Checking for clarity…you are not talking to the uncle with whom you reside? What about the aunt?
Is this some kind of special school that enroll only U.S. citizens? If not, how would you know the immigration status of all of the students in your school?
I’m not talking to the one I reside with because of a situation that occurred but I spoke with a financial aid person from UTM and she said because of my situation she can do a dependency override and make me independent
OK, that’s good.
How old are you now?
17 as of February. Will be a senior in the fall.
Malima198- you seem like a very resilient, determined teenager and I am very impressed with how you’ve managed to take some sad life circumstances in stride.
Great news that you’ve been in touch with a financial aid person from UTM. That is a great relationship for you to have going forwards… even if all your paperwork isn’t 100%, having a personal relationship with someone in the office will help you. There are some areas that a financial aid person can’t help with- Federal law for example. But for things that might need professional review … good decision to reach out to the university rep!
You are awesome. So sad for the losses in your life but happy that you are focused on getting a college education!!!
Is formal legal guardianship something that the high school that malimal98 attends would have on record?
Thanks blossom
^^
I don’t think so. I think a school just may have on its record who is able to sign for him. People get that sort of thing all the time when their kids have to “stay behind” at a school while the parents move elsewhere. That’s not the same as parents losing custody thru the court system and someone else having court ordered legal guardianship.
Work study can often get awarded but it can run out. So put your application and financial aid application in a timely manner. File the FAFSA as soon as you can after Jan 1. You can wait a few weeks if you have to get a W2 but if not then file it right away.
They would not have it on record since legal guardianship was delt with before I moved and went to high school
I think they may have looked at it. How else would the school allow your guardians to enroll you when they are not your parents? In all the moving around my family has done the school always asks if we are the parents of the children.
They would not need the legal guardian ship papers to enroll a student in school. basically they ask you for photo ID and your relationship to the child. You can essentially have a notarized letter for a parent to enroll someone else’s child in school
I disagree sybbie. I’ve registered my kids in school districts in 3 states and I always had to provide their birth certificates showing my name, and my ID, and usually some documents showing where I live. One district has many students trying to get in so I had to provide a copy of my mortgage and that they were my children - no friends, nieces, cousins, etc. allowed to register just using that address. They send investigators if they question the relationship. My name had to appear on their documents.
Since the OP is 17, there is still time for a legal guardianship to be established by the court if one does not already exist. That could simplify the financial aid picture.
If the student was registered under the auspices of McKinney-Vento (homeless or at risk of being homeless, which isn’t unreasonable with one parent having died and the other having been deported) then there is no particular requirement for paperwork, @twoinanddone – the feds want to make it as simple as possible for kids in that circumstance to continue k-12 education.
The McKinney act requires the school districts to temporarily register children as soon as possible, but it doesn’t mean the documents can’t be required within a reasonable time, can’t require legal guardianship papers, can’t require medical documents, can’t enforce residency rules within the district. If the student is homeless, who is responsible for that student? It may be the state. There is a liaison who would help get this documentation. The Act is not a free pass to go to any school without documentation, it is an act to help the students get the correct documentation, to create a file with educational records that travels with the child. if the student is truly homeless with no parents, I think social services would be called in to take custody.
Many districts are very flexible on getting required documentation once McKinney-Vento has been invoked. Guidance from the feds encourages informal solutions that are always in favor of the student attending school, especially if the student is considered homeless or unaccompanied youth. Many districts follow best practices guidance from NCHE for youth not in a legal guardianship: http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/briefs/guardianship.pdf
In our area, schools build records for M-V students, send student to the health department for immunizations if immunization records aren’t available, and generally work very flexibly with students who may be living in informal situations due to absence of parents, natural disasters, or other situations that disrupt living arrangements. YMMV.
There are a whole different set of rules and requirements if M-V is not invoked on behalf of the student, and then a district if free to require whatever it chooses within the bounds of current laws.
Please continue to do the work mentioned above to get your papers in order. Personally, I would not count on a FA person’s representation over the phone that they can make you independent if they haven’t seen documents.