If specific situations prevent you from accessing or providing parental information, the FAFSA includes a section called "Unusual Circumstances." If one of these situations applies to you, you can complete your FAFSA without including parental details. This means you qualify for a dependency override and will be treated as an independent undergraduate student for financial aid purposes.
Unusual Circumstance for Dependency Override
If your parent is refusing to provide information, that alone will not qualify you for a dependency override. However, there are certain situations that will qualify you for a dependency override:
- an abusive home or family environment
- parent abandonment or estranged from parents and not been adopted
- incarceration of both parents
- parents cannot be located
- parents are hospitalized for an extended period of time
- parents are not able to raise a child due to reasons of physical or mental incapacity
- unsuitable household
- a married student’s spouse dies
- a married student divorces their spouse
If you indicate an Unusual Circumstance, once you submit our FAFSA you will be given a “provisional independent student” status—while you will see your estimated SAI (student aid index), you are not done yet. You will be asked by your financial aid office to provide documentation of your unusual circumstance. While there are very specific reasons listed here, if you are unsure if you qualify, it’s best to make an appointment as soon as possible to discuss.
Once a determination of your dependency override is made, it cannot be appealed to the U.S. Department of Education. This decision is in the hands of your school.
If you are rejected for a dependency override, you may still qualify for a FAFSA professional judgement review. This is another way to complete the FAFSA process without providing parent information.
What is FAFSA Professional Judgement Review?
There are students who have parents who do not provide financial support to their child and refuse to provide information for them to include in their FAFSA. While the situation may not be classified as Unusual Circumstance, the student is left in a challenging situation. It is not recommended to use this option as a way to "avoid" asking, or with the thought process that this is an "easier way" to complete the FAFSA, because you don't want to bother waiting for your parents to help you. You will not be eligible for most federal student aid options, which can be a costly mistake. This should only be utilized by students who have no other choice. Answering this question incorrectly can delay the processing of your FAFSA.
Your parent is refusing to help you financially is not enough to be considered an independent student. This situation is not the same as the Unusual Circumstance (discussed above), but you will be given an option on the electronic application to indicate that you will not provide parent information. You will need to acknowledge that you will only be eligible to receive Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan funds from the federal student aid program. There could be other types of institutional aid your school may be willing to offer you. However, this will be at the discretion of your school, even your eligibility for unsubsidized loan funds.