Divorced parents and FAFSA 2025-2026: Which parent fills out the form?
Just found out my daughter needs to submit her FAFSA for next fall and I'm completely confused about the divorced parent situation. My ex and I have been divorced for 3 years and share custody 50/50, but our daughter lives with me slightly more (about 60% of the time). Do we both need to complete the FAFSA or just one of us? If it's just one parent, how do they determine which one? I've googled this and gotten totally contradicting information - some sites say it's the parent who provides more financial support, others say it's where she lived most in the past year. Can anyone who's been through this clarify? Her college deadline is coming up fast and I don't want to mess this up!
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Zoey Bianchi
With the new FAFSA (2025-2026), only ONE parent completes the form if divorced - whichever parent the student lived with MORE during the past 12 months. Since your daughter lives with you 60% of the time, YOU are the parent who should complete the FAFSA. Your ex-spouse's information is not required or included. This is actually one of the few straightforward rules in the new FAFSA!
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Aiden Chen
•Thank you so much! That seems clear cut and makes things easier than I thought. Do I need any documentation to prove she lives with me more? I'm worried they might question this since we have joint custody on paper.
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Christopher Morgan
its actually where kid lived MOST in past year. my ex tried to claim he should fill it out cus he makes way less $$ but financial aid office said nope, i had to do it cus our son stayed at my house more nights. doesnt matter if its 51% vs 49% of the time, just who had more overnights. and yes only 1 parent now!!
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Aiden Chen
•That's such a relief! I was worried we'd have to coordinate or something. So they won't look at my ex's income at all? Even though he pays child support?
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Aurora St.Pierre
The '24-'25 FAFSA simplified this process significantly. Here's what matters: 1. Only the parent with whom the student resided MORE during the 12-month period preceding FAFSA submission 2. If equal time, then whoever provided more financial support 3. Child support received IS reported as untaxed income 4. Your ex's information is completely excluded Since your daughter lives with you 60% of the time, you're definitely the parent who should complete the form. The system won't even ask for your ex's information.
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Aiden Chen
•This is super helpful, thank you! One more question - does my current spouse (student's step-parent) need to provide income information too? Or is it just me since I'm the biological parent?
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Aurora St.Pierre
•If you've remarried, then yes - your current spouse (the step-parent) MUST provide their income and asset information on the FAFSA. The system considers your household to include both you and your current spouse, even if the step-parent has no legal or financial responsibility for your daughter.
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Grace Johnson
I went through this exact situation last year with my son. Since you have your daughter 60% of the time, YOU fill out the FAFSA alone. Your ex doesn't need to be involved at all. BUT - one important thing to know: if you've remarried, your current spouse's income WILL be counted even if they have no relationship with your daughter. That tripped me up at first.
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Aiden Chen
•I actually am remarried. So my husband's income counts even though he has zero financial responsibility for my daughter? That seems really unfair. My ex makes more money than both of us combined.
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Grace Johnson
•Unfortunately yes, that's exactly how it works. Your current household income (you + spouse) is what matters, not your ex's income - even if they make more. The system doesn't look at who's legally responsible for education costs, just the household where the student primarily lives.
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Jayden Reed
My EX REFUSED TO GIVE ME ANY INFO when our son was applying so I called fsastudentaid and waited 3 HOURS just to find out I didn't even need his info!!! they should make this clearer! could have saved so much stress if i knew only 1 parent needed to fill it out!!!
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Nora Brooks
•OMG I know!! I waited on hold with them for like 2 hours last month about a different issue and then got disconnected! The whole system is a mess.
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Eli Wang
•The hold times with Federal Student Aid are insane. I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that let me skip the hold queue - they call and wait on hold, then connect you once a live agent picks up. Saved me literal hours. They have a demo video: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Worth it considering how much financial aid can be at stake with these questions.
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Zoey Bianchi
•OMG THANK YOU for the Claimyr tip! I just tried it and it worked - connected to an actual human FSA agent in about 15 minutes instead of waiting 2+ hours myself. Huge timesaver.
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Christopher Morgan
OH! and dont forget that child support DOES count as income you have to report! they will ask about it so have records of what you received last year
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Aiden Chen
•Thanks for pointing that out. I do get child support and wouldn't have thought to include it. Is alimony also counted or just the child support payments?
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Christopher Morgan
•pretty sure alimony counts too as untaxed income but double check... my ex doesn't pay that so i didnt have to deal with it lol
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Nora Brooks
UGH I'm going through this exact thing but reversed - my ex has our son 51% of the time but makes WAYYYY more money than me so our son is getting almost no aid. Seems so unfair the system doesn't look at both parents when we both support him. Wish there was some appeal process for situations like this.
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Zoey Bianchi
•Unfortunately, there's no formal appeal process for the custody determination. The school's financial aid office can sometimes make professional judgment adjustments, but they rarely change whose information is collected - that's set by federal rules.
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Nora Brooks
•The whole system is rigged IMO. Divorced parents get screwed compared to married ones because only one income counts instead of household total. So backwards.
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Aiden Chen
Thank you everyone for the helpful responses! To summarize what I learned: - I fill out the FAFSA alone since my daughter lives with me more (60%) - My current husband's income WILL count even though he's not legally responsible - I need to report the child support I receive as untaxed income I'll start gathering all our tax info and get this submitted asap. Really appreciate all the help!
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Aurora St.Pierre
•That's perfect! One last tip - create both you and your daughter's FSA IDs now if you haven't already. That part can take a few days to process and is often a last-minute holdup. Good luck!
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Aiden Chen
•Great tip! I'm doing that right now. Thanks again everyone!
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Ethan Wilson
Just want to add one more important detail that helped me - make sure you have documentation ready about where your daughter actually lived during the past 12 months. I kept a simple calendar/log showing which nights she stayed at each house because the financial aid office at my son's school actually asked for proof when our custody situation was close to 50/50. They accepted things like school enrollment records, medical records showing your address, or even a simple signed statement. Better to have it ready than scramble for it later if they ask!
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Giovanni Marino
•This is really smart advice! I hadn't thought about needing documentation but that makes total sense - especially since we have joint custody on paper. I'll start putting together a record of overnight stays and gather some of those documents you mentioned. Did your school's financial aid office tell you upfront they might ask for proof, or did it come as a surprise during the process?
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Chloe Harris
I went through this same situation last year and want to emphasize how important it is to keep good records! Since you mentioned having 60% custody, you're clearly the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes, but some schools do ask for verification especially when it's not obviously one-sided. I actually created a simple spreadsheet tracking overnight stays for the full 12 months before filing - just dates and which parent's house. It ended up being super helpful when the financial aid office had questions. Also, don't stress too much about the exact percentage - as long as it's more than 50% with you, you're good to go. The new FAFSA really did simplify things compared to the old system!
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Ethan Clark
•That spreadsheet idea is genius! I wish I had thought of that earlier - I've just been going off memory about which nights she stays where. Since I still have a few weeks before the deadline, I'm definitely going to start tracking this properly going forward. Do you think it would be okay to recreate the past year's schedule based on our usual routine, or should I stick to only documenting from now on? Our custody arrangement has been pretty consistent, so I could probably reconstruct it fairly accurately.
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Emma Olsen
•I think recreating the past year's schedule would be totally fine as long as you're being honest and accurate! Since you mentioned your custody arrangement has been consistent, you probably have a good sense of the pattern. I'd suggest looking at things like school calendars, your work schedule, and any texts/emails with your ex about pickups to help jog your memory. Even if it's not 100% perfect to the day, having a reasonable reconstruction shows good faith effort to document the living situation. The key is that you can confidently say she lived with you more than 50% of the time - the exact percentage doesn't need to be calculated down to the hour!
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DeShawn Washington
As someone who just went through this process with my daughter, I can confirm everything everyone has said is correct! Since your daughter lives with you 60% of the time, you're definitely the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes. One thing I'd add is to make sure you have your 2023 tax return handy when you start filling it out - the new FAFSA can actually pull a lot of the financial info directly from the IRS now, which makes it much faster than the old version. Also, don't panic if the form seems glitchy at first - there were some technical issues early in the year but they've mostly been resolved. You've got this!
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Yuki Yamamoto
•Thanks for the reassurance! I've been putting off gathering my tax documents but sounds like I should get those ready first. Quick question - when you say the FAFSA can pull info directly from the IRS, do I still need to have my actual tax return in front of me, or does it grab everything automatically? I want to make sure I don't miss anything important when I sit down to fill it out this weekend.
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