ABC COMPANY - Student Aid
PSC-ED-FSA-TISD
Moderator: Christal Simms
February 6, 2018
3:00 pm CT
Coordinator: Welcome and thank you all for standing by. Participants will be in a listen-only mode for the entire duration of the conference.
This call is being recorded. If you object, you may disconnect now.
And here is your host, (Claire) (unintelligible). You may begin.
(Claire): Thank you and good afternoon everyone. Like she said, my name is (Claire), and today we're here to talk to you about being independent or dependent on the FAFSA.
So, before we get started, I want to point out a couple of things to you. If you look on your left-hand side you will see a Q-and-A box. At any time during this presentation you can ask your questions and I have my colleagues on the line ready to answer them.
In addition to asking your questions in the Q-and-A box, if you also look under Files, there are many resources attached as well as the actual presentation I'm going to go through today. So you can download the Webinar and any of the other handouts anytime during this presentation as well.
So let's get started. Today I'm going to talk about what it means to be dependent or independent on the FAFSA. I'll also go through the dependency criteria. We'll also go over a couple of the special circumstances and discuss reporting parental information. And of course, lastly, I'll leave you with some FSA resources.
So, first things first. When completing the FAFSA, most people do it online at FAFSA on the Web at . As you can see here, here's a screenshot of the main page. Some of you may be familiar with this and have been here before. For some of you, it may be your first time. Either way, you can go straight to this page, and if you look in the left-hand corner, you can start a new FAFSA or you can log back in anytime right there.
So here's the big deal about being dependent or independent. If you are considered a dependent student, then you will report you and your parents' information on the FAFSA. If you're considered an independent student, all you need to do is report your own information, or if you're married, also your spouse's information as well.
So, some people always ask, well, how do I know if I'm independent or dependent? How can I tell? There's a lot of high school students out there who may feel like they're independent, however, according to FAFSA standards may not be.
So, what's great is you don't have to do any of the guesswork. The questions that are asked on the FAFSA that you answer will determine your dependency status for you.
Here's a look at the dependency criteria. As you can see, there are a lot of things listed here. However, you only need to say yes to one of these questions. Only one of these criteria needs to be relevant to you in order for you to be considered an independent student. So we can just go through them quickly.
If you are 24 years or older, married, pursuing a master's or doctor program, if you have any children or dependents that you provide more than half of their support, if at any time since the age 13 your parents have been deceased or you were in foster care or considered a ward or dependent of the court, if you are an emancipated minor or in a legal guardianship, if you're an unaccompanied youth who is considered homeless or self-supporting and at the risk of being homeless, or if you are a veteran or serving active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, say that four times fast, then you can be considered an independent student.
And once again, that means, if you say yes or if you - any of these criteria applies to you, then you only need to report your own information on the FAFSA. You are not required to report parent information.
However, if you look at all these questions and you see that none of them apply to you, and you answer no, you are most likely considered a dependent student and therefore you must report parent information as well as your own. So if -- I'm jumping ahead a little, and we'll go into this in more depth -- but if you are considered a dependent student and do not report parent information, you may only qualify for unsubsidized loans from the federal government.
Let's take a look at how this looks on the FAFSA. So this is a screenshot from the actual application at . As you can see here, from the criteria we looked at before -- you see the criteria -- now see the screenshot. These are all the questions. And you go through and you either answer yes or no.
As you can see here in this screenshot, I've answered no to most of - all of these questions actually. When were you born? As of today, are you married? And so on and so forth. These questions match up directly with the dependency criteria we've just went over.
So, as you can see, if I select no for all of these questions, then this will pop. It'll say, based on the questions that you answered, you are considered a dependent student. This means you must provide parental information.
And as you can see here at the bottom, I have two choices. Let's see. I can either provide parental information or I'd say I'm unable to provide parental information. And we'll talk about that as well.
So let's look at the next slide. Let's see - say you don't answer no to all the questions. One of them does apply to you. And as you can see here, here's a question that says, do you have or would you have children who will receive more than half of your support? I answered yes to that question. As soon as I answered yes, it prompted me to answer questions about my family size, and then immediately told me that I'm considered an independent student, and therefore I'm not required to answer questions about my parents.
I could go down and then say, nope, since I'm not required to answer questions about my parents, I don't want to. And then I move on.
So as I mentioned earlier, and I will go back a couple of slides to show you, sometimes people realize that their situations don't fall within a dependency criteria, although according to our standards, they're considered a dependent, they're maybe in a special circumstance who deems them an independent student.
So as you can see here, let's say you are in a special circumstance, you kind of go through this process, and you decide to select that you're unable to provide parental information even though by FAFSA standards it deems you dependent. Here are some of the criteria that could make you considered in a special circumstance. If your parents are incarcerated, if you left home due to an abusive family environment, if you don't know where your parents are and you're unable to contact them, and of course, you're not adopted so you don't have any legal parents that you're in contact with.
So the thing about the special circumstances is they must be very well-documented, either from a high school counselor or a social worker, maybe another family member, or somebody else that you're involved in, that can corroborate your situation and kind of also support your story that you're in one of these special circumstances.
Once you get those letters, you get all that stuff documented, you just let the Financial Aid Office know and they'll tell you how they want you to submit that information. Then the Financial Aid Office reviews and then they determine if they can do what's called a Dependency Override. So then the college will look at you as an independent student and therefore you won't be required to put parent information, even though by FAFSA standards we may have said you're a dependent student. You no longer are required to put parent information. And therefore, now you're not only limited to qualifying only for unsubsidized loans, because you got the dependency override and now you're considered an independent student.
So it's really important to note that the Financial Aid Office has the final say. They determine if they're going to do that override. And further, not all situations are special circumstances, and we'll talk about that as well. But let's just go through.
So you decided, yes, you're definitely in a special circumstance, you're unable to provide parent information. So now it takes you to this page, the special circumstances page. As you can see here, I put this in a red box. Everything we talked about in the criteria to be a special circumstance on that previous slide is right here on a screenshot from its actual FAFSA, so it says the same criteria.
And now you can go down here and decide what you want to do. After reviewing, do you want to just provide information, maybe you're not in a special circumstance, and after reading this you realize, yes, you know, I can get in touch with my mom or I can get her to go ahead and get my dad to fill this out.
You can say that you have a special circumstance that, yes, one or more of these apply to you, there's no way you're going to get your parent's information, and so therefore you'll need to go ahead do the special circumstance process. Or you even have the option of saying, I do not have a special circumstance but you're still unable to provide parental information. And like I said, we'll talk about that scenario as well.
So, once you decide that you're at a special circumstance, it gives you guidance on what to do. It tells you, as I mentioned earlier, that you'll have to have that documentation. You'll have to go ahead and send that to the Financial Aid Office, and then it's up to the Financial Aid Office to determine if they want to give you that dependency override.
As you can see here on this screenshot, there is a lot of other information. When you're going through the FAFSA, not only do we give you a lot of detail information about what you need to do in a situation, but if you also check on the right-hand side of the screenshot, you see that there's a Help & Hints box that offers even more information about the process and about the situation. The Help & Hints box is available throughout the entire FAFSA, so it's great if you're kind of confused at a question or not sure, you can check out the Help & Hints box and it gives you a little more context to what we're asking for.
So that's what you do if you are in a special circumstance. You just say you're in a special circumstance. Once you click that and confirm that you're not going to provide parent information, it takes you to where you can continue with the FAFSA, only putting student information.
Now, what if you don't have a special circumstance? What if you're considered a dependent student, you don't qualify for any of the special circumstances, but you're unable to provide parental information?
As you can see here in this box, it mentions some of the situations that aren't considered special circumstances. Most commonly, it may be that your parents just don't want to participate. They are not comfortable doing the FAFSA for whatever reason, they don't want to put their information out there. They may say that, well, I'm not supporting you financially, so therefore there's no need for me to fill out the form, whatever the reason may be.
Unfortunately, these situations are not considered special circumstances and won't make you eligible in order to get that dependency override due to a special circumstance. However, these situations arise, and if you're in one and you're just unable to get your parents' information, you're not in a special circumstance, you select that option, and it takes you to this page. It lets you know that, because you're a dependent student and you're saying you're not in a special circumstance and you're also not providing parental information, that you may only qualify for an unsubsidized loan from Federal Student Aid.
Now, if you are in this situation, I would definitely recommend that not only from the Financial Aid Office, but maybe a high school counselor or someone else in the community that is knowledgeable about the FAFSA process who could talk to your parents to let them know that, just because they put their information on the FAFSA, that it does not make them, require them to support you through college. They're not - there's no financial obligations. But having that parent complete their information for their dependent student just opens up that student to so much more financial aid that they could qualify for.
But if there's no convincing the parent, if they don't want to put that information, then you just go through this process, and you still need to reach to the Financial Aid Office because you still may need to provide some documentation to them explaining that your parents aren't supporting you, that they aren't completing the FAFSA, and that you want to be able to qualify for at least an unsubsidized loan. So, keep that in mind.
And as you can see here on the screenshot, it lays out all of the steps and all of the information about what happened. When you're in these situations where you're considered a dependent student but you're not providing parental information, that means you don't get and expect a family contribution, you are going to have to work at the Financial Aid Office to make sure they get all the information they need to get what you need as well.
But keep in mind, and it's very, very important through all this, that when your FAFSA is done, you keep those open line of communications, open with the Financial Aid Office if you're in one of these sticky situations. It's really important.
All right. So we're going to move on in talking about reporting parental information. So, so far we talked about, if you're an independent student what will happen and how it'll let you know, hey, you answered yes to one of these questions, you're an independent student, you can go ahead and only put your information.
We talked about that if you're technically considered a dependent student but if you're in a special circumstance, that you can go ahead and continue the FAFSA without parent information but will have to follow up with the Financial Aid Office to provide documentation of that special circumstance. And we also talked about, if you are a dependent student who is not in a special circumstance but are unable to provide parental information, what you would do to be able to continue completing the FAFSA with just your information but ensuring that you follow up with the Financial Aid Office to make sure that you can qualify for at least an unsubsidized loan from Federal Student Aid.
So now if you are just a dependent student, you answered no to all the questions, and you need to provide that parent information, let's talk about who that parent is, how you decided which parent completes the FAFSA, if it needs to be one parent or both. Let's talk about all of those different scenarios.
So now let's - back to this page. Once you enter no to all those dependency criteria questions, it'll say you are considered a dependent student, either you will provide parental information or you're unable. So in this case now, we're able to provide parental information.
Once you select that, this is the next page you will get. As you can see on the screenshot, the first question that's asked is, as of today, what is the marital status of your parents? What is the marital status of your parents? That is the first question that'll be asked. And depending on how you answer that question, it'll actually pre-populate and let you know if you only need to provide information for one parent or both parents.
So I'm going to talk about every single scenario that can be in order for you to have to provide that parental information. Don't feel overwhelmed, I'm telling you this upfront. Really we do the guesswork for you. As soon as you click "My parents are married and living together," we'll say there's room for Parent 1 and Parent 2. If you say your parents are divorced and not living together, we'll automatically say "Only need one information from Parent 1," and so on and so forth.
But we're just going to talk about all the different scenarios. But remember, you don't have to be experts on all the situations, just your own. If there are any counselors or college access professionals on the line, it may be helpful for you to, you know, be able to reference and kind of have an idea, and hopefully giving you all this information will make that process a lot easier about finding out who your FAFSA parent is.
So, technically, literally, legally, your parent is considered your biological or adoptive parents, or legal as determined by the state. So, also, who may be on your birth certificate.
Also, if you have a step-parent currently married to your legal parent, in most cases you will also have to provide information about that step-parent. So if you - if your parents are divorced and you're living with dad and his new partner, that means you'll provide information about both of them. Does that make sense? I hope so.
And if it doesn't, don't worry, I will reiterate it. Also, even though grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, brothers and sisters, widowed step-parents, aunts and uncles, are amazing and we love them and they're there for us, it may even serve that parent role, unless they legally have adopted you, they are not considered your parent for the FAFSA.
I'm going to say that one more time. Shout-out to grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, brothers, sisters, widowed step-parents and aunts and uncles who have stepped in and served in that parent role. However, unless they have legally adopted you, they are not the person to be the parent on your FAFSA.
So let's take a look at this handy-dandy chart. As you can see here when I told you after you clicked that you're providing parental information, that it'll take you to a page that asks, as of today, what is your parents' marital status, if you look at these options on the left hand that says parents' marital status, once you click one of those, then, boom, it'll either populate to say, I need information for Parent 1, or I need information for Parent 1 and Parent 2.
So, as I mentioned, if you click that your parents are married or re-married, it'll ask you to provide parent - information for a Parent 1 and a Parent 2. If your parents are unmarried but they're living together, you also need to provide information about both parents.
So for example, if mom and dad just, you know, have lived together forever and just don't believe in marriage or never gotten married, or whatever the situation may be, they still need information for both of those parents. Even further, if your parents are divorced or separated but still living together, even in that situation, both parents need to provide their information on the FAFSA.
If your parents are never married, then you only need to provide information for one parent. If the parent that you live with the most in the past year, or let's say you literally lived equally six months with one parent, six months with the other, then you decide who's that Parent 1 is, whoever provides the most financial support, whoever provides that most financial support in that past year, that's how you decide. And that's exactly the same with divorce and separated parents who are not living together.
And of course, unfortunately, if you have a parent who is widowed, or a parent who's just never been married and you just always live with that one parent, then you only need to provide information for that one parent that you're currently living with. So this is a good chart to reference if you're confused, but like I mentioned, the FAFSA has a logic to where, however you answer the question, it'll tell you that you either need to provide information from one parent or both parents.
So as you can see here in this screenshot, at the top I selected that as of today my parents are married or re-married. Therefore, if you look here, they have a box for information from Parent 1 or Parent 2. If I would have put that my parent was a widow or never married, it would have only asked for Parent 1, because it only asks for information from one parent.
And just like in all the other information on the FAFSA, as you can see here right on the right, that Help & Hints box, it's still providing more information as well.
So, just to reiterate, I'll just kind of go through these, and if you have questions, like I said, in the Q-and-A box on the left, go ahead and ask your questions as we go through it. As I kind of gave you all a heads-up, it is a lot of information, but remember, try not to think about all these hypothetical random scenarios that can happen and think about real-life (relative) examples, yours in particular, to know what will make sense for you.
So for example, if your legal parents are married to each other, then you answered questions about both events. If your legal parents are not married but they live together, you also answer questions about both of them. And if your legal parent is widowed or was never married, you answer questions about the parent that you're currently living with.
So, for divorced or separated parents, as I mentioned, that don't live together, you answer questions based on who you lived with the most in that past year. If you lived equal time with both parents, then you answer questions about the parent who provided the most financial support during that past year.
All right. Now, remember, if you have divorced or unmarried parents that live together, you would consider their status as unmarried but living together, because they're divorced, they're no longer married, but they are living together. So you only answer questions about both of them.
If your parents are separated and still live together, technically, because they are still married, they're separated, and they're living together, you'll answer questions about both of them.
Now, if you have a step-parent who is married to the legal parent whose information you're reporting, you must provide information about both your legal parent and your step-parent. So for example, let's say your parents got divorced and you're living with dad. Dad remarries. You answer questions about dad and that step-parent.
If you're not living with mom, you don't need to worry about her situation. But if you were living with mom, then you answer questions just about her. You wouldn't need to answer the questions about dad and his new partner.
So, even further, we created this little flowchart to make it easier for people to figure out who is their parent on the FAFSA. So as we see here, I'm going to use this little arrow here, let's start here. Who is my parent on the FAFSA? Are your parents married to each other? In my case, yes, my parents are married to each other. So there's my answer. I report information for the both of them.
However, let's say my parents were not married. And so I go: no. I go to the next one. Do your parents live together? Nope, they do not. They're unhappily uncoupled and not living together. So now, did you live with one parent more than the other over the past six months? Yes, actually, I did, I lived more with my mom.
So now it's telling, has this parent remarried? No, my mom has not remarried. Therefore, I just provide the information about my mom. However, if the answer was yes, my mom did remarry, then I would report information about mom and my new step-parent as well.
This is a super-helpful flowchart that students can use to figure out who it is, and of course, counselors, you can help go through this with your students to figure out who their parent is on the FAFSA. And just to reiterate, below it mentions that, unless the following people have adopted you, that they are not considered your parent.
Also, this flowchart is attached in the file section under "Who is my parent?" infographic. You can download this and you can distribute it via email. You can print it out, you can do whatever you want with it. It is available right here in the file section under "Who is my parent?" infographic. And of course, this can also be found on our Web site at .
So, student scenario. Now that we've given you all the information you can handle about dependency status and about reporting parental information, let's test your knowledge and see some actual scenarios.
So I am the grandmother and legal guardian of a student. Can I fill out the FAFSA in place of a parent? All right, I'm going to pull up this poll. I want you guys to all answer this question. I am the grandmother and legal guardian of a student. Can I fill out the FAFSA in place of the parent?
Okay. So, so far the overwhelming amount of you said the answer was no. And let's see who's correct.
Those no's are correct. No. Remember, only legal parents, biological or adoptive, as determined by the state, should report parental information on the FAFSA. Remember, although grandma is a legal guardian, she did not adopt, she didn't legally adopt the student. Therefore, she's not the parent.
Also, remember, being in a legal guardianship was also one of the criteria that makes a student independent. So this student is actually not required to report parental information at all because of the court placing them in a legal guardianship.
So, good job to all the no's, and even the ones that did the yeses, that's one of our tricky - it's one of our tricky scenarios. So let's see if you can get the next one.
I live at home with my mother and step-parent. I know I need to report information about my mother, but do I need to provide information about my step-parent? Let me pull up this poll so you guys get the chance to answer this question. I live at home with my mother and step-parent. I know I need to report information about my mother, but do I need to provide information about my step-parent?
All right. It's looks like everyone got this one correct. For those of you that answered yes, you are a FAFSA master. Yes. If you have a step-parent who is married to the legal parent whose information you're reporting, you must provide information about that step-parent as well.
All right. And our final scenario. My parents do not want to provide their information on the FAFSA and are not going to contribute to my college expenses. Is this considered a special circumstance? My parents do not want to provide their information on the FAFSA and are not going to contribute to my college expenses. Is this considered a special circumstance?
All right. So the majority of you said no, that this is not a special circumstance. And if you answered no, then you are correct. Remember, those special circumstances were situations where parents were incarcerated or completely not in the students' lives at all, they had no contact, not just a parent who said no, they don't want to do it, and no, they're not paying for your college.
However, remember, if a student is in this situation, they can still submit the FAFSA without the parent information and possibly receive an unsubsidized loan. But remember, in these types of situations, make sure you have a lot of communication with that Financial Aid Office.
So here are some helpful reminders. As we - situation we just reviewed, dependent students are only eligible for unsubsidized loan from Federal Student Aid without parental information on the FAFSA. So, keep in mind, if you're in a special circumstance, to work with your Financial Aid Office and with the counselor, social worker, whoever you need to, because you want to make sure, dependent students, that you are able to get all the aid that you qualify for.
If you're not in a special circumstance but you have parents who are leery about doing the FAFSA or think that they don't need to do it because maybe because you're over 18 or because they're not helping you pay your tuition, keep in mind that if you're considered dependent, you still need their information to be able to qualify for more than just unsubsidized loans. And make sure you take the time to explain that to them and make sure they get the information so they understand of their role in the FAFSA process.
Also, FAFSA is used for more than just federal aid. A lot of people think because the FAFSA is a federal form, that it only makes them eligible for things like the Pell Grant or different Federal Student Aid programs. However, the FAFSA is also used by institutions to determine aid as well at state agencies for the state aid that you can qualify for, and even some outside private scholarship.
So, keep in mind, when explaining to a parent or - about the FAFSA and why you need their assistance, it's not just for federal aid but for money you could potentially get from the state, from the college you attend, and from outside scholarships as well.
Also, undocumented parents, there are some students who may be U.S. citizens and therefore eligible for a Federal Student Aid, but have a parent who's undocumented, and they worry that the parent, you know, can't do the FAFSA, even if they're considered a dependent student, that they just can't have that parent information. An undocumented parent can actually fill out the FAFSA, but without a social security number, they just all zeroes in place of that social security number, then print, sign, and mail in the signature page to the address listed on the form.
Another reminder is, remember that your financial aid is given by your school, not us at Federal Student Aid, not FAFSA. Remember, the FAFSA is the vehicle between you and the school. Once you fill out the FAFSA, remember, you can list up to 10 schools on the FAFSA, that information is sent to the schools. Then when you're accepted, that school will send you that financial aid letter based on your FAFSA.
So when you're wondering, you know, when will I get my money, or you get your financial aid, student award package, and you think, oh, this isn't enough - this isn't enough money, or, this isn't what I thought I was going to get, we're not the people you contact. You contact your Financial Aid Office at your school. But if you're having issues with the actual application, of course you can give us a call and contact us.
Now, a lot of people wonder, do I need to do the FAFSA every year? If I did it once, am I one and done? Yes, you need to do the FAFSA every year. You have to fill it out every year. I'm going to say it one more time because third time is a charm. You have to fill out the FAFSA every year.
You know why? Because your situation can change. Not only can your financial situation change, but also your dependency status. You can be single one year and married the next. You can be, you know, under-aged one year or 23 one year and then you're over 24, whatever your age, the next. There are so many different ways the way your dependency status can change. And of course, as we've talked about for the last 30 minutes, that determines the information that you put on the FAFSA. So, keep in mind that you need to do this every year because your situation can change every year.
As I mentioned earlier, I said I was going to leave you with some Federal Student Aid resources. So, although you have this presentation here and you can download it and download the other handouts I provided, you may still have questions. And if that's the case, you can contact us on social media. We're on Facebook, post them away. We're on Twitter, tweeting away. And we're on YouTube, videoing away.
We also have a Web site, . is awesome. It provides so much information about the entire financial aid lifecycle, from preparing to apply to college, all the way to repaying your student loans. So, all of the information you would like to know about our Federal Student Aid programs, and also the information we talked about today, about the dependency status criteria and special circumstances and reporting parental information. You can find that at .
You can also give us a call at our Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4FEDAID. You can even email us, you can live-chat with us. And that's another way that we can answer your questions and give you the information, resources and support that you need.
So that wraps up my presentation, but I know you guys have been in the Q-and-A writing your questions, and it's still not too late. If you have any lingering questions, please feel free to go ahead in the Q-and-A box and write your questions.
So I see that there's a few now that I'm going to go ahead and answer. So here we go. Here is a great question. What will be acceptable proof or verification of a youth being at risk of being homeless?
So I would say, in terms of this, you should always contact your Financial Aid Office to see what documentation they require during that process. So, in most school districts, there is a homeless coordinator that tries to keep track of the students who are homeless or at risk of being homeless, that don't have a permanent address, that are (couch-surfing) all of these things. A social worker, a counselor, those would be the people that could document those situations and saying, you know, I've worked with this student for the past year, I know they don't have a permanent address or a stable home. That's another way to provide that documentation to the Financial Aid Office.
Also, keep in mind, homeless, the definition of homeless means lacking fixed or regular housing. You may be homeless if you're living in a shelter, a park, motel, hotel, cars, any temporary living situation that's not permanent. So, in addition to getting those letters from the counselors or anybody else, talking directly to the Financial Aid Office at each specific school a student is interested in, interested in, to see what they want, what information they need to prove that status, would be what I would recommend.
So here's another great question. How do you deal with students over the age of 18 who are not living with parents, that tell you that the parents are not claiming them on taxes because of their financial aid eligibility, but they don't meet any independent student criteria?
This is a difficult question or a difficult situation for most people because automatically, if you think - what we think of in kind of common language of somebody being over 18, not living at home, that, yes, like that person is independent. You know, they're over 18 and they're not living with their parents. However, according to us, according to FAFSA standards, that student is still considered a dependent student.
So, whoever claims who on the taxes, that doesn't justify what makes an independent student. This also is a thing that comes up with parents as well, divorced parents. A parent may say, well, I claimed them this year, so that means I need to report them on FAFSA, or vice versa. And that's not what we use to determine who is parent and it's also not what we use to determine dependency.
And if there are any further questions about that, more information is available on our Web site at . And of course, any specific questions to the Financial Aid Office about any possibility of a special circumstance, of course that should be brought up directly to the Financial Aid Office as well.
All right. Here's another question. Which tax year filing do we use for the 2018/19 FAFSA that is open right now?
So for this FAFSA, the 2018/19 FAFSA, you'll be reporting 2016 tax information. Great question.
And also, as we see now, a lot of us are in tax season, getting those W-2's and doing our 2017 taxes. Keep in mind that, just because you complete your 2017 taxes, that that doesn't mean you need to go back into FAFSA and update. Once - all the '18/'19 FAFSA is requiring is 2016 tax information. So there is no need to go back in and put any information for 2017.
Another common question is, well, what if my financial situation was completely different in 2016 and 2017? What you can do then is contact the Financial Aid Office directly and tell them that your situation has changed, and provide any additional documentation they may require. But on our end, for FAFSA purposes, we are only going to be accepting 2016 tax information.
All right. And as more questions come in, I just want to take it back and just quickly review the independent criteria, because there are a lot of questions about that, will make someone independent. So I'm just going to leave this up again.
And just to reiterate, right here in the File section, you can download either the dependency status infographic or the dependency status question handout document, and that gives us exact criteria that's up right now. Remember, someone doesn't have to qualify for all of them. All of these don't have to apply, but if they can answer yes to one of these questions, they are considered independent.
All right. We're going to give another minute to see if there's any additional questions. But I'm still thankful for everyone for joining us today. I hope this information was helpful.
Really here at Federal Student Aid we want to make sure this process is as easy and as seamless and as enjoyable as possible. We just want to get you to the money, get you to college, and make sure you graduate, get a great job, have a great life. So the more support and resources we can offer, the better. That's why we like doing these Webinars. I'm so glad you're here to join us today.
If there are any other questions or any final slides you'd like to see, please let us know.
All right. Here's a great question. It came from a parent. They said, is there a need to be a FAFSA per college student?
Yes. Every individual college student should fill out a single FAFSA form. If you're a parent with multiple students going to college, yes, each student will complete their own FAFSA. Great question.
All right. Here's a good question about reporting parental information. This question is, the student - student's parent has a boyfriend and that lives in the house, the mom, the student, and the boyfriend. Does the boyfriend have to report parent information on the FAFSA?
The answer is no. Unless the mom and the boyfriend are married or that boyfriend is the biological, adoptive or legal parent of that student, then no, only mom's information needs to be reported.
And as I mentioned, if there are any questions about who is my parent on the FAFSA, who needs to report that parent information, you can look at the infographic attached and go through that flowchart to figure out further questions about parental information as well.
Okay, I think we have a couple of more questions coming in. We'll answer about two or three more, and then we'll wrap up this Webinar.
On that note, I'm going to go ahead and put the slide on the parent flowchart I was just referring to, just so everyone can be reminded of who is a parent on the FAFSA and kind of how to figure that out.
All right. It seems like we're wrapping up with the questions here. If anyone has a final question before we end. I just want to thank you all again for being here.
I do want to remember - I do want to remind you all that we do have other Webinars coming up. We actually have a Webinar coming up next week, Tuesday, February 13th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And that Webinar is "What do I need to know about financial aid?"
So, students, parents, college access providers, all of you are welcome to attend this Webinar to get more information. The same link that you used to register for this Webinar, you can use that same link to register for the Webinar we have next week, titled, "What do I need to know about financial aid?"
And all of your questions, basic questions about financial aid, will be answered there. Much less specific than all of this dependency status, reporting parent information stuff. A lot more general information about financial aid and paying for college.
So, definitely, if you are available next Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, feel free to join us.
Thank you all again for being here and participating in our Webinars. Once again my name is (Claire) at Federal Student Aid, and I hope you all have a great day.
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