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.