From the first time you fill out FSFA till you are 26 unless you can prove legal emancipation you are required to get your parents to fill out a portion(with some special exceptions for death of a parent). I would love to see the age to change from 26 to 20 since there has been a larger wave of young adults running into the issue of their parents making ‘to much’ to receive aid or parents who have been abusive who get that small sliver back into the child/young adult’s life when the child/young adult has to fill out FSFA.
yeah, I thought it was 24 years old that you needed to be to be considered “independent” of your parents. but I got screwed by this because emancipation is not allowed in DE and so when I left home at 18, I had to save up for two years and get a job that had tuition reimbursement benefits because I had to pay for school myself. I was unable to fill out the FASFA on my own bc I was still considered a dependent of my parents who were not supporting me in the slightest. My sister is now in a similar spot of waiting until she is 24 to go back to school.
I think there needs to be some kind of way to prove that you are supporting yourself and therefore can use your own tax info to apply for FASFA.
Am I Dependent or Independent When I Fill Out the FAFSA® Form?
It is 24 years old. I found the link here. but there needs to be more exemptions to this.