Financial Aid and Changed Family Situation Senior Year

[sybbie719]

It sounds like your cousin may be eligible for a dependency override because s/he does fall int he following categories:

parents lacking the physical or mental capacity to raise the child
parents hospitalized for an extended period

Student needs to work with HS GC, Social workers, and dad’s caseworkers to gather all documentation to support the over ride. As@mommdc stated the most student would get is a PELL Grant and an increased loan. It is not guaranteed and each school makes its own determination and the override would have to be done each year.

I hope that this helps in assisting you/your family in assisting your cousin:

@page AVG-34

Substitutes for a parent’s signature. While parent information must be provided for a dependent student, a high school counselor or a college aid administrator may sign the application in place of a parent if:

• the parents are not currently in the United States and cannot be contacted
by normal means,
• the current address of the parents is not known, or
• the parents have been determined physically or mentally incapable
of providing a signature.

THe GC would most likely be signing the signature page

The signer must provide her title in parentheses next to her signature and briefly state the reason (only one is needed) why she is signing for the parents; if this is not done, the FAFSA will not be processed. The
signer assures a minimum level of credibility in the data submitted; however, she does not assume any responsibility or liability in this process.

If the counselor or FAA finds any inaccuracies in the information reported, she should direct the student to send the SAR through the normal correction process or, if she is an FAA, she can submit corrections through FAA Access. Because this proxy signing isn’t possible electronically, it must be done on a paper FAFSA or on the signature
page/FAFSA summary used with FAA Access.

https://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1718AVG.pdf

@Page AGV-80

Start at chapter 4 AVG77

the reported FAFSA information of the parents of a dependent student if
any of the following apply (including in cases where there is only one parent):
• Both of the parents are mentally incapacitated.
• Both parents or the custodial parent has died.
• They are residing in a country other than the United States and can’t
be contacted by normal means.
• They can’t be located because the student does not have and cannot
get their contact information

all the best to your cousin and your family