Does a noncustodial parent's income need disclosed on college financial aid applications?

And what if the noncustodial parent has not paid support for over a decade and has been hiding from the courts, and has not been located for 10 years? In the case this deadbeat parent will not help the child anyway and cannot be located for such information, does this disqualify a new high school graduate from college financial aid?

"The Federal government does not consider the income and assets of the non-custodial parent in determining a student's financial need. However, it does consider child support received by the custodial parent" (finaid.org).

So, no you should not include income from a non-custodial parent in your application for financial aid. Use only the income from the custodial parent including any child support (although it sounds like there isn't any in this case) received by the custodial parent.

There are 5 criteria for determining what income is or isn't to be included in your application, see the website for details.

I would think the income that should be reported should be

Custodial parent + support ACTUALLY received from other parent

to be sure, I'd call the college and ask. I'm sure they would say the above answer.

Reporting theoretical income your family never saw isn't accurate. So this makes sense.