I have a teenager living with me - currently 17 1/2. She is a senior this year. She has lived with me for the past year. She cannot live with her mom. Dad is and has been out of the picture forever. DCF has been involved. DCF got a protective order for her against her mom’s boyfriend about a month or two ago. I do not have any legal or court ordered guardianship for her (only 4 mos until she is 18). The high school knows the situation (she told them about it and they reported it to DCF). I do sign all her forms/papers etc for school and can pick her up. Would she qualify as independent for financial aid purposes since she would be homeless due to safety reasons (or living in a dangerous situation) if I did not take her in? We have the the protective order, and her guidance counselor is willing to write a letter.
Is her mom not willing to do her fafsa?
She would have to apply for a dependency override from the college, it seems. And she will have to explain the situation with the father. Here are the questions for independent status.
At any time on or after July 1, 2014, were you determined to be an unaccompanied youth who was homeless or were self-supporting and at risk of being homeless, as determined by (a) your high school or district homeless liaison, (b) the director of an emergency shelter or transitional housing program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or (c) the director of a runaway or homeless youth basic center or transitional living program?**
**If you do not have a determination that you are homeless, but you believe you are an unaccompanied youth who is homeless or self-supporting and at risk of being homeless, answer “No” to the FAFSA questions concerning being homeless. Then contact your financial aid office to explain your situation.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/filling-out/dependency#dependent-or-independent
We don’t know if mom will do fafsa or not. All we really need is her SS # to do it. Mom has no income, is on state aid, no savings, etc. Either way she will have a 0 EFC. But Independent status would get her more in student loans - so that is why we are wondering. The High school is willing to state she would be homeless if she didn’t live with me. But I am concerned that she could get stuck in some kind of ‘determination/approval’ process - and then other grant/scholarship money would all be given out already. More fed loans don’t help if she losses grants/scholarship money.
If her mom has lousy credit, she’d get the same amount of loans.
That said, @kelsmom can probably give the best advice for this.
does she have the stats for scholarships? Those don’t usually have anything to do with FAFSA.
As for grants…she’d get the Pell no matter when she applied.
I think she should put the “homeless” option now on the FAFSA app, and submit it that way. At least it gets it in and gets her “In line” for aid.
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She will need to contact the school(s) to ask about their dependency override process. This one should be relatively easy to obtain … make copies of the police reports and get letters explaining the situations (both mom and dad) - you can write one, she will need to write one, and you’ll need another 1 or 2 from others … best if you can get one from a school counselor/therapist/case representative/doctor/some other professional. Homelessness will not work in this case, since she apparently has not actually been homeless.
OK, thanks.