Filling Out the FAFSA: My Parents are Divorced or Separated

If your parents are divorced, the parent who provided the most financial support in the last year will contribute to your FAFSA.

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Updated Jun 17, 2026

🤓Nerdy Tip

When can I submit my FAFSA application? The FAFSA for the 2026-27 school year is open until June 30, 2027.

If you have divorced or separated parents, the parent who provided the most financial support over past 12 months is considered a FAFSA "contributor" and will need to fill out a section of the form on their own.

There are also a few special situations to know:

If both parents provide equal financial support, then the parent who has greater income or assets will fill out the FAFSA.
If the parent who supports you most financially is remarried as of when you submit your FAFSA, then your stepparent will also be a contributor if they legally adopted you, and/or if they file taxes separately.
If your parents are not married, but they live together, then both parents will fill out the FAFSA.

This approach began in the 2024-25 aid year. Before that, the FAFSA only considered the parent with whom the student lived most of the time, regardless of whether they provided the most financial support.

» MORE: FAFSA checklist for 2026-27

Steps for filling out the 2026-27 FAFSA for students with divorced or separated parents

Request an FSA ID on FAFSA.gov. This is the username and password combination you will use to log into your form.
Fill out your portion of the FAFSA and submit it.
Determine which parent provided more financial support over the last 12 months. This parent will be your FAFSA contributor.
This parent must request their own FSA ID, which they will use to access their portion of the FAFSA. When filling out the form, they must select "divorced" or "separated" as their marital status.
The parent must consent to a Direct Data Exchange with the IRS, which automatically transfers financial and tax information to the FAFSA.
The parent must submit their portion of the FAFSA.

When the FAFSA asks about your parents’ education level, answer for your birth parents or adoptive parents. Your stepparent is not considered your parent for these two questions.

» MORE: Best student loans for parents

How to complete the FAFSA if:
Your parents are undocumented	One of your parents has died
Your parents are divorced	Your parents are married

View the FAFSA guide

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About the authors

Anna Helhoski

Anna Helhoski is a senior writer covering economic news and trends in consumer finance at NerdWallet. She is an on-air contributor and producer of Money News segments for NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast. She is also an authority on student loans. She joined NerdWallet in 2014. Her work has been syndicated in news outlets nationwide including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and USA Today. She previously covered local news in the New York metro area for the Daily Voice and New York state politics for The Legislative Gazette. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Purchase College, State University of New York.

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Eliza Haverstock

Eliza Haverstock is NerdWallet's former higher education writer, where she covered all aspects of college affordability and student loans. Previously, she reported on billionaires and investing for Forbes in New York, and she also covered private markets for PitchBook in Seattle. Eliza got started at her college newspaper at the University of Virginia and interned for Bloomberg, where she spent a summer writing a feature story about plastic straws. She is based in Washington, D.C.

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