Supporting a child changes several answers on the FAFSA, starting with whether your parents' information is needed at all. This article goes through the questions that shift for a student parent and what to do after you submit.
The dependency question that changes
The FAFSA asks whether you have children who get more than half of their support from you during the award year. Answering yes makes you independent, so you report your own income and, if you are married, your spouse's, in place of your parents'. The question turns on support, which means a child living mostly on your parents' income may not count.
The question also looks ahead across the award year. A child due before that year ends can count, so read the wording on the form and answer for the whole year rather than for today alone.
Family size and other answers
Your family size includes you, your spouse if you are married, and the children who get more than half of their support from you. A larger family size feeds into the Student Aid Index and can lower it. Count carefully, because the school may ask you to prove it.
The form also asks about certain federal benefits your family received, and about child support, which you report as the form directs. Each contributor needs a StudentAid.gov account and gives consent for tax data to come from the IRS. Income comes from two years before the award year, which can be badly out of date for a new parent.
Count carefully, because the school may ask you to prove it.
After you submit
Read the FAFSA Submission Summary when it arrives and check the family size and dependency answers. Your school may select you for verification and ask for birth certificates, tax documents or a statement of who lives with you.
If your income has dropped since that earlier tax year, for example because you left a job when your child was born, ask the aid office about professional judgment. While you are writing, ask for child care to be included in your cost of attendance. Both requests go to the same office, and both work better with papers attached.
Steps to take
- Create your StudentAid.gov account
- Read the dependency question about children
- Check the family size on your Submission Summary
- Ask the aid office about a drop in income
Who decides
Your school's financial aid office and studentaid.gov
A child you support more than half changes your FAFSA from the dependency question onward, so answer for the whole award year and check the summary.