Need help! Father won't help...

Paying for College
1

I have a grand daughter who moved to Colorado 2 years ago to live with her father so that she can get in-state tuition from University of Colorado Boulder. The parents are divorced and mother lives in Florida. The father remarried and provided roof over her head and foods… that’s about all. Her mother provided for her all personal expenses and GD worked summer.
She graduated high school last May and started college lived in campus.

Now, father did not pay for her Fall semester (we did …grandparents). Now, she need to fill out her FASFA for 2019-20.
Father makes more money but he won’t pay, thus,mother will have to pay for all the cost.
Can my grand daughter put her mother as her dependent instead of father who won’t help at all?

2

She would use the parent she spent the most overnights with during the 365 days before filing the FAFSA, so it sounds like her father. If she spent exactly the same amount of time with each, she’d use the parent with the highest income.

The father doesn’t have to PAY anything to fill out the fafsa. It doesn’t obligate him to pay anything, to borrow anything, or to remember her birthday. If he filled it out last year, he should know this.

3

Can she live with her mom this summer and wait to file FAFSA until the fall semester starts to have enough days out of 365 with mom?