Special Conditions

St. Philip's School Code: 003608

Congress has delegated to the school's financial aid administrator the authority to compensate for special conditions on a case-by-case basis with adequate supporting documentation. The school's financial aid administrator has the authority to make adjustments to a student's processed FAFSA or to override a student's dependency status. Special conditions are conducted on a case by case basis.

Special Conditions are any adjustments that make the information provided by a student on their FAFSA application that does not reflect a student/family's ability to pay. These include anticipated differences between the prior tax year and the upcoming award year, such as a income reduction due to loss of employment or dependency overrides.

Common special conditions include:

• Death, disability or serious illness of a wage-earner, or the wage-earner becomes mentally or physically incapacitated
• Recent divorce of the student's parents (ex. to separate the income of the custodial parent from the non-custodial parent)
• Termination of a child support agreement (ex. the custodial parent will no longer receive child support payments during the award year)
• Drop in income due to fewer hours (ex. no overtime) or reduced salary or elimination of bonuses
• Change in income due to recent retirement
• Medical or dental expenses not covered by insurance
• Dependency Override

  Students with a Special Conditions will be seen on a WALK-IN basis on TUESDAYS between the hours of 8:30am - 11:30am and 1:30pm - 4:00pm.

Income Reduction

An anticipated reduction in family income during the award year is sufficient reason for a special conditions adjustment, regardless of the reason for the reduction. The financial aid administrator can make an adjustment in the event of  the family's income dropping because of a voluntary income reduction, such as a wage-earner quitting his/her job to take care of the family full-time, retirement, change of jobs, job loss or wage pay cut. This also includes an anticipated drop in the student's income, such as quitting job to attend school full time, retirement, change of jobs, job loss or wage pay cut, not just a change in the parent's income.

Dependency Overrides

Through the Higher Education Act, financial aid administrators have the authority to change a student's status from dependent or independent on a case by case basis for students with unusual circumstances. If the administrator determines that an override is appropriate, they must write a statement detailing the determination and must include the statement and supporting documentation in the student's file. However, none of the conditions listed below, singly or in combination, qualify as unusual circumstances meriting a dependency override:

1. Parents refuse to contribute to the student's education;

2. Parents are unwilling to provide information on the FAFSA or for verification;

3. Parents do not claim the student as a dependent for income tax purposes;

4. Student demonstrates total self-sufficiency.

Unusual circumstances do include an abusive family environment or abandonment by parents and may cause any of the above conditions. In such cases a dependency override might be warranted.

An aid administrator may override only from dependent to independent. Also, overrides do not transfer from one school to another - they are valid only at the school that performs them. Nor do they carry over from one year to the next; the financial aid officer must reaffirm each year that the unusual circumstances persist and that an override is still justified.

Generally the documentation of unusual circumstances should come from a third party that knows the student's situation (such as a teacher or member of the clergy), but in cases where this is not available, the school can accept a signed and dated statement from the student detailing the unusual circumstances.

Page last updated: 02/06/08