<p>So you want to punish the kids because of the actions of a parent who may have essentially checked out of their lives while they were toddlers? </p>
<p>" you want to punish the kids because of the actions of a parent"</p>
<p>Uh…no…merely compel both parents to complete the nessacary forms for federal grants / loans. </p>
<p>I also think that child support should continue while “the product of the union” remains a full time college student in good standing. Pretending that kids are adults at 18 is absurd. </p>
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<p>But how common is this situation? Seems that even middle to higher income divorced parents tend to wreck their household finances during divorces (spending lots of money on lawyers, then incurring higher costs living in separate households instead of one shared household). And, even if there is college money potentially available from one or both ex-spouses, college money contributions can be a leverage point in continuing arguments and fights between the ex-spouses.</p>
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<p>The NCP may be an uncooperative deadbeat, so squeezing money from a rock is unlikely to meet with any success. And, if uncooperative, chasing the NCP around may cause delays in financial aid processing which can effectively block the student from attending colleges that require NCP information (even if the NCP is penalized in some way for being uncooperative, that does not help the student). And, as noted in reply #62, even divorced parents with good incomes are likely to have destroyed their household finances.</p>
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<p>In the US, 18 year olds are adults for most purposes other than purchase and possession of alcohol and college financial aid. For example, voting, driver’s license, ability to enter legal contracts, employment, military service, sexual consent, etc. (some may be available, possibly in limited or restricted form, at younger ages).</p>
<p>I wasn’t suggesting NCP shouldn’t provide their info. After mountains of legal fees and paying for two households instead of one, I think there often simply won’t be money there. I’m saying that if you cannot compel parents who are still together to pay for college or otherwise support their legally adult children, you should not be able to compel broken families to pay it either. If you want NCPs to support children after 18, then require all parents to pay for college.</p>
<p>NCP should be compelled to provide info for offspring to quailfy for federal funding. Either complete the online FAFSA or supply a tax return. I don’t see why Uncle Sam gives a free pass to the NCP…</p>
<p>Married or not, no parent is compelled to provide info or pay for able bodied adult children to go to college. Everyone gets the “free pass.” That’s what it means to declare people adults at 18.</p>
<p>And this is a plus of the Chicago initiative. It does not require the NCP Profile. I’m sure there are students who will benefit from this.</p>
<p>I will say…it makes me crazy when I read here (and know some folks IRL) about families where the custodial parent earns $60,000 a year, and the NCP earns $250,000 or more a year…and the NCP won’t contribute to college costs.</p>
<p>When it comes to institutional aid, weather or not a NCP contributes is matter for the family and the school. Chicago must have reasons for abandoning the CSS profile. (i can think of a dozen aside form NCP non-reporting) Howerer, it bugs me, when a NCP is not even required to fill out the paper work to qualify for federal aid. (NCP parent info is not considered when figuring EFC). </p>
<p>But that’s no different from a married couple making $250k, paying a single mortgage, and telling the children they will not contribute for college costs.
I think the taxpayers should cover the costs if we want the benefits of educated adults entering society, and research. These are public good just as much as fire departments and medical doctor licensing standards are.
But it would clearly be wrong to force divorced parents to do anything their married counterparts are not also forced to do.</p>
<p>^???^ Filing the FAFSA doen’t equate to footing the bill for college. It simply application to recieve “free federal aid” based upon income… Why do divorced parents get to report only half of the fincancial picture? I wish (as a married couple) we could only report one income on our kids FAFSA… </p>
<p>Ucbalumnus, in my world it is very common. A lot of single moms who cannot afford much for college, but with an ex that has the financials that put the kids out of financial aid range for those schools that require both parents’ info. A lot of divorce settlements do not have language specific to require payment for a kid’s college, from what I have seen. And I’m in a state that does require some support through college. There are states like PA where the support ends at grad from High school or age 18, </p>
<p>However, when you consider how few schools meet full need how few kids are going to get into such schools, how few are going to get into UCH specifically, this is a very tiny sector. Not something for which it’s worth going all out with a separation on the chance that the kid gets into UC. As it is, for many high income families being separated can be a savings of 5 figures in terms of taxes. </p>
<p>So looking at it in terms of scale to the whole, it’s miniscule. But when looking at what UC is going to pay out in specific cases, that ‘s a whole other story. THey are expecting to pay out. They are putting out this offer, and from what I can see, any kids on the test lists are getting this email and this info; we got it, I can tell you. Yes, it put UC on some kids’ lists when it was not there before My son has two friends who are in that situation. For one, it is one of the few selective school possibilities since he has a full tuition remission situation with a mom working for a university and that is where all of his siblings have gone for that reason. Mom makes little enough so that some financial aid is available at most of the $50-60K schools but with the NCP dad in the picture, it’s washed out. So this is an opportunity for this student to pursue. </p>
<p>On this board we always get a number of kids asking about NCP finances. Same thing. NCP is paying child support but it ends after high school, and those financials knock the kid out of gettting any fin aid, but the NCP has made it clear that he’s done paying after that. College is on the kid. Some refuse to even give PROFILE info. </p>
<p>So though on a wide scale, it’s not a huge issue, at schools that require PROFILE form both parents, it is definitely going to make a difference in fin aid awards by excusing NCPs. Schools like UCh have a lot of students with split families and with NCP’s with significant incomes and assets. It’s a big deal issue, and getting the ex to pay is not easy when he does not want to do so. Heck getting the info from the ex is often a road block, futile anyways if you know that the numbers are going to mean no aid. My close friend would lament loudly about her ex refusing to fill out those forms, but really, it made no difference. He made about a half million a year. No school asking for NCP financials was going to give out fin aid with parent making that kind of money in the picture. And if anyone in that situation could get out of paying simply by saying he would not, most would do so. In their case, the dad refused to pay except when he felt like it for various items, and refused to give out financial info.Both kids went to state school, got all the aid that the federal govt, state and the schools would give them from FAFSA info while dad paid whenever he felt like it. He brags about how he beat the system, by the way, which he did. His kids got over $160K of aid when he made all that money, and did by planning ahead. Made sure the mom had a zero EFC and got full amount out of those state schools and the government. He paid off his kids’ loans, by the way, when they graduated. He could have paid, but enjoyed not doing so.</p>
<p>Married parents aren’t required to pay one cent or provide any info. They are asked. They can, and many do, refuse to provide anything. Why should it be any different for an NCP?</p>
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I will say…it makes me crazy when I read here (and know some folks IRL) about families where the custodial parent earns $60,000 a year, and the NCP earns $250,000 or more a year…and the NCP won’t contribute to college costs.</p>
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<p>I agree!</p>
<p>And it makes me crazy when the big income parent says, “I’ll only pay exactly as much as the other parent.” This is especially sad if the lower-income parent sacrificed his/her earning power during the marriage to raise kids, or whatever. In many marriages, one spouse has had to “family track” themselves to the detriment of future income.</p>
<p>I don’t like this “custodial parent” stuff because too many families play games with this. Suddenly the child “moves” to live with the low income parent to get more FA. There was a post this week telling how their child moved across the country (to Calif) to live with NCP mom so he could graduate and get instate rates. Custodial dad has a high income. Mom has a middle income. The kid moved AFTER his first quarter of his senior year. He went to a Calif public for less than one year. But, he magically is instate, he qualified for a Cal Grant (about $14k per year to a UC). Dad’s income ignored. Bio parents earning more than $160k per year, yet the kid gets tax-payer paid tuition? Nutty. No wonder Calif is broke. And don’t think this sort of “CP swapping” doesn’t happen often. People “do the math” and discover, “hey, if we claim that junior lives with $69k per year dad instead of $130k mom, he’ll get free tuition.”</p>
<p>I doubt it happens very often. But I can be convinced by statistics (not anecdotes).</p>
<p>The scheme described in post #74 is probably uncommon, since it requires cooperation between the divorced parents. It is probably far more likely that the divorced parents are in no mood to cooperate with each other (and try to use the kids as pawns in their petty fights with each other involving money-draining lawsuits and custody battles), or the NCP is a deadbeat.</p>
<p>From a policy standpoint, eliminating the use of NCP information improves access to college financial aid to a demographic that tends to be lower income and financial resources than married parent households. Schools or states (and the national government) which prioritize access to those from limited financial means accept the tradeoff of a few cooperative divorced parents gaming the system.</p>
<p>^the difference is that divorced parents are more likely to bail on their kids than parents in a couple living with their kids. In addtion, there’s no need to chase a spouse who lives in your household, kids can even take the info and submit it for them if they live in the same house.</p>
<p>^The difference is that a couple living together with their kids are unlikely to have lost their life’s savings in legal fees.</p>