<p>I am considering some colleges that require a "Non-Custodial Parent" statement or supplement. Is there any way to get out of this? I haven't spoken to my biological father in at least 4 years and I haven't seen him in 6. My mother and him do not have a good relationship to say the least. To give an example, I don't know if I've ever directly spoken with her about my father in my lifetime. There is no way that he will be paying for my college education whatsoever.</p>
<p>Has your father ever paid child support? Was he ever married to your mom?</p>
<p>You can request a waiver. It has to be submitted to each school, and someone outside of the family in some position such as minister, counselor should include a statement. Schools vary on how they will treat such a statement as professional judgement is used on a in individual schools. If child support was paid or if it was ordered, not collected and the custodial parent did not go through channels to attempt to collect, then the waiver is often denied. But, again, it can vary from schools to school, case by case. </p>
<p>I suggest also looking for schools with merit money and those that do not require this information just in case the waivers are denied. Don’t put your eggs all in that basket.</p>
<p>I worked with students this year through the waiver process. The waiver process is definitely changing and is getting harder to obtain. Some schools asked for copies of the divorce decree. In one kid’s situation the divorce was given on the grounds of abuse which was stated in the decree along with supervised visitation at the home of another relative. Even with follow up court documentation about non-custodial parent not paying support and how he has not seen student in over 5 years, I still had to send in 3 additional letters before finally getting the waiver.</p>
<p>what if my parents were never married?</p>
<p>In most cases, it doesn’t much matter. Did he, does he pay child support? Is there a court order out there for child support for him, and has your mother been making a concerted documented effort to go after him for the money, with court documentation? Your mother could not have just let him off the hook, married or not as it is not right that the tax payers and colleges should have to pay for those students who have one parent who has not fulfilled the obligation of paying and continuing to pay for his/her child, and the other parent not going through the legal channels that have been set up to go after that support. If that is the case, many schools just are going to refuse to let either parent or their chld off the hook in terms of that effort and not grant the waiver. </p>
<p>But then there are schools that will grant waivers much more easily. You have to give it a go with each school. I know my college used to be more generous about these things, and now they are being very meticulous as to checking up who has been going after the other parent for support. </p>
<p>YMMV. as they say.</p>
<p>That doesn’t really change things. If your father has paid/is paying child support or alimony then you have a relationship, albeit based on legal requirements. Waivers are usually approved for abuse issues or a total inability to find someone.</p>
<p>Xposted with CPT.</p>
<p>What I also found different this year is that many schools are asking for copies of the child support order along with the print out from the support collection unit.</p>
<p>If this makes a difference, I know we went to court a couple years ago, trying to make him pay child support but I don’t think anything happened after that.</p>
<p>It really depends on a lot of factors - how long has it been since he’s paid support, does anyone know his current whereabouts, did he show up in court the last time your mom tried to get him to pay support? All you can do is document everything and hope for the best.</p>
<p>But don’t count on it - make sure you include other schools on your list that are affordable and don’t require the NCP info.</p>
<p>I agree with others that these waivers are not just granted willy-nilly. However, if you have legitimate issues that have been documented over the years, then your case for a waiver will be much easier to establish. I asked this same sort of question on CC many years ago. Most who responded to my question made a waiver sound very unlikely. It was discouraging. But in fact, my kids had no trouble at all, to include waivers from about 20 schools between them. They have never been declined.</p>
<p>As others have said here, the requirements vary from school to school. For us, the vast majority of schools required more than just our word for it, but surprisingly, two or three over the years pretty much required only our impassioned pleas, along with the custodial CSS! (However, my kids’ story was quite dramatic, and therefore, their pleas were very impassioned.) The sorts of things required amongst the various schools were: copies of the divorce decree to include custody agreements, “access” arrangements (to the children, that is), child support agreements, letters from a third party (ministers, counselors, educators, etc), signed affidavits, very detailed, long statements chronicling the history between the kids and their non-custodial parent, etc.</p>
<p>If there is a genuine reason that the non-custodial parent should not be involved, and if that reason is documented in court paperwork, then it is my belief, based on personal experience, that a non-custodial waiver is easy to come by. So, if this applies to you, do not fret.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you do this: simply call the FA office for each one of your prospective schools and ask! “I haven’t spoken to my father in 4 years, and I haven’t even seen him in the past 6 years. Is it possible to apply for a Non-Custodial Waiver? If so, how do I go about doing that?”</p>
<p>And then, follow all of their instructions to the letter.</p>
<p>If you have good reasons to have a non-custodial waiver, it has been my experience that you’ll get one. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Because a parent pays support does not mean you have a relationship with them. Most support is taken out of wages before the absent parent gets the check. As the above posters have stated it does vary. Make sure your statement to the school is from your heart and you will not have much of a problem. You will only have to do this one time. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Just be sure to stick to the facts of your estrangement with the non-custodial parent…and provide the necessary documentation to verify this. Do NOT put “my non-custodial parent will not pay for college”. That really doesn’t matter when it comes to getting this waiver.</p>