The families will lose the $8-10k/year institutional aid, but they’ll still get $6k from Pell and $5k from the state unless those loopholes are closed. It sounds like the feds are including new guidelines for the FAFSA so only “whole person” guardianship cases count, but people fill out the forms however they want. I don’t see how self-reporting closes the loophole.
UI has started requiring so much additional information for verification that some families aren’t bothering to return it. If you answer yes to being in a guardianship then you have to answer questions about who’s paying for your insurance, cell phone, car, and living expenses. Maybe the FAFSA will have something like that – a series of questions that lead to other questions so they can determine who’s supporting the child.