What to Do When Your Parents Refuse to Fill Out the FAFSA
- Most college students 24 years old or younger will need parental contribution to their FAFSA.
- Explaining what the form will ask parents and guardians for may help assuage concerns they have about the FAFSA.
- You can be exempted from a parent’s contribution if you can prove “unusual circumstances.”
The overwhelming majority (85%) of first-time college students use financial aid to help pay for college.
Qualifying for financial aid, more often than not, requires you to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. In many instances, you’ll also need a parent or guardian to contribute to the form, but some may be hesitant to share personal financial information through the application.
Here’s a guide outlining when parents need to contribute and what to do if they refuse:
When Do You Need Your Parents to File a FAFSA?
You don’t need a parent to contribute to your FAFSA form if you will be at least 25 years old on Dec. 31 of the year you would receive financial aid.
However, even if you are 24 or younger, you may be able to file your FAFSA as an independent student. You’ll need to meet one of the following criteria to be considered an independent student:
- Married
- U.S. veteran
- Active U.S. military duty (nontraining purposes)
- Emancipated minor
- Recently homeless youth or self-supporting and at risk of homelessness
- A parent who contributes more than half of the financial support for a child and lives with that child
- In foster care or a ward of the state at any point after the age of 13
- Working on a master’s or doctoral degree
You will need a contribution from a parent or guardian if none of these exceptions apply to you. This is still the case even if you live alone, you live with people who are not your parents, and/or your parents won’t contribute financially to your college education.
There is a way to avoid parents’ contribution in extreme circumstances.
Steps to Convince Parents to Fill Out the FAFSA
Parents and guardians may have various reasons for not wanting to contribute to a FAFSA form. Here are some ways to assuage their concerns:
Step 1: Ask About Their Concerns
The best way to address the issue of a parent not wanting to file a FAFSA is to understand why they are hesitant.
Filing a FAFSA requires parents to share recent tax information with the Office for Federal Student Aid (FSA). Authority figures may not want their children to see information like their salary or assets, so they may look to avoid filing the FAFSA altogether.
Undocumented parents may worry that providing information to the federal government could put them at risk of deportation.
Step 2: Share What Is Required of Them
Outlining exactly what the FAFSA will ask parents for may help assuage concerns.
The form will ask parents and guardians to provide the following information:
- Marital status
- Legal residence
- Consent to disclose tax information
- Financial and tax information (if applicable)
- Annual child support received (if applicable)
- Current assets
- Signature
- Name, date of birth, Social Security number, address, and email
If you have two parents who did not file taxes jointly, both parents will need to provide this information.
Step 3: Share Privacy Protections
The information included in FAFSA filings is only meant to help determine how much financial aid you can qualify for.
It’s worth sharing with your parents, therefore, that whatever is included in the FAFSA won’t be shared widely.
That also means that two parents who file their taxes separately won’t be able to see the other parent’s financial information. This is helpful to explain in instances where two parents may be divorced and are afraid of a former spouse seeing their financial information.
Additionally, each parent or guardian who contributes to a FAFSA must create their own FSA ID. They view a separate portal from the student, which further avoids crossover.
NOTE: The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) recently amended its guidance for students of undocumented parents.
Following President Donald Trump’s reelection, the organization now recommends that mixed-status families make a “considered decision” about whether to submit identifying information through the FAFSA. There are some worries that immigration enforcement agencies could use a parent’s lack of a Social Security number, for example, to identify undocumented people living in the U.S.
“NCAN understands the grave ramifications of this guidance and deeply regrets that we feel it is necessary to issue it.”
What If I Don’t Speak With My Parents?
There are two options for students who aren’t in contact with their parents or have parents who refuse to cooperate. You may be able to apply for “unusual circumstances” consideration or forgo inputting parental information for limited financial aid options.
Unusual Circumstances
The FAFSA form includes the question “Do unusual circumstances prevent the student from contacting their parents or would contacting their parents pose a risk to the student?”
FSA defines “unusual circumstances” as any of the following:
- Parents are incarcerated
- You left home due to an abusive family environment
- You are a victim of human trafficking
- You have refugee or asylum status
- You were abandoned by or estranged from your parents, without adoption
The process doesn’t end there.
You’ll need to prove your “unusual circumstance” in some way. FSA recommends you contact your school’s financial aid office to determine what documentation you can provide as proof. Example documents include:
- A documented interview with a financial aid administrator
- A court order showing your parents’ incarceration
- A documented phone call or letter from an attorney, guardian ad litem, court-ordered special advocate, or representative from a TRIO or GEAR-UP program confirming your circumstance
If you meet this criteria, you can be considered independent.
Unwilling to Provide Information
This option only applies to instances where your parents may be available but refuse to contribute to your FAFSA.
The form includes the question, “Are the student’s parents refusing to provide their information on this FAFSA form?” You’ll need to mark “yes” if you’ve exhausted all other options and are unable to convince a parent to contribute.
Unfortunately, while you can still submit a FAFSA form without your parents’ information, you won’t qualify for all federal financial aid options.
FSA recommends that you immediately reach out to your institution’s financial aid office if this is the case. This will allow you to still receive a direct unsubsidized federal student loan, but you won’t be eligible for other aid like the Pell Grant.
Additionally, some states require a completed FAFSA to qualify for state financial aid, but that may vary depending on where your school is located.
Unsubsidized vs. Subsidized Loans
The primary difference between these two federal student loan programs is whether interest begins accumulating on that loan while a student is still enrolled in college.
For subsidized loans, which are only available to students who demonstrate financial need, interest doesn’t begin accruing until after you graduate or unenroll. For unsubsidized loans, interest accrues as soon as the loan is disbursed.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute professional financial advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Readers of this website should contact a professional advisor before making decisions about financial issues.