We are a blended family with 3 kids living in the home and my husband’s 3 children from his first marriage living with their mother. My daughter is currently a junior and the oldest child of the 6. While completing some NPC calculators I notice that they only ask about children living in our home and child support paid. How else are his 3 kids considered? There is a lot more than just child support being spent to take care of his children and if the calculator takes into account his income as a stepdad it seems like it should take into account his children as well. Does the actual CSS PROFILE ask about children living outside of the home?
For financial aid purposes, you can only list members of your household. The other three are not members of your household because they don’t live with you.
Right, since we can’t include them in the household number, is there any other consideration given for his three children besides what is paid in child support? I have never seen the PROFILE questions so I was wondering are there questions about children who do not live in the home but that we support and how that is considered in financial aid.
What other consideration? The child support is included, right?
No other consideration is given.
I was thinking like medical, money paid outside of child support, all the stuff parents do for their children outside of a monthly payment…etc. but I guess it doesn’t. Just trying to get as accurate picture as I can for the future based on the limitations of the NPC calculator. Thanks for the answer. 
As an FYI…no one gets any financial aid consideration for paying for medical benefits, and other expenses we pay. It’s just what you do as a parent.
We are married and our insurance costs…or other expenses for our kids where not factored into the financial aid formula. Not sure I see why they would for divorced parents.
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was thinking like medical, money paid outside of child support,
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Are these kids included in your H’s family plan insurance? If so, isn’t the cost the same with or without them? If you’re talking about shared expenses…like shared ortho expenses, that is part of what is done as parents. Unless the medical expenses are unusually high outside of insurance, no consideration is given…for instance, if one of the kids had $25k in uncovered medical and your H had to pay half, that might get a very small consideration, but not a whole lot.
the extra stuff that parents choose to do for their kids (soccer fees, dance lessons, etc) are purely choice…so no consideration is given. Schools aren’t going to give more aid so that parents can give more to their kids.
How much per year does your H pay in Child Support? That amount may be larger than any consideration given for including kids in the count. After all, if you got to include those kids in the household count, then there should be no consideration for the child support. Right?
I understand what the OP is trying to convey. Yes, of course we all spend money on our kids’ soccer, music, medical, etc. But her point is that the form says that they have THREE kids in the household, not SIX. So whatever the calculations are for the expense of having a child, on their FA form the calculation will consider three children—even though their financial situation closely mimics a household of six children. Surely, if there were six kids in a household with, say, an income of $100k, that would produce a different FA result from that of a household of the same income with three kids.
Maybe the solution is to increase the “official” amount of your husband’s child-support payments to reflect what he actually is giving them.
@brantly but there aren’t 6 kids in her house. Their mom contributes to them too, right?
@mom2collegekids We would have to accurately report what is occurring. So for a while back, one of the kids lived with us for a few years and child support didn’t change. We would have reported him as part of the household and included child support paid.
@brantly I would not want to include anything more in the child support than what we have that documents the monthly payments. I would say our financial situation mimics 4.27 kids.
So it seems like even though financial aid doesn’t take into consideration the actual expenses of each kid, it does assume that the more kids you have included in your household, the more you spend on them and so the less you have to spend on college. Is this correct?
I really wanted to know if the CSS PROFILE was going to ask any additional questions about the kids outside of child support. We don’t really have any documentation to support the additional stuff outside of medical and my understanding is you should have documentation for everything you put down on the financial aid form. If there were consideration given and so it would help with financial aid if I answered these nonexistent questions about other stuff for them then I was going to start documenting going forward. Since I don’t have to, all is good.
This is what I was trying to get at. You can explain this in the special circumstances section. Your household expenses mimic that of a family with four kids. I have no idea whether colleges will care. But you want to leave no stone unturned. A college that really wants your daughter to attend may be looking for reasons to give more FA to her.
As for the CSS, why don’t you just take a look at it yourself?
https://student.collegeboard.org/css-financial-aid-profile
Are we talking about unreimbursed medical expenses or the prorated cost of your husband carrying his three children on a family plan? If your husband is paying for ECs, camp, dance classes above the cost of child support, it is highly unlikely that any school is going to give you additional aid for a lifestyle choice.
You can start keeping track of the additional expenses. Child support isn’t limited to that ordered by a court but what you actually pay. If the child lives with you, he lives with you. It doesn’t matter if H doesn’t take him on taxes as divorced parents can take the deduction whether or not the child lives in the household.
If you pay for a sports league or a school trip that is above the normal child support, keep track of it. Orthodontics or other medical expenses? Write them down.
@brantly Thanks! I didn’t realize that I could preview the CSS without actually having to go through and answer the questions and pay. You are right, every little bit helps. I guess it can’t hurt to provide some additional info in that section. If it helps then great, if not then fine.
@moilmom Remember also…the vast majority of colleges do not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students.
And a good chunk of the Profile Schools will also want a non-custodial parent Profile…which will include that household, and the incomes of the non-custodial parent and spouse (if there is one).
Remember too…that your household isn’t the only one contributing to the expenses of the three kiddos who don’t live with you. The parent (and step parent) in that household contribute as well.