Complicated guardianship for financial aid?

kelsmom
Tue, 24 May 2011 22:49:18 +0000

If the guardianship is a full legal guardianship (not a limited guardianship, which is more to allow another adult to make decisions in the absence of the parents), and it is in effect up until the age of majority (18), the student is ALWAYS independent for FAFSA purposes. The guardian’s income info cannot be used on the FAFSA. In the past, students had to either get the parent info (even if the student was in guardianship) or get a dependency override. A couple years ago, the feds changed the rules & those in full guardianship up the age of 18 are independent; schools generally require the court documents to support the claim of guardianship.

As noted, some schools may require guardian info for purposes of dishing out their own aid. I suspect this is pretty rare.