<p>My daughter will be a freshman this fall. She lives with me and her step dad. We will not be getting any aid this year. She is going to live with her dad starting in a few months. Question is for next year-she will only have to have his income and tax info, right? Not mine, or her step-dads? She should be entitled to some aid next year if this is the case. Will a red flag be raised because we will be going from an EFC of $40k to about $5k most likely.</p>
<p>If it’s a FAFSA only school and she lives with her dad the most next year then only his income will be considered. I have little doubt she will have to verify her new numbers but that should be explainable.</p>
<p>Agreed, if she lives with her dad more than half of the time, then his income (and his wife’s if he is married) would be reported on the FAFSA for next year. If the school questions this, be able to document that indeed this was your kid’s residency.</p>
<p>But I’m going to add a word of caution. The only FAFSA only school I know of that meets full need is Chapman University in CA. Other FAFSA only schools do not meet full need. That being the case, your daughter may not net more aid in subsequent years unless she qualifies for a portion of the Pell grant (for EFCs less than $4700 or so a year). She might also have her stafford loan subsidized. Beyond that…you might not see an increase in aid if the school doesn’t meet full need.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Good point. </p>
<p>Just wondering…if a child is going away to school, will it be hard to say that she’s lived more with her dad? It sounds like she’ll just be living with her dad over the summer, but she’ll have lived with you for 5 months.</p>
<p>Also, who will be paying for most of her education for THIS fall? Wont’ that have to be reported? It sounds like the mom will be paying for the costs for spring 2011 school year. So, for the next two FAFSA’s that contribution will count.</p>
<p>When parents are separated or divorced, the only parent who reports income and assets on the FAFSA is the parent with whom the student resides more than 50% of the time. Those are the rules.</p>
<p>The other parent does NOT report.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree…but on another thread, it was said that if the non-custodial parent pays for the tuition (in this case it would be the mom) that that amount would get reported somewhere on FAFSA.</p>
<p>She will be going to a SUNY school-instate. Her dad didn’t even file an income tax for last year(he is mostly off the books in construction), we will be modifying the child support so no one pays support. We will split the tuition bill and all her expenses but I don’t remember seeing anything on the FAFSA about her tuition expenses? Anyway, she may not get anything when all is said & done but at least we won’t need to put my husband’s income in the mix and my ex is not remarried. Ex will have to report his income even if he doesn’t file for 2010. Thanks all for the help.</p>