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My daughter just turned 21. She has been living with her boyfirend's family for two years now trying to support herself the best way she can. She wants to go back to earn her degree in Elementary Education. She is applying for Federal Aid (Pell Grant, etc). The Financial Aid office told her in order qualifty for Federal Aid on her own she needs a legal document showing she's emancipated. Apparently Federal Guidelines for aid state that you are not emancipated unless you are married, in the military or have reached the age of 24. Since she is 21 and according the the State of Missouri, emancipated is there some simple way where she can get a court document stating she is emancipated or does she need to file a Petition or a Affadavit for Emancipation. I assume since she is 21 she could do it herself with any type of parental involvement. I was hoping she could go to the county court house with her birth certificate in hand and fill out a form and file it with the court and they could give her her emancipation papers. I'm guessing it's not that easy. If she files her own Petition for Emancipation does this fall under the new ProSe guidelines where she needs the ProSe training? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks - stlaw123

This is from the FAFSA website (the document all students must complete in order to qualify for government loans and grants). My reading of this shows that your if your daughter files for emancipation it STILL would not qualify her as "independent" based on the following guidelines. What is the problem with her providing the CP information?

"The Department of Education uses a very rigid set of criteria for determining whether a student is INDEPENDENT for financial aid consideration (which means that the custodial parents’ income and asset information is not considered in determining a student’s financial aid, and therefore not required on the FAFSA).

Regardless of how much support a student actually receives from his or her parents, he or she is still considered a DEPENDENT student for financial aid purposes UNLESS at least one of the following criteria is met:
1.For the 2009-10 school year, the student was born before January 1, 1986; or
2.the student is married; or
3.the student has a child or children who receive more than half their support from the student; or
4.the student has dependents (other than a child or spouse) who receive more than half their support from the student, and who also live with the student; or
5.the student is enrolled as a graduate or professional student (pursuing a master’s degree or doctoral degree); or
6.the student is a qualified veteran of the U.S. military, or currently serving on active duty in the U.S. armed forces for purposes other than training; or
7.the student is an orphan (both parents deceased) or ward of the court, or was a ward of the court until age 18; or
8.the student has special and unusual extenuating circumstances that can be documented for his or her college financial aid administrators, who may then request a “dependency override” on the FAFSA application. (Note: Exceptions are granted very rarely and only in extreme cases.) Students should contact the financial aid office at the school they will be attending for additional information.
IMPORTANT:
Many students feel that they should be able to declare INDEPENDENT status because they live on their own, file their own taxes, or receive no support from their parents. Unfortunately, the Department of Education is extremely strict with regard to determining dependency status.

If you are considered a DEPENDENT student (do not meet the criteria listed above) and do not provide your parents’ information on your FAFSA, your application WILL BE REJECTED."

Your daughter might be emancipated from you, but she is not self-supporting. She lives with her boyfriend's parents. And as the prior poster stated, she does not appear to meet the criteria. However, that said, she should talk to the Financial Aids office at her school and see if they have suggestions for her. I have found that they are very helpful with my own son's circumstances at his college. By the way, she is "emancipated" within the context of Missouri law, but it is not state law that completely governs the federal financial aid, so that is unhelpful to you.