Divorced parents and FAFSA 2025-26: Can custodial parent file when child support ended in 2023?

yep it's a MESS. my parents divorced when i was 14 and the exact same thing is happening to me now. dad paid support until i graduated hs but nothing for college, and that 2023 child support is making my moms income look way higher than it actually is now. financial aid office told me there's no official workaround bc the system is designed to use that tax year no matter what. totally unfair!!!

This is definitely a challenge with the 2025-26 FAFSA. To clarify: the system requires information from the "base year" (2023) regardless of current financial situations. However, you do have some options: 1. Your mother should be the only contributor completing the FAFSA as the custodial parent. 2. The child support received IS counted as untaxed income on the FAFSA, but you can request a "Professional Judgment" review (sometimes called a Special Circumstances review) from each college's financial aid office. 3. You'll need to document that the child support has permanently ended and provide evidence of your mother's current financial situation. Each school handles these reviews differently, so you'll need to contact each financial aid office where you've applied.

My daughter went thru this last yr... its SO FRUSTRATING!!! the child suport from 2023 counts even tho its gone now. we filed special circumstances form at 5 different schools and 3 of them gave us more aid but 2 said NO. its a ton of paperwork and each school wanted different documents. we had to show court order that payments ended, bank statements, budget worksheet, explanations... so much work!!!

The divorce trap is a massive problem with the simplified FAFSA. While there's no official workaround, here's what works for many families: Your mother should complete the FAFSA as the custodial contributor, then immediately contact each school's financial aid office (don't wait for acceptances). Request their specific Professional Judgment forms and be very explicit that the child support shown on 2023 taxes has permanently ended due to legal age requirements. Most importantly, submit a detailed letter explaining: 1. Exact dates and amounts of child support received in 2023 2. The legal termination date 3. The projected difference in household income for 2025-26 4. How this impacts your ability to pay for college Attach the court order showing the termination of support. Schools are seeing this issue frequently and many have streamlined processes for these adjustments.

I've been trying to get through to the Federal Student Aid helpline for THREE DAYS about this exact issue!! They keep disconnecting me after 45+ minutes on hold. This system is broken and nobody at FSA seems to care that divorced families are getting screwed by these outdated income calculations. Has anyone actually managed to talk to a human being at FSA who could explain the official policy on this?

Look at page 8 of the FSA 2025-26 FAFSA processing guidelines. There's a specific provision for "non-recurring income" that financial aid offices can use for professional judgment reviews. Child support that ended in 2023 falls under this category. Print this page from the FSA website and include it with your special circumstances documentation to each school. I've helped several students successfully appeal using this specific reference - it carries more weight when you cite their own guidelines back to them.

BEWARE of the "verified FAFSA" trap too!! My nephew submitted all his professional judgment forms but then got selected for verification AFTER they adjusted his aid. The verification process basically canceled out all the adjustments they'd made for the child support situation. The whole system is rigged against kids from divorced homes!

does anyone know if you can use the CSS Profile to explain this stuff better? i heard some private schools use that instead of just FAFSA and it lets you explain special situations more. my cousin said it worked better for him with divorced parents but idk if that's still true with the new FAFSA system

I'm dealing with this exact same nightmare! My parents divorced when I was 12, and my dad's child support payments ended in December 2023 when I turned 18. Now the FAFSA is counting all that 2023 child support as "current" income for my mom, but she's literally getting ZERO from him for college expenses. It's so frustrating because the system makes it look like we have way more money than we actually do. I've been putting together documentation for Professional Judgment appeals, but it's overwhelming trying to figure out what each school wants. This whole situation just proves how broken the financial aid system is for students from divorced families - we're being punished for something that's completely out of our control!