<p>Georgia law:Families Moving to Georgia. A dependent student who, as of the first day of the term of enrollment, can provide documentation supporting that his or her supporting parent or court-appointed guardian has accepted full-time, self-sustaining employment and established domicile in Georgia for reasons other than gaining the benefit of favorable tuition rates may qualify immediately for an out-of-state tuition differential waiver, which will expire twelve months from the date the waiver was granted. An affected student may petition for residency status according to established procedures at the institution.</p>
<p>Others states: bona fide state residents must pay out-of-state tuition to attend a state university for one year. I believe this to be discrimination of state benefits based on duration of residency.</p>
<p>The courts have given the states wide latitude on this as higher education does not fall under basic rights.</p>
<p>Barrons is entirely correct. </p>
<p>As a general principle, states are allowed to discriminate in many situations against out-of-state residents: so long as it is not a fundamental right (i.e. a right found within the text of the Constitution), a state may provide its benefits to those in-state. </p>
<p>Welfare benefits may not be restricted based on duration of residency (See, Shapiro v. Thompson); likewise, hospital care is a fundamental necessity. Starns v. Malkerson held that states may impose residency periods for the purposes of obtaining in-state tuition; a differential in tuition will not affect someone's decision to travel; as there is no chilling effect on a fundamental right, states only need to have a rational basis for their actions. The Starns case was about a woman whose husband moved to Iowa and then to Minnesota; MN denied in-state tuition status. </p>
<p>So, yes, it is discrimination, but it's okay. Nothing in the Constitution says that states must all play really, really nice with the residents of other states.</p>
<p>But, some other states do allow a petition for in-state tution similar to GA.</p>
<p>Yes, they may allow for petitioning, but those states are not, by any stretch of the law nor the imagination, required to allow for such petitioning, which was the original question. </p>
<p>States are allowed to impose residency or durational requirements on non-citizens of its states when the service in question is not a fundamental right. Higher ed, cheap, is not fundamental. (I do think that some of the disparity between this and welfare receipt is that the person is not totally denied the education - for example, it's not like a NC person who comes into VA cannot attend their universities - they just have to pay more. OTOH, welfare recepients or hospital patients would have total denial of benefits.)</p>
<p>.................hospital patients would have total denial of benefits.............</p>
<p>Ariesthena - this is not true - you can go to another state and receive hospital benefits depending on ones insurance coverage.</p>
<p>Dakotah ...........established domicile in Georgia....................</p>
<p>What does it take tho tho establish domicile in GA would be the question here. Also which GA school are you referring to??</p>
<p>It is common in many states for dependants to attend at state tuition once domicile is established..........</p>
<p>This site may help with this issue - scroll down about 1/2 way to where the states are listed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/stateresidency.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/stateresidency.phtml</a></p>
<p>A good rule of thumb on "can I beat residency this way?" is that if you've thought of it, so have other students and families. And so have the colleges in question, and they've closed that loophole (assuming there ever was one). If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. That includes clever strategies you come up with for legal challenges to their policies.</p>
<p>That loophole was closed quite a few years ago - so it is pretty much impossible to gain residency status for tuition purposes in any state other than the one you live in. Even with a divorced parent situation and one parent lives in the state where the student wants to go - there is a review process and the schools can accept it or deny it................</p>
<p>JeepMom: I should have clarified. In terms of private insurance, well, the Constitution doesn't care about that. Private insurers can do whatever they want. Now, if a state gives welfare benefits and Medicaid (I think Medicaid is the state one) to its residents, it cannot restrict those benefits based on a residency requirement.</p>
<p>Some states have automatic residency things - if you've been there for one year, changed your license, car registration, car title, and voting registration over, then you get in-state tuition. Other states require "intent to stay," which is your job to prove. States are not required to extend their benefits to people who have no intention of remaining in the state. Now, you could do something like buy real estate to prove "intent to stay," and really, there are few other ways to get it. Best bet is to move there more than one year in advance of the school year.</p>
<p>ARIES - the m-caid benefits - the state certainly does restrict how and where they can be used tho.</p>
<p>The residency issue is dicy and difficult to run around - especially if it involves residency for tuition purposes - pretty sticky stuff.</p>
<p>They just can't restrict Medicaid based on length of residency in the state. They can so restrict tuition.</p>