Hello there!
Your question asks when does a student need to file the FAFSA.
Answer: Every year of college attendance
The reason why "every year of college attendance" would be the correct answer is because the FAFSA is required to be filled out yearly by the students.
The FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, meaning that this aid will give students the chance to receive financial aid. The reason why they ask for students to file every year because there could be one year where a student doesn't need the financial aid, and there are other years where the student needs the financial aid badly, and this is just to ensure that they're giving money to the right people. This is because financial aid could change for every year. They also have people file the FAFSA yearly to see if they have any other family members that got into college.
I hope this helps!
Best regards,
MasterInvestor