College Savings For Babies
September 16th, 2006
Question: how do i get a legal doc. stating that my niece lives with me for financial aid for college?
i’m now 32 and my oldest sister started drugs and rehab 6 years ago, and i took care of her daughter (at that time she was 13) well now she is 18 and started college. I have been her parent for 6 years now supporting her as if she was my own daughter with no financial help from her sister or the gov. no welfare or anything! I did it all on my own, no husband just me! Well now they wont give her financial aid because I need a legal document stating she lived with me all those years. What the H*LL!!! maybe i should show them my savings acct the went from 5 digits to $0. living paycheck to paycheck. Then maybe they will help me. Any way. what the heck is a legal doc. what do they need to help my baby pay for her college?
Answer: The only person that can be considered as a parent on the FAFSA is only a legal parent. That consists of one of two things: a person’s biological parent, or a person’s adoptive parent. Therefore, what the Financial Aid Department at her school is asking for is some type of legal documentation to prove that you are to be considered this student’s legal parent. Unfortuately, because the courts never actually got involved in the situation, there is no way possible for you to get this information. Your neice will be required to use her LEGAL PARENT (which would be her actual mother) on the FAFSA because she will not be able to provide this information. Although I know this is not the answer that you want, it is the only answer there is and if you consider it, I’m sure it will make sense.
Does she still have any contact with her mother? If not, she may want to inquire about applying for a Dependency Override with her Financial Aid Office. A Dependency Override may be approved for students who have little to no contact with their parents due to situations of abuse or abandonment. It requires third party documentation, which means someone from a professional occupation who can write a letter on letterhead attesting to the situation as it is described by the student. If approved, this will waive all parent information altogether and the student would be considered independent instead. It sounds like she may be a good candidate for this, so long as she has no contact with her mother and knows a professional person who can write a third party letter documenting the situation.
I hope this information helped.
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Tags: college, college savings for babies, finance, kids, research, savings