How would a high school counselor know a particular student’s family finances well enough to make that call? It seems off, to me, from a privacy standpoint.<<<<<<<<<
A lot of this kind of info is out there in the public domain. You can probably google some of the 5% and up and get a good idea of their salary. Frankly this IS the call of the HS GC if we want accountability. If it just triggers a better look, isn't that what is needed? Privacy and such protections are the tools these wealthy people are using to skirt the system.
High School Counselors are probably help the low income kids with fee waivers for testing/applications, and this particular kid was nowhere on his radar. My guess is the parents don’t think about getting waivers for small things like those.
In public schools, the school administration definitely knows who their very low income students are. Those are the kids who qualify for federal free milk or lunch programs. These kids are typically financially helped by the school with things like college application fee waivers, money to pay for school trips or the prom, etc. I wouldn’t think it creepy or unusual that the guidance counselor knows this.
I don’t know. At our high school I could see that. It’s a small private school and there are a lot of affluent families sending their kids there and everyone knows everyone. Certainly enough to at least question that the kid of two MD parents would be at a low income student orientation.
Glad to see someone posted this.
Surely this is illegal in some way, not just immoral. The article goes on to say there’s a limited amount of Illinois state money available, so some actually needy kids are being shut out as a result.
Nothing new here. When I was an underclassman a classmate bragged about how her younger brother was enrolled at the well-regarded and competitive state flagship (not U of I) on essentially a full ride because her parents “transferred” parental custody to the fixed income grandparents just prior to college application season.
Here’s the original HuffPost article. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/illinois-college-scholarships_n_5d3f9dbee4b01d8c97806393
It never ceases to amaze me how low some people will sink and the stupid things some parents will do for their children. It’s really pathetic. Not that I wouldn’t do what I could to help my kids, but I certainly wouldn’t do something that was illegal or would hurt others.
I’d be more surprised if a GC didn’t know the basics of a student’s family’s finances. That is part of their job, esp for lower income (making sure they are taking advantage of all that is out there for college, school, and everyday life).
There are some parents who refuse to fill out the forms for free lunch, etc, because they don’t want people to know. When lower income, their students are those not eating in the cafeteria. The student’s friends will bring it up to people, so even then it’s known. Just at that point the parents have lost a lot of respect TBH. No parent should deny their kids an option to eat just because they are too proud to request help. Sometimes it’s pure pride and other times it’s probably more shame because of how they use the $$ they have, but still…
It’s perfectly reasonable for a GC to note someone who was invited to a low income student orientation didn’t fit the usual picture. It doesn’t mean they know exactly how much the parents make. It means they know they certainly weren’t low income.
Found this is a news story today
“Well-to-do Illinois parents, including lawyers, doctors and realtors, are reportedly giving up custody of their high school-aged children in order to help them secure scholarships and financial aid reserved for low-income students.
Separate investigations conducted by ProPublica Illinois and The Wall Street Journal have uncovered dozens of cases in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago involving parents transferring legal guardianship of their teenagers to grandparents, aunts, friends, or even co-workers over the past year-and-a-half.
The idea behind the tactic, which is legal in Illinois, is that once the parents give up custody, the children are able to declare themselves financially independent on college applications and declare dramatically lower incomes.
The Wall Street Journal cites one example article where a student whose parents owned a $1.2 million house ended up declaring only $4,200 earned from a summer job, and securing $47,000 in scholarships and federal grants to attend a private university where the annual tuition costs $65,000.”
These kids must also be attending colleges that meet full need, many of which are highly competitive for admissions. If they had the stats for Claremont McKenna, or Stanford, they had the stats for significant merit aid at places like University of Alabama…but I guess fake guardianship for a prestige school was more important than anything else.
Both the ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal articles mention universities investigating students with recently changed guardianship now that they know about this type of thing. The Wall Street Journal article mentions a proposed change by the Education Department that the student under changed guardianship is still considered dependent on the parents if s/he receives medical or financial support from the parents.
One of the example parents who did this has a household income over $250,000 per year, has no equity in a $1.2 million dollar home, and has little cash on hand. Looks like a member of the self-described “donut hole” “upper middle class” who gets no financial aid but cannot afford kid’s college… (but apparently spent the $600,000 that they previously had or perhaps borrowed on older kids’ college).
Keep in mind that it has been reported that an U of I education is highly desired by affluent Chicago-area parents for their children. A few years ago there were news stories about wealthy and politically connected adults using their influence to get their kids into U of I.
Guardianship is a matter of state law, so there could be dozens of different processes and requirements throughout the country. Jurisdiction matters.
Hopefully, any judge is at least asking why a change in guardianship is being requested, and the reason provided is noted in the court record/guardianship documents.
Although this behavior seems wrong (I have no idea if it is illegal or not), I have wondered what is right/wrong when it comes to gaming the system for financial aid purposes. Here are some examples I have seen discussed here (some by me) :
Moving money to a child owned 529 plan so the 529 does not appear on sibling financial aid forms.
Shifting money into an insurance cash value account (some life insurance policies have this feature) where that money is not counted.
Putting more money into 401Ks than you would’ve to prevent that money from being counted.
I believe these are all legal examples. Are they ethical? The line is a bit more unclear compared to the case in the article here. I have heard the line here that people shouldn’t make any financial moves for financial aid purposes that they would not otherwise do (I guess giving up custody of your kids violates this). But I feel there are many people that can better position themselves for financial aid and they don’t do it because they don’t know or understand how the formulas work. Again, not the case in the article. I have no sympathy in that case. But that article makes me think of what is right/wrong when it comes to financial aid strategies.
Illinois is famous for high COA at instate publics. If the student gets a Pell Grant and $9,500 loan, that is not going to cover the cost. I also thought the IL state grant program was defunded.
Anyway, if the parents help the student pay for school, that would become part of student income for future financial aid applications.
Future help from the bio parents/grandparents might not show up on a future FAFSA. If the student files as independent because of the guardianship and has a $0 EFC/simplified reporting, assets or other sources of support would not be reported.
Wow that is a lot of legal wrangling to still have to come up with $18k a year – not ONE of my kids is having to come up with 18K a year out of pocket and no we got no Pell Grants or Financial based aid at all.
@LakeWashington .You are right. In the early 2000’s kids were moving out and going for independence. It worked for several years until collages caught it.