<p>Hello!
I will be starting my first semester in fullerton junior college in the spring and I have an issue with the financial aid. I filed my FAFSA as independent student because I was in foster care up until I was 13, and then got adopted. However, the financial aid office called me saying they had to make changes to my FAFSA since I had to file as DEPENDENT, because according to them, even though I was in foster care at the age of 13, I still got adopted at that age. So my EFC went from 0000 to more than $4000! and the problem is I havent lived with my adopted parents since the beginning of 2012 and they live in another state, and they cannot help me financially for school. My pell grant went down from more than 5000 to about 800.
I was sure that I could file as independent because I answered yes to the question on FAFSA:
At any time since you turned age 13, were both your parents deceased, were you in foster care or were you a dependent or ward of the court?
´´At ANYTIME since you turned age 13´´ so I shoud be considered independent shouldn´t I? what can I do?</p>
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<p>Page 23:</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1314AVGCh2.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1314AVGCh2.pdf</a></p>
<p>Yes, it would seem you should be independent even if your status changed later. Do you have documentation showing you were adopted after turning 13 and in foster care until you were adopted? I would take the doc to the finaid office and talk to them. You can ask them to look at the handbook referenced above.</p>
<p>Hopefully kelsmom will see this thread.</p>
<p>Yes, actually before they even changed my fafsa I took them the documentation since they had asked me for it. But a couple of days later they called me saying that they had to correct my FAFSA because I had been adopted at the age of 13 so I would not be considered independent.
Thank you for the handboook, I will be printing out that page and show it to them. But I dont know if they will keep insisting to file as dependent, since they already saw my documentation yet they still corrected my FAFSA…</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s relevant but were you adopted by the couple you were in foster care with after turning 13 or another couple?</p>
<p>How many years and months were you when you were adopted?</p>
<p>Were you 13 years and 4 months? (or something like that?)</p>
<p>from <a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2013-14-completing-fafsa.pdf[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2013-14-completing-fafsa.pdf</a>
It sounds to me like you meet the criteria.</p>
<p>What I did when I had a problem with a school was call the FAFSA number. They told me I was right and I asked them how to convince the school. They told me exactly where the school needed to look in their documents. I wrote it down and told the head of financial aid at the college what they said. That person ran it by their legal department and they changed the information within a day or two. </p>
<p>Note that, according to FAFSA, they cannot change your independent to dependent status because of professional judgement so this should be a black and white issue.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about this organization but it looks like they have a sample letter for students in your situation and some links for scholarships for students who were in foster care. It may be worth a phone call to them to see if they have run across this before and if they have any advice. </p>
<p>[Do</a> I need to report family income on my financial aid application? | CA College Pathways](<a href=“http://www.cacollegepathways.org/do-i-need-report-family-income-my-financial-aid-application-either-my-biological-family-or-family-i]Do”>http://www.cacollegepathways.org/do-i-need-report-family-income-my-financial-aid-application-either-my-biological-family-or-family-i)</p>
<p>[What</a> other resources or scholarships are available for foster youth? | CA College Pathways](<a href=“http://www.cacollegepathways.org/what-other-resources-or-scholarships-are-available-foster-youth]What”>http://www.cacollegepathways.org/what-other-resources-or-scholarships-are-available-foster-youth)</p>
<p>More scholarship links:
<a href=“http://fosteryouth.fullcoll.edu/Scholarships.htm[/url]”>http://fosteryouth.fullcoll.edu/Scholarships.htm</a></p>
<p>By the way, is this your school? It looks like they have a foster care liaison person. That may be another person who can help you although going through FAFSA would be my first move: </p>
<p><a href=“http://eops.fullcoll.edu/staff.html[/url]”>http://eops.fullcoll.edu/staff.html</a></p>
<p>Collegegirl…in which state did you go to high school?</p>
<p>If you were in foster care eve ONE day while you were 13 years old, you absolutely are independent for financial aid purposes. I have been to trainings where this was discussed. I suggest you request a meeting with a manager in the aid office - sounds like the financial aid officer needs some training (don’t say that, of course ;)). Go to the link in swimcatmom’s post and print out the page that has the info she posted. It is very, very clear.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids- about 13 and a half,
2collegewego- I called FAFSA and they said I was correct, however it was ‘‘up to the school’’
how can that be? Im supposed to go to the financial aid office tomorrow to try and speak to them,
@kelsmom -thanks I will definetly request to to meet the manager of the office.</p>
<p>It is not “up to the school.” What you encountered was a FAFSA rep who didn’t know what he/she was talking about. If you can’t resolve this directly with the school, by providing them the documentation above, call FAFSA again . . . and don’t give up until you reach someone who can help you resolve this.</p>
<p>I suspect your situation is uncommon enough that the rep’s you spoke to initially (both at FJC and at FAFSA) might not have encountered it before. So you just have to be polite and persistent until you find somebody who’s more familiar with the regulations.</p>
<p>Good luck - I hope you’re able to get it resolved quickly!</p>
<p>I just came from the school´s financial aid office and I spoke to the person handing my file, and kept telling me that I cannot be considered dependent because I got adopted. I told her that everywhere I look online it says that I am independent if I was in foster care at the age of 13 even if Im adopted now. But the person said that it doesnt matter, and repeating the same thing ´´you were adopted at the age of 13´´ so I just asked to speak to someone else, and the director of the financial aid office is out of town so I wont be able to talk to him until Thursday. I also called FAFSA people and spoked to 3 different people and they all keep saying different thing. The last person told me that if I got adopted at 13 I am dependent. I dont know what to do!</p>
<p>Don’t get too upset yet. You have 2 official references in this thread to take with you Thursday. Did you have hard copies to show today? It is an unusual situation with the timing of your adoption so people speaking off the top of their head and not actually looking it up can get it wrong.</p>
<p>Maybe they meant it was up to the school not in the sense that the financial aid officer has wiggle room but rather that the FAFSA office doesn’t go in there and change the form-- the school has to do it. </p>
<p>I agree with annoyingdad. You need to print out the official FAFSA documents linked above, highlight the part that swimcatsmom posted and show it to the head of financial aid. You may need to make an appt for Thursday to clear this up. Stay calm and clear. Don’t throw out a lot of extra information. Just explain that FAFSA clearly says that if you spent even one day in foster care after your 13th birthday, you are independent even if you are now adopted.</p>
<p>They said it was up to the school because they don’t know the rules the way they should. 2collegewego has given you good advice. Just stay on point. Don’t talk about anything that anyone said up to this point. Simply state your situation, and explain that your understanding is that you should be considered independent. Tell the director that you correctly indicated this on the FAFSA, but the aid officer is telling you that because you were adopted, you cannot be independent. If the director agrees with the aid officer, show him/her your print-outs of the info on the links we gave you. If that doesn’t work, please tell the director that another financial aid director suggested that he/she go to [National</a> Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators](<a href=“http://www.nasfaa.org%5DNational”>http://www.nasfaa.org) and log in (hopefully, the director is a member of NASFAA). He/she should go to AskRegs and type this in the search: Is a Student Independent if She Was In Foster Care on Her 13th Birthday and Until Later Adopted by Her Foster Family?. This is the answer that will come up on the screen: She is independent, because (as the FAFSA question instructs) the student was an orphan/ward of the court at ANY time after turning age 13. Likewise, a student who was at any time since the age of 13 a foster child or a ward of the court is independent even if her status changed later. [See 2012-13 FSA handbook, page AVG-23].</p>
<p>Is there a responsible, well-spoken adult who can accompany you to the financial aid office and speak to the director with you? It’s hard for someone your age to fight a bureaucracy by yourself, no matter how well-armed you are with the facts. (Wish I could be there for you!) In any case, prepare what you plan to say ahead of time–something like, “I believe there has been an incorrect interpretation of the rules about independence, which is not surprising, since my situation is so unusual. I’ve checked with a financial aid director at another school and she directed me to these materials, which explain why I should be considered independent. Shall I stay while you look it over or shall I stop by tomorrow?” Come back to post how it goes, so you can get advice for the next step–which hopefully won’t be necessary.</p>
<p>One other thing . . . don’t say you “looked online” to get the answer. No one’s going to credit what you found “online” - there’s plenty of info online that’s flat out wrong.</p>
<p>(1) Print out the regulation and bring it in with you (highlighted, as noted above). Hand it to them and ask them to read it.</p>
<p>(2) Also print out the link kelsmom posted for you in post #16 above (for [NASFAA](<a href=“http://www.nasfaa.org/]NASFAA[/url]”>http://www.nasfaa.org/)</a>), along with the specific wording of the search that kelsmom suggested. Bring those with you also.</p>
<p>(3) Finally, read over the language MommaJ suggested in her post #17 . . . and practice saying it. It’s calm, direct, and non-confrontational - exactly the way you should be approaching this!</p>
<p>Excellent advice in both posts above. I want to let you know, OP, that I recall having a debate within our office shortly after the rules were changed a couple years ago to allow your situation to be considered an automatic-independent status. We had two different interpretations of what the regulations actually meant, and we had to go to our federal trainer for guidance. In the years since, the FAFSA instructions and info provided to aid officers have become more clear … but if an aid office has never dealt with this before, they may need to have their own internal debate/training to sort it out. I like the suggestion to offer to return after giving the director time to research, if necessary.</p>