Hi,
Given financial aid is awarded for the full school year, can a financial aid be changed in the middle of the school year?
Say in the case for a divorced parents, kid applied for financial aid using mother’s income for the 2017-2018 school year, but she decided to “stay with” the father beginning September 2017, does she need to update her information with the college for the 2017-2018 school year? and as such, will her financial aid offer be changed?
I understand when applying for aid for the 2018-2019 school year, the father will be the parent applying for aid, but I am more concerned with the aid for the 2017-2018 school year.
Was the information in the FAFSA correct on the date filed? In your example, were the parents separated on the date the FAFSA was filed?
If you win the lottery the day after you start college, you don’t have to report it for that year, but when you apply the next year, it’s all there.
Kids of divorced parents sometimes move between households. That happens.
For financial aid purposes…the custodial parent is the one the student resided with MORE for the 365 days prior to the FILING date of the initial FAFSA filing for the student. So…what happened AFTER that fafsa filing might be reflected in future years.
If the kiddo really lived with the mom MOST in the 365 days prior to the fafsa filing…that is what is counted.
If the kid moves in with dad in September 2017, it might…or might not matter next year. For example…if the fafsa is filed On October 10, 2017, you would need to figure out which parent the kid resided with the most for the year prior to October 10, 2017. It might still be the mom…
thank you. Great. that means it is the date of the filing that counts…therefore I assume it does not matter whether she moves in the summer, right?
@twoinanddone I was thinking about the possibility of winning the lottery too LOL.
If she moves during the summer…the days she resides with the other parent will be counted when you file the 2018-2019 fafsa which comes online in October.
SOOOOO…count carefully. If you want to continue as the custodial parent…then you need to make sure you file when she has still resided with YOU better than 50% of the time as of the date of the filing.
I will let her move in the summer, but was just concerned about the 2017-2018 package…But how do a parent count the days when the kid stays in the dorm?
I’m really not sure…but if her permanent address changes to the dad in the summer, I would,think any days after that would be on his count.
@kelsmom??
I misread the original post. Sorry.
The days in the dorm don’t count for either parent. You count the days (overnights) the student is with the parent, so half might not be anywhere near 183. Once a kid starts school, it might be 30 nights with one parent and 20 with the other so just 50 nights in question.
If she stays with neither parent, then you use the parent who provides the most support. It’s easy to make the numbers work so the parent with the lower income and assets is the parent used on the FAFSA - just make sure she stays one more night with that lower earning parent.
@thumper1 therefore if she “moves” to her father’s house after school begins, then it would be okay?
Yes. As @twoinanddone said…it’s the number of you do the 2018-2019 fafsa…the sictidial parent will be the one with the most days in the roeviius year as if the date of filing.
Keep in mind…you will have the 2019-2020 forms to do as well.
If it works out better for her to use your information for fafsa, just make sure it happens. Don’t officially move, don’t change addresses, make sure she spends one extra night at your house (or under your care, like when she’s on a vacation, at a friend’s home). It’s self reporting, and there are no FAFSA police to come count the number of nights, so just make it happen. For tax purposes, the parents can assign the exemption however the court order says or as agreed (but I think the parent taking the AOTC has to claim the child).
Now I am confused…let me summarize… My concern is the 2017-2018 aid which has already been decided…therefore if she moves after school begins in September 2017, then it will not affect her aid, but then if she were to “move” beginning in the summer 2017, will it affect her 2017-2018 aid?
I am not concerned with the 2018-2019 school year yet, but if she can move in the summer, 2017, I haven’t court the days, but I think there is a high chance that she will stay more days in the her father’s house… as far as she is concerned, she likes to move in the summer, but I am just concerned on the impact to the 2017-2018 aid…
You count from the day you file FAFSA back 365 days. You’ve already filed for 2017-18 so don’t worry about it. For the 2018-19 school year, you’ll file FAFSA some time after October 1, 2017. Let’s say you file Oct. 1, 2017. You’d look back for the 365 days from THAT date to Oct 1, 2016 and count all the nights she spent in your house and all the nights in her father’s. You can disregard nights she spent on campus, on a trip, etc. If she moves out Sept 1, and she’s spent most of the year with you, no difference filing this coming October. However, if she moves on July 1, 2017, when she files the 2019-20 FAFSA on ~October 1, 2018, you’ll be counting back from that date and she’ll have lived with her father more nights (as you describe her ‘moving’). That would be the case for her last two years in school, more with him than with you.
By that time she may be living almost year round at school, so those few nights at Christmas or in the summer may really matter.
@twoinanddone thank you. That helps.