Resetting password process

We began the process of recovering my son's Apple password because he forgot it. To complicate things, his iPhone is broken, so we are unable to use it to retrieve a passcode and it is his only Apple device that he owns. Long story short, we last talked to Apple support (800 number) who told us to use the Apple Support app. They walked us through the prompts in the app while on the phone with them. But because my son's email address on file with Apple is an icloud address, he cannot access his email (which is on his broken phone) to know when his account has been recovered. The support person told us that we don't really need the email though, and instead we could simply go to iforgot.apple.com to see the status of the recovery process that can apparently take days to complete. However, I've tried that website but it sends me through the same prompts as if I haven't yet started the recovery process. My question is, how do I know when his account is recovered without access to his email account? What am I looking for at iforgot.apple.com that will tell me when it's ready? We need to know this so we can turn off "Find My" in his account so that he can get a new phone to replace the broken one. This whole process is very frustrating, and I'm not Apple/tech savvy, which makes things worse. Thank you for your help.