<p>Looking for input from those who have gone through a similar situation.</p>
<p>My step-D is a HS SR. Her brother is already a college JR.</p>
<p>Her biological father is paying child support now, roughly $600 a month for her. That will end the day she graduates HS, as she'll turn 18 in April. We live in PA, and in PA there is no requirement for child support to continue after HS and no requirement that he do anything for her the day after she is our of HS. The exception is that he must keep them both on his health insurance until they cease to be full time students.</p>
<p>Here's my question. For her 1st year of college, the FAFSA considers child support as an income source for the custodial parents which will be for 2008. It's not hard to see that during 2009 there will be a decrease of about $4000 in our family's income as a result of the end of child support. The problem is that this doesn't happen until long after the financial aid is given. Since often schools tend to award the same grants if things stay relatively similar in the household income, has anyone gotten a better package after the actual child support ceased? In reality, by our household income will decrease by about $4000 next year and another $3000 in 2010, not accounting for any raises I might get. That is a significant amount to us after taxes. Our family of 7 is well under $75K combining all income right now. Additionaly, my health insurance premium is going to go from $120 a month to about $260/mo for next year. I know most all schools have special exception applications, but has anyone actually gone through with this and seen an increase in aid based on a newly calculated EFC as a result of child support?</p>
<p>Step-D's real dad will not be contributing a penny for college. I'm OK with that, because as far as I am concerned, she's my D. The Profile schools raise a whole different level of problems, but I figured I'd start here with the basics first. Real dad makes about $35K a year with overtime as a laborer in a scrap yard, so no big money being hidden anywhere. Still, a Profile school expecting anything from him will sink her because we're already being gapped with step-S a significant amount. We can't make up a gap from a profile school that figures he's good for another $7K. She has no contact with him, and I doubt he'll even fill out the forms.</p>
<p>The best plan would be to contact the schools directly. Most Profile schools expect to count the income from all parents and step parents whether they are paying child support or are involved. It's not fair, but it's their money to do with with they want. Some schools may consider it a special circumstance if the child support is now stopped. All you can do is ask and see how they will view it. You're claiming what you received for the previous year so your income will go down after the child support stops. This will reflect the fafsa amounts. There's a lot of room for professional judgement with these things. Get to know the financial aid officer well. I have similar circumstances and found that schools varied. We ultimately picked the one that was the most supportive with the special circumstances. They say they reevaluate each year and will increase aid if circumstances change. You have no guarantee other than the ones that are not very helpful before admission will not get any better after acceptance. Good Luck!!</p>
<p>I believe you can ask financial aid to adjust for that 2008 income which will not be repeated in 2009- the child support. You could contact various depts as it may vary by school, but a copy of the order would allow them to make an exception, I think</p>
<p>It is up to each financial aid officers discretion whether they are willing to make an adjustment. We had one my daughter's first year of college because of loss of benefits (she was getting SSI because her father is retired which ended once she graduated high school) and also for high medical expenses. It did reduce our FAFSA EFC and increased the financial aid my daughter was offered.</p>
<p>If they do approve it they go into your FAFSA and adjust the income to reflect the loss of income then the numbers are run through the EFC formula again to produce a new FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>I do not know how profile schools handle it as we are FAFSA only.</p>
<p>As everyone is saying, you need to let each of the college's financial aid offices know the situation. It will vary from school to school, how it will be handled. Do be aware that PROFILE schools will insist on the father's financial statement even if he is not going to contribute a dime. His income and assets will still be taken into account.</p>
<p>How about adopting her as soon as the child support is done? That would take care of the entire situation for PROFILE. Still won't affect that single year.</p>
<p>Cpt, I have thought about that and for reasons other than and more important than PROFILE. The thing about the special circumstance is that he can't actually ask to have his case heard until right about the time she is to graduate, maybe the day after she graduates. Her brother didn't turn 18 until mid July after graduation. He filed to have him taken off support two days after his birthday. I don't think any college is going to go on what you think is going to happen, even if you KNOW that's what is going to happen. I guess that first year you're just stuck with the system unless you get a very kind FA department, because by the time all this happens, May 1 is going to be long gone. </p>
<p>That first year is going to be a stinker though. I doubt very highly he will cooperate with any PROFILE forms so we are going to have to try and get a waiver from them. He's held the kids insurance cards, continuosly dropped my stepS from insurance while in college (we just found out he was dropped again the other day), and the court that ordered it is apparently not too concerned because they just let it keep happening. I can nearly guarantee he won't touch a PROFILE form.</p>
<p>scm, did that adjusted EFC and increased aid take effect for her freshman year? We actually used the special circumstances thing once already for stepS, but not related to anything like child support, it was a separate one time action. The school in his case was very accomodating in changing EFC which helped his loan status, but resulted in no aid from school.</p>
<p>Yes it took affect freshman year. It reduced her EFC by a couple of thousand which proved very helpful as it increased her Pell eligibility and also made her eligible for a State grant that is based on FAFSA EFC but requires a lower EFC than Pell. Probably increased her grants in her award by @ $3,000 (we had a lot of medical expenses as well as the loss of benefits). Her school only gives federal need based aid.</p>
<p>I believe our EFC is going to be very close to Pell eligible, which as you mention, opens up a lot of other opportunities. Did you have any inkling that the school would be receptive, or did she choose her school and then you just did what you could?</p>
<p>She had already chosen her school. I had absolutely no idea we could ask for an adjustment until I learned it on CC. Then I researched it a bit using finaid.org. Then we called the school and asked them and they said yes it was a possibility and told us what documentation we would need. Took us a couple of weeks to get together the documentation as we had to get medical bills and prescription records - about an inch thick pile of documents. Then it took the school a few weeks to go through it all and submit changes to her FAFSA.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How about adopting her as soon as the child support is done? That would take care of the entire situation for PROFILE. >></p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Not unless they can convince the bio dad to terminate his parental rights.</p>
<p>"Her biological father is paying child support now, roughly $600 a month for her. That will end the day she graduates HS, as she'll turn 18 in April. We live in PA, and in PA there is no requirement for child support to continue after HS and no requirement that he do anything for her the day after she is our of HS. The exception is that he must keep them both on his health insurance until they cease to be full time students."</p>
<p>Is there a child support agreement from the divorce or custody decrees?
Can this not be attached as special circumstances to the Profile?</p>
<p>One suggestion, my family learned the hard way that Profile is not a good choice for us, FAFSA is, due to home equity I cannot afford to access. So, I suggest if the Profile may be difficult to complete, that you pursue an entire set of FAFSA schools in varying degrees of difficulty for admissions, public/private/merit aid/etc.</p>
<p>No, it is not HYPS, but it may give you a set of possibles come spring and one of them may turn out to be a wise choice. If the Profile school is adaptive and works things out, great, but get 2-3-4 really good FAFSA options. All three of my kids ended up at FAFSA schools- first DD only applied to one FAFSA school and that was where she had to go; D2 applied to 2 Profile & the rest FAFSA, further underscoring not to bother for #3 with non-FAFSA schools ;)</p>
<p>When I opened this thread I thought it was going to be another complaint about a the income of the step parent being used for financial aid. Kudos to the OP for being a responsible parent (and it does sound like you truly are a parent!)</p>
<p>Nearly all schools use FAFSA (I believe there are a couple that don not accept federal aid so do not). Some schools use only FAFSA so use it for both federal aid and their own institutional aid (if they offer any). Other schools also ask for the CSS/Profile. This asks for a lot more information than FAFSA such as non custodial parental information, value of primary home, how many gold teeth you have etc. Schools that use CSS will use FAFSA for federal aid (such as Pell grant) and CSS/Profile for their own institutional aid.</p>
<p>rrah, thanks, not like I am some great humanitarian or something. I love my step-D and can't imagine step-parents feeling any other way. She and her mom and brother were in a bad situation before I came into the picture. I'm glad to have the chance to truly make a difference. </p>
<p>I understand why the noncustodial parent is factored into the equations - there is just too much room for abuse, but dang it, I hate to see a kid suffer like my step-D when she it's obvious she has a pretty good chance of being worse off because of me, and worse off than if she was just my kid. It's frustrating. I have talked a little with the FA office at one PROFILE schools she's looking at, and they said they would take everything into consideration and make it fair, and that they would not expect a contribution from more than 2 people. I think we'll need a clarification on that. If they mean that since I make more than him, they would consider me and my wife as the 2 since she has custody or me and bio dad since we are the 2 that make the most.</p>
<p>scm and cpt, our home equity isn't anywhere near enough to be a factor from a PROFILE perspective. We have probably less than typical assets and 5 kids (she'll make 2 in college at the same time), so PROFILE really doesn't hurt us, other than the big wildcard of what happens to bio dad. The decrease for the 2009 calendar year is a conversation I need to have with FA at the short list for sure. Thanks for your help!</p>