FAFSA confusion - I claim BF's daughter on taxes but I'm not her legal parent - who should be on her application?

For FAFSA purposes, your stepdaughter needs to report her legal parent(s) only. Since her father is her legal parent and the biological mother is absent, she should list her father on the FAFSA. The FAFSA specifically asks for legal parents, not who claims the student as a tax dependent. Even though you provide financial support, unless you've legally adopted her, you're not considered her parent for FAFSA purposes. Your boyfriend will need to create an FSA ID and complete the parent portion of the FAFSA. Since he has no income, he'll report zeros for income questions, which actually might help her qualify for more aid.

OMG im going thru the EXACT SAME THING with my partners kid!!!! its so freaking confusing and the studentaid website is useless for blended family situations. We called the FAFSA number THREE TIMES and got different answers each time. One person told us both parents had to be listed, another said just the bio parent, and the third hung up on us mid-call. Im about to give up on the whole thing tbh.

The rule is pretty straightforward: FAFSA requires information from legal parents only. Since the father is the only legal parent in the picture, only his information goes on the form. The fact that you claim her on taxes doesn't matter for FAFSA purposes. The father will need to report his zero income and explain that he's a stay-at-home parent. Your information is not included unless you're married to her father or have legally adopted her. This might actually work in your daughter's favor since the expected family contribution (now called the Student Aid Index or SAI) will likely be very low based on just the father's zero income.

her dad needs 2 fill out the FAFSA. u dont count as parent unless ur married 2 him or legally adopter her. my cousin had same issue.

After going through this process with my stepson, I learned that the FAFSA has a specific definition of "parent" that only includes biological or adoptive parents, or stepparents if they're married to the biological parent. If you and the father aren't married, you're not considered a parent for FAFSA purposes even if you financially support her. One thing to note: if they select for verification (which they might since the father is reporting zero income), be prepared to provide documentation explaining the household situation. The father should be ready to explain how household expenses are covered despite his zero income.

If anyone is having trouble getting through to a real person at Federal Student Aid, try Claimyr (claimyr.com). I was stuck in the same situation - non-legal parent/blended family mess - and spent DAYS trying to get through to someone at FSA for clarification. Claimyr got me connected to an agent in about 10 minutes. The agent went through our exact situation and explained exactly who should be listed on the FAFSA. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Seriously saved me hours of frustration.

I think everyones missing something important here - if your boyfriends been a stay at home dad with NO income for years, how has he been supporting himself? FAFSA will absolutely question this and probably flag the application for verification. You might want to consult with the financial aid office at the community college directly to see what documentation they'll need to show your household support structure. They deal with all sorts of family situations and can give specific advice.

Thank you all for the advice! I called the community college's financial aid office this morning, and they confirmed that only my boyfriend (her legal father) should be listed on the FAFSA since we're not married. They said to have him report zero income and be prepared to provide a written statement explaining how our household expenses are covered if they request verification. The counselor mentioned this happens frequently with blended families, so we shouldn't worry too much. I appreciate everyone's help with sorting this out!

UGH why does the FAFSA have to be so COMPLICATED?? It's like they designed it to be confusing on purpose! And now with all the new changes to the 2024-2025 FAFSA it's even MORE confusing. Did your college say anything about the new SAI score vs the old EFC? I heard they're using a different formula now.