FAFSA parental access to SAI score denied - how to view my child's finalized report?

I had the exact same problem last year with my son. The FAFSA system is designed to give the student privacy over their application even though we parents provide all the financial info. It's so backwards! The only way I could see his SAI was by having him log in and show me his account directly. There's no parent access feature built into the system.

As frustrating as it is, this is by design. The primary FAFSA account belongs to the student, not the parent/contributor. The privacy regulations are set up to give students ownership of their financial aid information. Your daughter will need to share her SAI and any college aid packages with you manually - either by showing you her logged-in account or by downloading and sharing the PDF of her SAI report. Have her go to her studentaid.gov account, select the SAI report, and download the PDF to share with you.

dont feel bad, my kid didnt even TELL me her SAI for 3 weeks!! kept saying the app was 'still processing' but i found out she just didnt want me to know she got a high SAI (which means less aid). these kids smh

The FAFSA system is DELIBERATELY designed to keep parents in the dark while still making us financially responsible. It's part of the whole broken financial aid system. You provide all your financial data, they calculate what you can "afford" (always way too high), then don't even let you see the results! I've been through this nightmare with three kids and it never improves.

Here's the most practical solution: Parents need to sit down with their student when they first create the FAFSA account and make sure you know the login credentials. While technically the account belongs to the student, many families choose to share access. Just have your daughter log in while you're together, and you can see everything. For future reference, completing the CSS Profile (different from FAFSA but required by many private colleges) actually does allow for separate parent accounts with access to submitted information.

I spent HOURS trying to reach someone at Federal Student Aid about this exact issue last month. Kept getting disconnected or waiting forever. Finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual FAFSA agent in about 15 minutes. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent confirmed what others are saying - there's no direct parent access to see the SAI score. But they did explain that your daughter can download her Student Aid Report (SAR) as a PDF and share it with you. That includes her SAI and all the information colleges receive.

wait is the SAI the same as EFC? my oldest is in college already but my youngest is applying now and everything seems different with this new FAFSA!!!

I bet if parents could see the SAI calculations directly, more would challenge the ridiculous numbers they come up with!!! My SAI says we can afford $32,000 a year for college when we barely make $90k combined. HOW??? The system is designed to hide the math from us on purpose!

Some colleges actually have parent portals that will show the financial aid packages once they're created, which includes the SAI information. So while the FAFSA itself doesn't have parent access, you might get visibility through the individual schools after they process her application. Each college handles this differently, so check with the financial aid offices at the schools she's considering.

I'm going through this exact same frustration right now! My son submitted his FAFSA in January and I've been completely locked out of seeing any results. It's honestly infuriating that they require all our tax documents and financial information but then treat parents like we don't exist once it's submitted. I've tried calling the Federal Student Aid helpline multiple times but the wait times are insane. At least I'm not alone in this - sounds like the system is just poorly designed for families where parents are actively involved in college planning. Going to have my son show me his account tonight so we can finally see what we're working with.