In most cases the answer is no. A reaffirmation agreement is a voluntary contract in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy that makes you personally liable again for a debt the court would otherwise wipe out. You usually do not need one to keep your house, you generally cannot reaffirm student loans because they are not discharged in the first place, and there is no such thing as a "reaffirmation agreement" for FAFSA. Before you sign anything, it helps to understand exactly what reaffirmation does and the narrow situations where it actually makes sense.
What a reaffirmation agreement actually is
Reaffirmation is a creature of the federal Bankruptcy Code, specifically 11 U.S.C. § 524(c). When you file Chapter 7, the discharge order erases your personal legal obligation to pay most debts. A reaffirmation agreement is you choosing to carve one debt back out of that discharge and promise to keep owing it, exactly as if you had never filed. If you sign and the debt is reaffirmed, you are back on the hook personally. If you later fall behind, the creditor can sue you, get a judgment, and pursue your wages or other assets, even though everything else was discharged.
Because that is a serious step, Congress built in safeguards. A reaffirmation agreement must be in writing and filed with the court. It has to include disclosures about the amount, the interest rate, and the fact that the agreement is voluntary. If you have a lawyer, your attorney must certify that the agreement does not impose an undue hardship on you and that you were fully informed. If you do not have a lawyer, or your attorney will not sign off, a bankruptcy judge often has to hold a hearing and approve it. You also have a federal right to cancel, called rescission: you can back out of a reaffirmation up until your discharge is entered, or within 60 days after the agreement is filed with the court, whichever is later. Sending the cancellation in writing and keeping a copy is the safe way to do it.
The key takeaway is that reaffirmation only ever applies to debts that would be discharged. If a debt is not getting discharged anyway, there is nothing to reaffirm.
Reaffirming a mortgage: usually unnecessary and often risky
A mortgage is a secured debt. That means two separate things are going on: your personal promise to repay (the note) and the lender's lien on the house (the mortgage or deed of trust). Bankruptcy discharge wipes out the personal promise. It does not remove the lien. The lien rides through bankruptcy untouched, which is why the lender can still foreclose if payments stop.
Here is the part that surprises people: in many parts of the country you can keep your home and keep making payments without signing a reaffirmation agreement at all. This is sometimes called "retain and pay" or a "ride-through." As long as you stay current, the lender has no reason to foreclose, and you keep living in the house. The practical difference is what happens if things go wrong later. Without a reaffirmation, if you ever need to walk away from the house, you can hand it back and owe nothing, because your personal liability was discharged. With a reaffirmation, you are personally liable again, so a future foreclosure could leave you owing a deficiency depending on your state's law.
That is why many bankruptcy attorneys advise against reaffirming a mortgage. You typically get little upside and you give up the protection you just earned. Some lenders will pressure you, and some have stopped reporting mortgage payments to the credit bureaus when there is no reaffirmation, which can be frustrating if you are trying to rebuild credit. Whether that trade-off is worth it is a personal call, and practices vary by lender and by court. This is an area where talking to your own bankruptcy lawyer about local custom genuinely matters, because how courts and trustees handle mortgage ride-throughs varies from district to district.
One important caution: do not stop paying a mortgage you want to keep just because you filed bankruptcy. The lien survives. If you miss payments, the foreclosure process can begin regardless of the discharge, and whether you ever signed a reaffirmation.
What about car loans?
Cars are where reaffirmation comes up most often, so it is worth a quick word. Auto lenders are far more likely than mortgage lenders to require a reaffirmation as a condition of keeping the vehicle, and some will repossess a car even when payments are current if you do not reaffirm. If you decide a car is essential, reaffirming may be the practical price of keeping it. Even then, look hard at whether the car is worth more than you owe and whether the payment fits your post-bankruptcy budget. The undue-hardship safeguard exists precisely so you do not reaffirm a payment you cannot realistically make.
Student loans: there is nothing to reaffirm
This is the biggest source of confusion, so let's be clear. Reaffirmation only applies to debts that get discharged. Federal student loans, and most private student loans, are generally not discharged in an ordinary bankruptcy. Under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8), student loans survive bankruptcy unless you bring a separate lawsuit inside your case (an "adversary proceeding") and prove that repaying them would cause an "undue hardship." That is a high bar, though it is not impossible, and recent federal guidance has made the process somewhat more navigable for people who genuinely cannot pay.