Thanks again for your responses, but looks like almost all of these arguments are based on just general thinking. My reading is that in-state tuition fee is a privilege for the residents. A resident is one who “lives” in a state. The lease agreement, tax returns etc are only "evidences’ of living but they are NOT REQUIRED. Theoretically, someone who lives under a tree, owns no property, pays no rents, has no income, and, hence, pays no taxes would also be a perfect resident and would enjoy the in-state tuition fee. Since the in-state tuition fee is a monetary benefit, intuitively one thinks that it has to be related to the taxes. But as a general rule that applies to the public it is not related to the income tax etc. My question was whether Cal requires BOTH parents to be living in the state like Tennessee. Couldn,t find any definite info either way.