I am filling out the CSS Profile and it is requesting information on my noncustodial parent. My parents have been separated for 14 years and I have not seen or heard from my father in 8 years. He is an alcoholic and drug addict in and out of rehab and I, along with the rest of my family, decided it was best to cut all contact. He is legally required to pay child support but doesn’t; he has been almost always unemployed but in those rare and short employments we have received maybe $500 in child support in the past decade. When they start to take child support out of his paychecks, he always quits the job. I am completely unaware of his whereabouts and have no information to report on him. What do I need to do in this situation?
You need to contact the schools that expect that info and request a waiver form
@mom2collegekids thanks for the reply! I am applying to all these schools by myself; my mom doesn’t know how to do any of it so I am just kind of having to learn all this on my own. So if you could help at all that’d be great! How do I know which schools require this information? And how should I go about requesting a waiver?
If a school requires the CSS, you need to contact them to see if the non custodial parent’s information is also required. If so, ask for the waiver forms.
If it is a FAFSA only school, you don’t need it.
Most of the time the information on getting a non-custodial parent waiver is on the school website. We had to get one for Duke. We had to fill out a waiver request form describing the circumstances, last date of contact, etc. We also had to attach two letters from people outside of the family who were aware and could confirm the situation. I don’t know if that is how most schools do it, but that is what Duke required.