Confused about parent's used Pell Grant showing on student FAFSA dashboard - can my child still receive aid?

You're definitely reading this wrong! The FAFSA dashboard is showing YOUR old Pell Grant history because you used your FSA ID to help your son complete his FAFSA. The system is displaying your personal aid history, not his. Your son will receive his own separate Pell Grant eligibility determination based on the SAI calculation from your completed FAFSA application. Your previous Pell usage doesn't impact his eligibility at all.

This happens ALL THE TIME! When parents log in with their FSA ID to help complete their child's FAFSA, they see their own federal aid history on the dashboard. It's super confusing and the studentaid.gov website should really make this clearer! Your son will get his own separate Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant eligibility. Your past Pell Grant usage has zero impact on his eligibility. He gets a fresh start with his own lifetime limit (600%). Schools will determine his exact Pell amount based on his SAI and their cost of attendance.

wait so pell grants have a 600% lifetime limit? is that like 6 years worth? my sister used hers for like 3 years then stopped going, does that mean she only has 300% left if she goes back?

This is a common point of confusion! The dashboard is showing YOUR Pell Grant history because you logged in with your FSA ID. Each person gets their own separate 600% lifetime eligibility for Pell Grants (equivalent to about 6 years of full-time enrollment). The confusing part about your dashboard showing both "100% used" and "500% remaining" is likely a display error or misreading. If you used Pell Grant for one year of full-time study years ago, you would have used approximately 100% of that year's eligibility, leaving 500% remaining. But this is all about YOU, not your son. Your son will receive his own separate Pell Grant eligibility determination based on your family's financial information provided in the FAFSA. His eligibility and award will appear in his financial aid package directly from the college he plans to attend.

Correct - you won't see his specific Pell Grant amount on the FAFSA dashboard. After your FAFSA is processed, his college's financial aid office will put together his complete aid package based on his Student Aid Index (SAI) and their cost of attendance. That package will include any Pell Grant he qualifies for, along with other federal, state, and institutional aid. The college will send this package directly to your son (usually to the email he provided on his application). This typically happens a few weeks after acceptance, though timing varies by school. Some schools release all financial aid packages on a specific date.

I spent HOURS last month trying to get through to someone at Federal Student Aid with this EXACT same question!!! The phone lines are always busy and I kept getting disconnected. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an actual FSA agent who confirmed everything people are saying here - parent's Pell history doesn't affect the student at all. Saved me so much stress! They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ if anyone else is struggling to get answers from FSA directly.

This whole FAFSA system is so messed up this year! First they delay the application for months, then they roll out a glitchy "simplified" form, and now they're confusing parents by showing their old Pell info on their kids' accounts?? No wonder everyone's panicking about financial aid! My daughter's school financial aid office told me they're STILL waiting on complete FAFSA data for some students who submitted months ago. The whole system is a disaster. I hope your son actually gets his aid package before school starts!

Just to address your other question about the 100% used vs 500% remaining confusion - this is actually referring to different measurements. The 100% likely means you used 100% of your Pell eligibility for that specific award year when you attended college. The 500% remaining refers to your overall lifetime eligibility remaining (out of 600% total). So if you attended full-time for one year, you used 100% of that year's eligibility, which equals about 100% of your lifetime 600% limit, leaving 500% remaining. Hope that makes sense!

One important thing to know: if your son does qualify for a Pell Grant, he will see this information in his aid offer directly from the college - not on studentaid.gov. Each school will calculate his exact Pell Grant amount based on: 1. His Student Aid Index (SAI) calculated from your FAFSA 2. The school's cost of attendance 3. Whether he's attending full-time or part-time The maximum Pell Grant for the 2025-2026 academic year is $7,395, but most students receive partial amounts based on their financial need. Make sure your son checks both his email and his student portal at each college for financial aid information.

Thank you all so much for the helpful explanations! I feel much better knowing this is just showing MY old history and doesn't affect my son. I'll wait for his college to send the official aid package to see what he qualifies for. This whole new FAFSA process has been so confusing compared to when I briefly did it years ago. I appreciate everyone taking time to help clarify things!

I'm so glad you found the answers you needed! This exact same thing happened to me when I helped my daughter with her FAFSA last year. I panicked thinking there was some kind of mistake that would hurt her chances of getting aid. The FSA dashboard really needs better labeling to make it clear whose information is being displayed. It would save so many parents from unnecessary stress! Your son should be able to get his full Pell Grant eligibility based on your family's current financial situation. Best of luck to him in college!

As a financial aid advisor, I can confirm everything everyone has said here is correct! This is one of the most common sources of confusion for parents this year. The FAFSA dashboard showing your old Pell Grant history when you log in with your FSA ID is completely normal and doesn't impact your son's eligibility at all. Just want to add one more helpful tip: once your son receives his financial aid offer from his college, he can also check his remaining Pell Grant eligibility on the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) using his own FSA ID. This will show HIS personal aid history going forward, separate from yours. The 2024-25 FAFSA rollout has definitely created more confusion than usual, but your son's aid should process normally once the colleges receive the data. Hang in there!

As someone who just went through this exact same panic last month, I totally understand your confusion! When I logged into my FSA ID to help my daughter with her FAFSA, I saw all my old Pell Grant information from when I went to community college in the early 2000s. I immediately thought there was some kind of error that would prevent her from getting aid. After calling around to different financial aid offices, I learned that this is completely normal - the system shows YOUR aid history when you use your FSA ID, not your child's potential eligibility. Your son will get his own fresh start with the full 600% lifetime Pell Grant eligibility. The colleges will determine his actual award amount based on his SAI and their cost of attendance. I know it's frustrating how unclear the dashboard is about this! My daughter ended up receiving a substantial Pell Grant despite my old usage showing up in the system. Your past college attendance and Pell Grant usage has absolutely no impact on his eligibility - they're treated as completely separate students in the federal aid system.

This is such a common source of confusion and you're definitely not alone! I went through the same exact panic when helping my son with his FAFSA earlier this year. The dashboard design is really poorly thought out - it should clearly indicate whose information is being displayed. Just to echo what everyone else has said: your old Pell Grant usage has absolutely zero impact on your son's eligibility. Each student gets their own fresh 600% lifetime limit regardless of what their parents used. The federal system treats you as completely separate borrowers. One thing that helped ease my mind was calling my son's college financial aid office directly. They confirmed that they would be calculating his Pell Grant based solely on his SAI and their cost of attendance - my aid history never even comes into their decision process. Most schools are pretty understanding about parent confusion this year given all the FAFSA delays and system issues. Your son should receive his aid package directly from each college he applied to, typically a few weeks after acceptance. That's where you'll see his actual Pell Grant amount if he qualifies. The FAFSA dashboard won't show student-specific award amounts.

I completely understand your confusion! This happened to me too when I helped my twins with their FAFSA applications. The dashboard showing MY old Pell Grant information instead of theirs was so misleading - I spent hours thinking I had somehow messed up their applications. What really helped me was understanding that the FSA ID is tied to YOUR personal federal aid history, so whenever you log in to help with your son's FAFSA, the system displays your records. But here's the key thing: your son's eligibility is calculated completely independently based on the financial information you provided in HIS FAFSA. The colleges don't even see your old aid history when they're putting together his financial aid package. They only use his Student Aid Index (SAI) and their own cost of attendance to determine his Pell Grant amount. Both of my kids ended up receiving full Pell Grants despite my confusing dashboard showing my 20-year-old community college records! The best part is that if you ever do decide to go back to school yourself, you still have that 500% remaining eligibility available to you as a separate student. But for now, just focus on waiting for your son's aid packages from his colleges - that's where you'll see his actual awards.

I'm going through this exact same situation right now! Just submitted my daughter's FAFSA last week and when I logged in to check the status, I saw my old Pell Grant info from when I attended a trade school about 10 years ago. I immediately panicked thinking there was some kind of system error that would affect her eligibility. Reading through all these responses has been such a huge relief! It's crazy how poorly designed the dashboard is - they really should have a clear header or something indicating "This is showing YOUR aid history, not your student's potential eligibility." The number of parents who go through this same panic shows it's a major design flaw. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences, especially those who confirmed their kids still received full Pell Grants despite the confusing parent information showing up. Now I can stop stressing and just wait patiently for her college aid packages to arrive!

I just want to add my voice to everyone else saying this is TOTALLY normal! I'm a mom of three kids who have all gone through college, and I've seen this confusing dashboard display every single time I helped them with their FAFSA. It never stops being jarring to see my ancient college records pop up when I'm trying to help my kids! What I've learned over the years is that the federal aid system is actually really good at keeping everyone's records separate - it's just the user interface that's confusing. Each of my kids got their own fresh start with Pell Grant eligibility, and the amounts they received had nothing to do with what I used decades ago when I was in school. The good news is that once your son gets his aid package from his college, you'll have much clearer information to work with. College financial aid offices are usually pretty good at explaining exactly how they calculated his awards. Don't let this dashboard confusion stress you out - your son's financial aid will be determined based on your current family financial situation, not your old college history!