You will have a FSA ID. Keep it somewhere secure and where you can find it when it is needed again over the time your kid is in college. Use this ID to u201csignu201d the parentu2019s part of the FAFSA.Your student will have their own FSA ID. They need to keep it somewhere secure and where they can find it when it is needed again over the time they are in college. They will use the ID to u201csignu201d their part of the FAFSA.There is no need to show your student your part of the FAFSA. I do suggest you just casually offer to help your student fill out their part of the form.The Parentu2019s Guide to Filling Out the FAFSAu00ae Form - ED.gov BlogThe FAFSA for school year 2018u201319 has been available since October 1. Some financial aid is first come-first served. I suggest you get on with this.How to Fill Out the FAFSA, Step by StepNotes:Reading the other answers brings up some other points:The student pin was replaced by the parentu2019s FSA ID and the studentu2019s FSA ID in May, 2023. Never the twain need meet.Families each need to deal with three issues in their own way:AffordabilityIf you read my stuff you know I am a devotee of Frank Palmasaniu2019s, Right College, Right Price. His book describes an u201caffordabilityu201d exercise with the parents and the student. The purpose is to determine what the family can afford to spend on post-secondary education and to SET EXPECTATIONS. Heu2019s not talking about putting your 1040 on the dining room table, but sharing some of the basics of family finances.I get the impression that many families ignore this issue.u00a0 I have a study that shows five out of eight students assume their families are going to pay for college regardless of cost. Most of these students are in for a big surprise.PrivacySome parents may want to hold their u201cfinancial cardsu201d closer to their chest than others. In my opinion thatu2019s OK. I suppose an 18 year old kid, theoretically, has the right to keeping his finances private. My approach to this would not be to make a big deal out of it but to offer to help them fill out their part of the FAFSA. The main objective should be to get the FAFSA filled out properly, in a timely fashion.FraudThis is absolutely not acceptable, and, hopefully, those who try it get caught and suffer the consequences. (I had a conversation with a father recently who was filling out the CSS Profile. He wasnu2019t intent on committing fraud. He thought he was being clever in defining assets. After our conversation he had to file a significant revision. This revision was a good thing because two or three years from now his mistake was going to come to light. Iu2019m not sure what the consequences of all that would have been, but, at a minimum, it would have been a big mess to unwind.)