I don’t have too much to add but I get it. Been divorced over a decade. First child is now in his second year of college and the supposed college savings was awarded to my ex and due to many disagreements through the years with my sons stepmom, dad has chosen to not give our oldest son a dime of money for school (account has all 3 of our kids names on it). I have talked with my lawyers ad nauseum about this and there is nothing we can do. Only saving grace is my son has chosen a tech school path and it is much cheaper so between him working part time, I am able to pay 100% of it.
Kid #2 is a high school sophomore but also his dads golden child so there is some hope that he might get some financial help from his dad in the future. I now work for a university so there might be some tuition help there as well.
My kids live with me slightly more so the fact that I make less than half of their dad does help a little. But dad makes about 200k so there wont be any other need based aid available.