ed.gov

• Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL): info@ppsl.org

• Borrower Defense Hotline: 1-855-279-6207

• Federal Student Aid portal: StudentAid.gov

• Court case: Sweet v. McMahon, No. 19-cv-3674 (N.D. Cal.)

• Exhibit C school list: See the Exhibit C School List section above for the direct PDF link

• Full settlement agreement and case documents: PPSL case page