<p>Hey there I was just wondering has anyone had any experience with divorced parents, me and my siblings spend half the week at mom’s half the week at dad’s, where you apply for FAFSA with you custodial parent who makes around 80K but your noncustodial has us in the free lunch program. Does it make a difference that we get free lunch with noncustodial but am filing FAFSA with custodial (makes around 80K a year)? And before anyone asks I will not be filing with noncustodial due to old school loans and such that they have… It would not make sense.</p>
<p>Whose house do you live at the most? That is whose information you must use on the fafsa. If you live with both of them equally, you must use the one who has provided the most support (most likely your dad).</p>
<p>If you llive with your dad more by being the custodial parent, then you must use his income on the FAFSA (yes, you can still check the box for free/reduced lunch).</p>
<p>The free lunch question is one of the qualifiers for the auto zero EFC formula and for the special formula that excludes all assets (can’t remember the name of it). However other major qualifiers are income and with an $80k income, you will not be eligible for either of the special formulas ($50k is the cut off for the asset exclusion and the auto EFC is much lower - in the $20ks somewhere). So it will probably not make a difference.</p>
<p>If you spend more time with the other parent, I’m not sure that old school loans would have any relevance to *your *financial aid.</p>
<p>Your income is too high for auto zero or simplified needs test (where assets are not counted). You need the lower income AND one of the other qualifying items.</p>
<p>Okay, let’s keep this simple. Answer these questions:</p>
<p>(1) Since it’s a bit tricky to break a 7-day week exactly in half, which parent do you actually spend more time with? Is it 4 days with one, and 3 days with the other, or does it switch from week to week?</p>
<p>(2) How long has the current arrangement been in place? You have to look at how many days you’ve slept at each parent’s house over the last year, not just the last month or several months. And that year starts and ends on the date you file FAFSA, whether that’s January 1, January 10, or whenever.</p>
<p>(3) If the number of days you slept at the two houses really is the same, then your custodial parent for FAFSA purposes is the one who provided more financial support for you. That might be the one who paid your allowance, bought your clothing, or paid support to the other parent.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what your parents’ divorce decree says, and it doesn’t matter who claims you on their taxes. For FAFSA, what matters is whose house you sleep at or, if that doesn’t give you an answer, then who pays more money to take care of you.</p>
<p>And for FAFSA, once you figure out who your “custodial parent” is, then the other parent’s income doesn’t matter. The only income that counts is that of the custodial parent.</p>
<p>noncustodial has us in the free lunch program</p>
<p>Is that legal? It doesn’t seem like it should be. The custodial parent earns $80k. if the non-custodial parent is earning a low income, why should that qualify them for free lunch? </p>
<p>This sounds sketchy. Say the non-custodial parent is earning $25k per year. These kids would have parents earning a total of $100k+. </p>
<p>If this is ok, then the Free Lunch program needs an overhaul.</p>
<p>It was, but I will tell you what I think happened.</p>
<p>The mom (who is now the non-custodial parent) is probably listed as the parent of record in OP’s, because she most likely enrolled the kids in school (kindergarten). Once the dad became the custodial parent, he should have gone to school, and had himself listed as the primary parent, especially since he is the custodial parent Op lives with. Once dad changes the records, the lunch form should have been filed using his information. </p>
<p>If it did not happen this way, is possible that mom acted fraudulently in signing Op up for free lunch and getting everything else (fee waivers) on the basis of eligibility of free lunch in stead of having dad, custodial parent fill out the form (but then again, that makes dad a bit sketchy for going along with it).</p>