Financial Aid wonderings, thanks to CE&P

[WOT?*]

There's a very interesting article on CE&P about the struggles low-income students may have with navigating higher education, financial aid, etc.

We are adopting my older granddaughter, currently a ward of the state with parental rights terminated or terminating. We may end up adopting her younger sister as well but that has not been determined by the state. Kiddo's mother is low-income; we are not. If she remained a ward of the state or lived with her mother through high school, chances are she would qualify for a hefty amount of financial aid based on the household situation. We have not, as of yet, set up a 529 or any other sort of education funding so we are behind the 8-ball on that. (Instead, we have been playing catch-up on retirement because we have not always had a substantial income and I had four kids when I was young and stupid, which challenged our income until we were in our 40s and independent of most of the financial obligations.)

If we adopt the older one, chances are that our income will be the one considered for financial aid and she'll probably get close to zero and she/we will be on the hook for any debt. If her sister moves back in with her mom or we are unable to adopt her (rights not terminated for whatever reason) she will qualify no doubt for a good chunk of financial aid based on her mom's (lack of) income. If we adopt both, we're on the hook for the education of both of them, without having started savings for them yet, with only eight or so years to save a chunk of change for their educations in addition to shoveling as much as possible into our retirements as well.

Any financial aid gurus know if this is in fact the case (they address our income as parents since we'll be adopting), and if there are any allowances they might make for "hey she's only been our kid for part of her life. She's adopted. She was a ward of the state. Et cetera."

Oh, how lovely defined pensions would be so we don't have to worry about the retirement portion of things and just be able to play catch-up on the college funds of kiddo and kidlet.

[lizlemon19]

How old are they? If they are over 13, the FAFSA asks if they were in foster care after the age of 13. If they say yes, they get to skip parent questions.

Check and see if your state offers free tuition to state colleges for children adopted through DCF/DHS. Many states do because they get some kind of federal reimbbursement.

[WOT?*]

Thanks. I'll look into it.

They're 7 and 9. The older one will be adopted before her tenth birthday.