CSS and Legal Guardianship

I have court ordered legal guardianship of my grandson. He was able to fill out the CSSProfile as an independent student. I am now getting a request from a college for additional information. They want financial information but it says “custodial parent”. When I called the college board about this they told me a custodial parent and legal guardianship are the same. From what I understand this is not correct. Do I have to provide my financial information as a guardian?

Don’t deal with the Profile people on this issue; direct your concerns to the financial aid office at the school that is making the request.

Independence due to legal guardianship and no information is needed about the legal guardian is for federal aid. The CSS profile is used by the schools to distribute **their own institutional aid. ** Schools will ask that next level question asking why the student is in legal guardianship, monies held in trust, if you the guardian is receiving money through kinship, etc. Yes, some schools will ask you about your income/assets as the legal guardian. When it comes to the schools money, they can ask you for what ever documentation they want.

Ask the colleges directly what you need to give them for information.

Yes, there are some colleges using the Profile that do request guardian financials for students.

You need to provide the colleges with whatever information they request, or the financial aid application will not be complete, and the student will get nothing…because the application will not be processed.

Was he a ‘ward of the state’ at sometime after age 13? That’s the standard for FAFSA. It’s not just a guardianship ordered/approved by the state but that the actual legal custody had transferred to the state at some point.

As noted above, schools can do anything they want with their own money and if they want information from the guardian, they can ask for it. However, I wouldn’t give up so easily. I’d make sure they know the legal status of the student and provide all the documents they want. I’d definitely argue that OP is the guardian only and not a parent or adoptive parent. Does the grandson have medicaid (most children in state custody do)? Is there state supervision of the guardianship (case worker, Guardian ad litem?)

By “standard,” do you mean the FAFSA standard for determining whether or not the student will need to provide parental information? If so, than a grandparent having legal guardianship of the student, as determined by a court, most certainly can meet that standard, even without legal custody at some point being transferred to the state.

*Answer the questions in this step to determine if you will need to provide parental information. Once you answer “Yes” to any of the questions in this step, skip Step Four and go to Step Five…

Does someone other than your parent or stepparent have legal guardianship of you, as determined by a court in your state of legal residence? See Notes page 10.*

Notes

*The definition of legal guardianship does not include your parents, even if they were appointed by a court to be your guardians. You are also not considered a legal guardian of yourself.

Answer “Yes” if you can provide a copy of a court’s decision that as of today you are an emancipated minor or are in legal guardianship. Also answer “Yes” if you can provide a copy of a court’s decision that you were an emancipated minor or were in legal guardianship immediately before you reached the age of being an adult in your state. The court must be located in your state of legal residence at the time the court’s decision was issued.

Answer “No” if you are still a minor and the court decision is no longer in effect or the court decision was not in effect at the time you became an adult. Also answer “No” and contact your school if custody was awarded by the courts and the court papers say “custody” (not “guardianship”).

The financial aid administrator at your college may require you to provide proof that you were an emancipated minor or in legal guardianship.*

I’m not surprised that schools are digging deeper after all the hoopla this summer in IL.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2019/07/30/college-financial-aid-custody-transfer-guardianship-loophole-admissions-scandal/1868220001/