Special &Unusual Circumstances

Safeguard your ability to pay for college.

Need a FAFSA review?

When filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), you may encounter a situation whereby your ability to pay for college could be affected.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) requests income information from two year's prior and does not give the student the opportunity to explain a circumstance that could affect their ability to pay for college. Therefore, under federal law, financial aid administrators have been given the authority through "Professional Judgment" to take some circumstances into account and make changes to data adjustments to the FAFSA application, impacting the official Expected Family Contribution (EFC), now replaced by the Student Aid Index (SAI).

If your EFC/SAI is $0 (or negative in the case of SAI), you may have already been awarded the maximum available aid. Please contact the Office of Financial Aid to discuss if a Professional Judgment would still benefit you.

More about special circumstances.

Special circumstances can refer to any financial situation that is not addressed in the application process. The following list includes common special circumstances in which professional judgment may apply:

One-time reduction in income such as a one-time IRA withdrawal
Loss or reduction of employment, wages or unemployment compensation
Exceptional medical and/or dental expenses
Divorce or separation that occurred after taxes were filed
Death of a parent or spouse which occurred after the FAFSA was filed
Marriage (if married between the date the FAFSA was filed and December 31 of the same year)

NOTE The Office of Financial Aid is not limited to these circumstances, nor are we required to use professional judgment for these circumstances. We highly recommend coming in and speaking to one of our financial aid staff members.

More about unusual circumstances/dependency overrides.

Most students entering a postsecondary school straight from high school are considered financially dependent on their parents. This means their parents must provide their financial information on the FAFSA. In some circumstances, the financial aid office can change a student's FAFSA status from dependent to independent in situations where providing parental information may be difficult for the student.

The following are examples of circumstances that may considered for a dependency override:

Human trafficking
Refugee or asylee status
An abusive family environment
Abandonment and/or estrangement by parents
Incarceration or institutionalization of both parents
Parents cannot be located

The following circumstances would not be considered for a dependency override:

Parents refuse to contribute to the student's education
Parents are unwilling to provide information on the FAFSA or for verification
Parents do not claim the student as a dependent for income tax purposes
Student demonstrates total self-sufficiency

NOTE If you are unable to provide your parents information on the FAFSA and do not meet any of the criteria above, please contact the Office of Financial Aid for additional information.

The special/unusual circumstances forms you need.

The special circumstances/unusual circumstances forms can be found here.

Information about processing time.

Please allow approximately three weeks once all documentation is received for a decision to be made. If additional documentation is requested the processing time may be extended. You will be notified of the outcome at your ESCC email address.