Rhand- you are confusing apples and oranges. The fact that a divorced parent may be compelled to pay part of a kid’s college education as part of a divorce settlement is completely irrelevant to whether a kid can be emancipated due to a parent’s inability or unwillingness to pay for college. Not at all the same thing, and stop telling vulnerable teenagers that they can get themselves declared independent.
In my state, a social worker, teacher, or another mandated reporter would need to report a case of serious abuse or neglect. That gets the ball rolling. A kid can’t show up in Family Court to tell a judge, “listen- my parents won’t pay our EFC and I can’t take out enough in loans to cover tuition at a private college- so can you set me loose from these folks?”
So it’s not that it’s “hard” to be declared emancipated- there needs to be a fact pattern, documentation, time “in the system”, and a lot of muscle from the family court system to put the wheels in motion. Not hard- but needs factual evidence of abuse.
got it?