<p>So my Duke Employees Children Tuition grant requires me to be considered as a “dependent” as defined by the following three things in WFTRA:
(1) Lives in my home for over half the year, >>Temporary absence because of special circumstances, including education does not prevent the dependent from Qualifying<< (Arrows for emphasis, will come back to this later)
(2) Is my child, stepchild, or adopted child, and
(3) Is a student under 24 years of age and does not provide over half of his or her own support for the year.</p>
<p>So I’m fine for #2 and #3. #1 is the tricky part. My father is the Duke employee who is eligible for this grant. He and my mother separated in 2011, however I had to live with my mother to stay in my school district, since he moved too far away to make a commute feasible to split time spent at his house. When I’m not in school I’ with him, however I cannot live with him and be able to attend the same school. What do you all think about the “special circumstances, including education” bit. It sounds to me thats a built in clause for a case similar to this, so the child wouldn’t be forced to pick their life up and move off to be eligible. The eligibility says its defined by those three things under WFTRA, which I did some research on and found its largely useless now and was one of those “it looked good on paper, but it wasn’t how we intended it to come out” things. Although my mother filed me as a dependent last year, it mentions nothing about filing taxes about you/for you under any clause for WFTRA, including on the grant sheet. </p>
<p>They make it very clear its a dependent as defined by WFTRA, and not just filing taxes as a dependent. What do you all think, is that considered a “special circumstance including education”?. I think I know what that’s intended for, and thats for when you’re in college you can’t live with someone for more than half of the year, but I feel like this is of similar nature. More information can be provided if needed, thanks</p>