Education Department Appeals Court Deadlines for Sweet v. McMahon Student Loan Settlement

Thousands of borrowers are expecting to receive formal notices in four weeks that their student loans are getting discharged. The notices are required under the court-approved Sweet v. McMahon settlement if the Education Department failed to adjudicate applications by the April 15 deadline.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon testified during a Senate Committee hearing on April 28, 2026, in Washington, amid the department's efforts to delay the discharges. The department filed its reply brief last week before May 12, 2026, continuing its appeal of lower court decisions. The Sweet v.

McMahon class action lawsuit was initially filed during the first Trump administration. Hundreds of thousands of federal student loan borrowers argued in the lawsuit that the Education Department had unlawfully delayed or denied applications for Borrower Defense to Repayment.

Borrower Defense to Repayment allows borrowers to request student loan forgiveness if their school defrauded them by making false promises about central aspects of their program.

In 2022, the Education Department reached a settlement agreement in Sweet v. McMahon that has resulted in the discharge of federal student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers. The last group of Sweet v.

McMahon borrowers consists of post-class applicants who submitted Borrower Defense applications during a short window in 2022 before the settlement agreement received final court approval. Two federal district court judges rejected the Education Department's request to delay final settlement relief for post-class applicants.

One federal district court judge ruled in February that at no point before November 2025 did the Department signal that it would have any trouble meeting its deadline to adjudicate all post-class applications. The January 28, 2026 deadline is referenced in the February court ruling denying the department’s request for a deadline extension.

The Education Department filed an emergency request for a stay of the district court’s February decision with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Education Department is appealing, arguing that the lower court judges abused their discretion when they denied the department’s request to delay providing settlement relief by 18 months. The Project for Predatory Student Lending filed a response brief in late April arguing that both the January 28 and April 15 deadlines have now passed.

The Education Department stated it has provided $12 billion in relief to nearly 300,000 borrowers for parties to the litigation. The Project on Predatory Student Lending posted on X last week: 'SWEET UPDATE: The Department of Education has filed a reply brief in support of its appeal of key post-class deadlines in Sweet v.

The Project on Predatory Student Lending stated on X: 'As always, PPSL is ready to fight to ensure borrowers receive the relief they are owed under the settlement agreement.

Under the Sweet v. McMahon settlement, remaining post-class applicants who did not receive a decision by April 15 are supposed to receive a formal notice by June 15 that they are entitled to full settlement relief. Full settlement relief includes discharge of federal student loans and a refund of payments made on those loans.

Student loan forgiveness is expected to go through within one year of the June 15 notice. The settlement agreement was court-approved. The legal battle in Sweet v. McMahon has been ongoing for nearly a decade.

@Forbes reported on the latest developments in the case on May 12, 2026.