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.

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!

This thread is absolutely amazing! As a newcomer to both this community and the FAFSA process, I'm blown away by how comprehensive and helpful everyone's responses have been. Reading through the original panic about the signature glitch and then seeing all the detailed solutions and success stories has been incredibly reassuring. I had no idea these technical issues were so common with the new FAFSA system, but it's clear that while frustrating, they're definitely manageable with the right approach. The step-by-step advice about calling FSA at 8am, using services like Claimyr as backup, and keeping detailed documentation is going to be invaluable when I start my own FAFSA journey next month. It's also really encouraging to see how supportive this community is - turning what could be an overwhelming crisis into a learning opportunity that will help countless other families. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and solutions - this is exactly the kind of resource that makes navigating these complex processes feel so much less intimidating!

What an incredibly helpful thread! As a newcomer to this community, I'm amazed by how supportive everyone has been in sharing their FAFSA signature glitch experiences and solutions. I'm actually starting my own FAFSA application next week and had no idea about any of these potential issues with the new system. Reading through all the detailed advice - from creating the FSA ID first, to checking the submission PDF immediately, to having backup contact methods ready - has been like getting a crash course in FAFSA troubleshooting. It's both concerning and reassuring to see how widespread this signature issue is, but knowing there are proven solutions (especially that 8am calling strategy and the Claimyr service) gives me so much more confidence going into the process. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their experiences - this thread is going to help countless families navigate these technical challenges!

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!

the whole college process is SO STRESSFUL!!! our fafsa got flagged for verification last year and we nearly lost our deposit window too. glad they gave u an extension!

That's fantastic news about getting the extension! You made absolutely the right call waiting for the complete financial aid package. With your SAI of 432, there's a real possibility of significant additional aid that could save you thousands over four years. Your son might be anxious now, but he'll thank you later when he graduates debt-free or with minimal loans. The 10-day extension should give you plenty of time to make an informed decision with all the financial information in hand.