I'm in a very similar situation! Divorced with shared custody and my ex and I alternate tax years too. What I learned from going through this with my daughter last year is that you really need to focus on who provides more financial support rather than the tax claiming. Since you mentioned you're on SSDI and your ex might have higher income, it could actually benefit your son if your ex files the FAFSA since lower income typically means more aid eligibility. But here's the catch - make sure you understand how your SSDI gets reported because it does count as income on the FAFSA. I'd definitely recommend calling the financial aid offices at the colleges your son is interested in to ask about their specific policies for divorced parents. Some schools have been more flexible than others in my experience. Good luck!

As someone who works in financial aid, I want to clarify a few things about the new FAFSA rules since there's some mixed information here. For the 2025-26 FAFSA, divorced parents will still follow the "custodial parent" rule - meaning the parent who provided more than 50% of financial support OR the parent the student lived with more in the 12 months before filing. The "contributor" terminology applies more to situations involving stepparents or when both biological parents are required to provide information (which is rare). Your SSDI will be reported as untaxed income and will count toward your Student Aid Index calculation. However, since SSDI is typically lower than regular employment income, having you as the FAFSA parent might actually result in more aid for your son compared to your ex-spouse's income. I'd recommend using the Federal Student Aid Estimator tool online to compare both scenarios before deciding who should file. This will give you a clearer picture of which parent's financial information would result in a lower SAI and potentially more aid eligibility.

Verification happens to about 25% of FAFSA filers, chosen either randomly or due to discrepancies in your application. It's not necessarily bad luck - just part of the process for some. If selected, you'll need to provide additional documentation to verify your financial information. Just keep all your tax documents organized so you can easily upload them if needed. The most important thing right now is getting the application started correctly with your daughter as the applicant.

Just wanted to add a helpful tip for when you're filling it out - have your 2023 tax returns ready along with bank statements and investment account info. The new FAFSA can auto-populate some tax info using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, but you'll still need other financial documents handy. Also, don't panic if the system seems slow or kicks you out - it's been having issues this year. Just save frequently and be patient. Good luck with your daughter's application!

This thread has been such a lifesaver! I'm a newcomer dealing with this exact same frustration right now. My son invited me as a contributor for his 2025-2026 FAFSA two days ago, and I've been going in circles trying to figure out how to access his application. Like so many of you, I have my own FSA ID from my graduate school loans and keep getting stuck in my loan dashboard every time I log into studentaid.gov. There's absolutely no indication anywhere that I have a pending contributor invitation! After reading all these helpful comments, I immediately ran to check my spam folder and found the invitation email buried in there from yesterday. It's honestly shocking that this is such a widespread problem affecting so many parents - you'd think the Department of Education would have added at least a notification banner or "Contributor Access" section by now. About to try clicking that invitation link and hopefully finally get this sorted out. Thank you everyone for documenting your experiences and solutions - this community has been more helpful than the actual FAFSA website itself!

I'm a new parent dealing with this exact issue too! My daughter invited me as a contributor yesterday and I was completely lost trying to find where to access her FAFSA on studentaid.gov. Like many of you, I have my own FSA ID because of my undergrad loans, and I kept getting stuck looking at my own loan information with no clue how to get to the contributor section. This thread has been incredibly helpful - I immediately checked my spam folder after reading these comments and there it was! The invitation email from yesterday was sitting right there in spam. It's absolutely ridiculous that the system doesn't give you any indication when you log in normally that you have pending contributor invitations. You'd think there would be at least a notification or a "Parent Access" button somewhere obvious on the dashboard. Going to try that invitation link right now - thank you all for sharing your experiences and making me realize this is a widespread system problem, not just me being confused!

I'm going through this exact same situation right now with my daughter! She got into 4 schools and we've only received 2 financial aid packages so far. Reading through all these responses has been so reassuring - I had no idea you could negotiate aid packages or that the timing varies so much between schools. I'm definitely going to start making some calls this week to check on the status of the missing packages. The spreadsheet idea is brilliant too - I've been trying to keep track in my head but that's getting confusing fast. It's such a relief to know we don't have to commit before seeing all the offers. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences - this community is incredibly helpful for stressed-out parents like us!

As a parent who went through this process two years ago, I want to echo what everyone else has said - you absolutely do NOT need to commit before receiving financial aid packages! That would defeat the entire purpose of having until May 1st to make your decision. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is to pay attention to the difference between your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and what schools are actually asking you to pay. Some schools meet 100% of demonstrated need while others might only meet 60-70%, leaving you with a gap to fill. Also, watch out for "front-loaded" aid packages where schools give generous aid for freshman year but reduce it in subsequent years. My daughter ended up choosing a school that wasn't her first choice initially, but their aid package was $15,000 better per year than her "dream school." Four years later, she's thriving there and graduated debt-free while her friends from the expensive school are struggling with loans. Sometimes the universe has a way of guiding you toward the right choice through financial aid! Trust the process and don't stress too much - it all works out in the end.

As a newcomer to this community, I'm incredibly grateful for this detailed thread! I'm in a very similar situation with twins starting college this fall and was completely panicking about our SAI until I read through all these explanations. What really helped me understand the process was learning that the SAI divides among multiple students - I had no idea about this and was also imagining we'd need to pay the full amount for each child. The distinction between federal aid calculations and individual school policies is something I never would have known to research without reading everyone's experiences here. I'm particularly interested in the advice about being proactive with financial aid offices and the tip about using net price calculators with the divided SAI amount rather than the full figure. These seem like game-changing strategies that could make a huge difference in our outcomes. One question I have - for families who've successfully negotiated with schools using competing offers, how much time did you typically give schools to respond before needing to make enrollment decisions? With multiple kids, I imagine the timing gets even more complex when trying to coordinate aid packages across different institutions. Thank you all for sharing such valuable insights and creating such a supportive community for navigating this challenging process!

As a newcomer to this community, I'm incredibly relieved to find this thread! I'm also dealing with multiple kids heading to college (twins in my case) and had the exact same panic when I saw our SAI. I thought it meant we'd have to pay that full amount for each child, which would have been absolutely impossible on our income. Reading through all these detailed explanations about how the SAI actually divides among multiple students has been a huge relief. I had no idea about the difference between federal aid calculations and individual school policies either - it's clear there's so much more strategy involved than just filling out the FAFSA and hoping for the best. I'm definitely going to implement the advice about reaching out to financial aid offices proactively rather than waiting for aid packages, and the tip about using the divided SAI amount in net price calculators is brilliant. I've probably been getting completely misleading estimates this whole time! One thing I'm curious about - for families who've been through this process with multiple kids, how far in advance did you start researching schools' track records with multiple-student families? It sounds like this should be a major factor in creating our application list, but I'm not sure where to find this information beyond just calling each school directly. Thank you all for creating such an informative and supportive community for navigating this complex process!