Federal Direct Student Loans

Program overview. CFDA 84.268 — Federal Direct Student Loans — is a federal assistance listing in the Education category, administered by U.S. Department of Education (ED). The typical award range cataloged on SAM.gov is $1,000 to $21,000. The program is currently active in the SAM.gov Assistance Listings database. Eligible applicants include Individual / Person.

Funding opportunities. No open Grants.gov announcements are currently indexed under CFDA 84.268 in PlainGrants. That typically means the awarding agency runs this program on a multi-year cycle or publishes cooperative agreements and contracts under separate listing numbers. The best verification step is to check Grants.gov directly and subscribe to the awarding agency's funding-announcement mailing list. Grant announcements can appear and close within a 30-day window, so timing matters.

Next steps. Before applying for CFDA 84.268, confirm your organization has an active SAM.gov registration and a Unique Entity ID (UEI) — these are mandatory for every federal funding instrument. Read the current Notice of Funding Opportunity end-to-end, paying close attention to the cost-share or matching requirement, the evaluation criteria, and the narrative page limits. Education-category grants frequently require formal partnerships with local education agencies or accredited institutions — line those commitments up early. For structural help, the guides linked below cover SAM.gov setup, NOFO interpretation, and common rejection reasons.