FAFSA for Parents: What You Do, What You Sign, and When It's Due (2027–28)
The federal deadline for the 2027–28 FAFSA is June 30, 2028, but California's deadline for many state aid programs is March 2, 2027, and a college's priority date can come even sooner. The date that matters is the earliest one on your list.
The online form has been open since September 23, 2026, so you can start now.
Do parents have to fill out the FAFSA?
If your child is a dependent student, yes. Dependent students must provide parent information, and in most cases at least one parent is named as a contributor, meaning someone required to add their own information to the form.
It is still your child's application. Giving consent and approval, which lets the IRS send your federal tax information into the form, does not make you financially responsible for your child's education costs. A Direct PLUS Loan for parents is the exception: signing that loan's Master Promissory Note makes you responsible for repaying it.
"Dependent" is not the IRS's meaning here. The federal aid rules differ, so a child who lives elsewhere, supports themselves or files their own return can still be a dependent student.
Which FAFSA is open right now, and when does it open?
The 2027–28 FAFSA is open now. The Department of Education's Financial Aid Toolkit announced on September 23, 2026 that the form is available for aid between July 1, 2027 and June 30, 2028. The printable form says to submit "no earlier than October 1, 2026," but the online form is already open.
This form asks parents for 2025 tax return information (question 38 on the 2027–28 form), and Federal Student Aid says not to use a different year's. Pull your 2025 return.
If your child is a junior, this form is not theirs yet. It covers aid from July 2027 through June 2028, so it belongs to this year's seniors and to students already in college.
Who counts as the parent on the form?
A legal parent: biological or adoptive, or determined by the state, such as a parent listed on the birth certificate. Grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, widowed stepparents, aunts, uncles and siblings are not parents on this form unless they legally adopted the student.
When parents live apart, the question is not where the student sleeps. It is which parent provides the greater share of the student's financial support. Federal Student Aid's Who's My FAFSA Parent? wizard takes most people under five minutes and needs no account.
| Household situation | Whose information goes on the 2027–28 form | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Married, filed taxes jointly | One parent, as the contributor | Your spouse's date of birth is still required |
| Married, filed taxes separately | You, plus your spouse as a second contributor | Invite your spouse by email from inside the form |
| Divorced or separated | The parent who provides the greater share of financial support, even if the student lives with the other parent | If that parent has remarried, the stepparent's information goes on the form too. If support is exactly equal, use the parent with the greater income and assets |
| Unmarried, both legal parents living together | Both parents | The second parent appears in the "parent spouse or partner" section |
| Never married, not living together | That parent only | The other parent's section is skipped |
| Widowed, not remarried | That parent only | A remarried widowed parent adds the stepparent |
What should you gather before you sit down?
Have these on the table before you log in:
- A StudentAid.gov account for you and a separate one for your child. You can't create an account for your child or share one, not even with them.
- Your child's Social Security number (and A-Number, if they are an eligible noncitizen).
- Your 2025 federal tax return, W-2s and other records of money earned from work.
- Records of child support received, bank statements and investment records.
- Records for any business or income-producing farm.
- Your spouse's date of birth and email address, if you are married.
- A printed copy or screenshot of the Personal Information section of your child's StudentAid.gov account, if you plan to start the form for them. Names and birth dates must match it exactly.
How do you and your child split the work, step by step?
Let your child go first if you can. Federal Student Aid strongly recommends that the student start and complete their sections first, because it saves time and prevents errors; the student's side of the FAFSA walkthrough covers their half. Your half:
- Accept your child's invitation by email, link or code at fafsa.gov. Students can also scan a QR code to text a parent or spouse an invitation.
- Verify your information, then give consent and approval so your federal tax information can flow in from the IRS.
- Enter your marital status as of the day you fill out the form, even if it differs from your tax filing status.
- Answer the parent financial questions: filing status, family size, number in college, child support received, cash and savings, and the net worth of investments and any business or farm.
- If you are married and did not file jointly, invite your spouse to add their sections.
- Review, accept the terms and sign. Your StudentAid.gov username and password serve as your legal electronic signature.
- Remind your child to finish. Even if you started the form, they still need to enter it, complete the student sections and sign.
Does your child's school help with the FAFSA?
The FAFSA is one of the first real financial systems students meet, and Rapunzl's FAFSA Helper, in English and Spanish, walks a student through account setup and eligibility, estimates their Pell Grant and aid range, and helps them draft answers before they sit down at StudentAid.gov.
The Helper never files or signs for anyone. Submission always happens on the official site, and personal data stays on the student's device. Rapunzl's Paying for College module, for grades 9–12 in English and Spanish, covers the FAFSA, grants, loans and work-study.
Rapunzl also runs a free national scholarship competition each January through late April, and its competitions have distributed $300,000+ in scholarships, separate from the FAFSA.
What are the FAFSA deadlines for 2027–28?
Three deadlines run at once: federal, state and college. Your college typically has the earliest of the three, so start with its financial aid page. The dates below are 2027–28 deadlines as of October 1, 2026, taken from page 2 of the official form. Dates move, so confirm yours with your state's aid agency and each college.
| Deadline level | What it controls | 2027–28 date or rule |
|---|---|---|
| Federal | Grants, work-study and loans | Form must be received by June 30, 2028; file as early as possible |
| College or career school | The school's own aid | Set by each school; the Department of Education says typically early, around February |
| California | Many state programs | March 2, 2027 (postmarked); some community college Cal Grants, Sept. 2, 2027 |
| Delaware | State aid | May 15, 2027 |
| Florida | State aid | May 15, 2027 (date processed) |
| Illinois | State aid | As soon as possible after Oct. 1, 2026; awards made while funds exist |
| Ohio | State aid | Oct. 1, 2027 |
| New York | State aid | June 30, 2028; more forms may be required |
Some states set hard dates, others suggest dates for priority consideration, and some award money first come, first served until it runs out. Your state may list several programs, so read its row on the form.
Miss June 30 and you can no longer submit that year's form.
What mistakes slow parents down?
Watch for three things: a name that does not match the child's account, a skipped spouse invitation, and a child who never finished and signed. The steps above cover each. Two more are worth naming.
- Paying for help. The first F in FAFSA stands for free, and the form says paid preparers are prohibited.
- Waiting. Many states have limited funds, so file before your state's deadline.
What happens after you submit?
Most forms are processed immediately, and some take one to three days. Your child can then review their FAFSA Submission Summary, and the schools they listed receive the information.
The summary shows a Student Aid Index, which measures your family's financial strength, and it is not an aid offer. Offers come from each school your child listed, after they are accepted. Each financial aid office uses the index and the school's own costs to decide how much aid to offer, so offers can differ. If your family has a special circumstance, such as a job loss or a pay cut, your child should contact each college's financial aid office after submitting.
Scholarship competitions sit outside the FAFSA, with their own applications and rules. For the wider money conversation at home, there is a parent's playbook on teaching your teen about money.
Frequently Asked
Questions
If your child is a dependent student, yes. A parent provides information as a contributor and signs, but consent does not make you financially responsible for their education costs.
Federal Student Aid recommends that the student start the form and complete their sections first. If you start it, they still have to finish and sign.
Most states and colleges also use FAFSA information to award their own aid, so the form can matter beyond federal grants. The form uses your answers to calculate a Student Aid Index, which a college compares with its cost of attendance. Filing is how you find out.
For a dependent student, yes. The form asks for your information, not your money. If parents refuse to provide it, the student's answer rules out the Federal Pell Grant and most other federal aid, and a financial aid administrator decides eligibility for a Direct Unsubsidized Loan only. A student who cannot safely contact their parents is treated as provisionally independent and directed to the college's financial aid administrator.
You and each child need your own StudentAid.gov account, and you accept a separate invitation for each child's form. After you submit one form, Federal Student Aid prefills some of your information on the others for the same school year.
If your child's school doesn't teach this yet, ask it to. Request a Rapunzl demo for your student's school and the staff can see the FAFSA Helper and the Paying for College module in action.
By Nate Thomas, School Partnerships Lead at Rapunzl.