FAFSA dashboard glitch - daughter's application disappeared after wife updated tax info

This is actually normal behavior for the 2025-2026 FAFSA. The application is designed to show up only on the dashboard of the contributor who was listed as the primary parent. If your wife was entered as the primary contributor for your daughter, that's why it appears on her account but not yours. Similarly, you were probably listed as the primary contributor for your son, so his appears on your account but not hers. This is different from previous years where both parents could see all applications.

had this same thing happen 2 me last week!!! thought my daughters app was deleted and FREAKED OUT. called fafsa n they said its the new system. so annoying they dont explain this anywhere!!

Same thing happened to us but we thought we lost the application entirely and started a new one. Now we have duplicate applications for our son 😫

This is a known issue with the 2025-2026 FAFSA where the application visibility is tied to the primary contributor listed on each student's form. It's part of the new multi-contributor functionality. If you need to see both applications, you have two options: 1. You can share login credentials with your spouse (though this isn't officially recommended for security reasons) 2. You can contact Federal Student Aid and request they link both applications to both parent accounts. They can do this, but you may have trouble getting through on the phone lines. The good news is that both applications are still in the system and processing correctly - it's just a visibility issue.

I had this exact problem! It's because of how the new multi-contributor model works. The system is actually working correctly, believe it or not. The applications aren't lost, they're just showing up based on who was listed as the primary contributor.

I've been trying to reach Federal Student Aid for 3 days straight with this exact same issue and can never get through. The hold times are ridiculous and I've been disconnected twice after waiting over 45 minutes. If anyone finds a direct contact method that works, please share!

Anyone know if this affects how the SAI is calculated? Im worried that somehow our income will be counted twice or something since the apps are on different accounts

UPDATE: We finally got through to Federal Student Aid after trying for two days. The agent confirmed what everyone here said - this is actually the intended behavior for the new system. Each contributor can only see the applications where they're listed as the primary. The agent said they're getting tons of calls about this because it wasn't clearly communicated to families. They said they'll be updating their help documentation soon. For now, we're just coordinating between our two accounts.

One more tip: if you go to the "My Documents" section in your StudentAid.gov account, you should still be able to see the SAR (Student Aid Report) for all students you contributed to, even if their application doesn't show on your main dashboard. This can be a helpful workaround for checking the status of both kids' applications without having to log in and out of different accounts.

This thread has been so helpful! I'm dealing with the exact same situation and was panicking that we'd somehow lost our daughter's application. It's frustrating that this major change in how the dashboard works wasn't clearly communicated anywhere in the FAFSA instructions. The fact that so many families are calling FSA about this shows they really dropped the ball on explaining the new multi-contributor visibility system. At least now I know our application is safe and just living on my husband's dashboard instead of mine. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences!