loan refunds & css/fafsa

My child has some loan refund money in a higherone account, knowing she may be switching to a more expensive school for junior year, figured we save it to put towards tuition. Being a loan refund, does this money need to be accounted for on the CSS and FAFSA then?

on FAFSA, there is a way to have that amount subtracted from the student’s assets since the money is from FA. I don’t know how it’s treated on CSS.

You might consider putting the money into a 529 acct if CSS will count it.

Do you know where on the fafsa to do that?

If you put it into a 529, it will be an asset of the parents, so will figure into the calculation. If you have kept it in an account an prove that that is the source, you can exclude on the FAFSA

Question 41 asks for the student’s total current balance of cash, savings and checking accounts, and specifically says to not include student financial aid.

Thank you - the CSS has the exact same wording on SA-100A. The higher one account clearly states the money received is from a financial aid refund from the college.