Verification Process & Other Eligibility Issues

A. Verification Process
Federal Verification requires schools to review certain data reported on a student’s Free Application for Federal Student Financial Aid (FAFSA) prior to awarding federal aid (Pell grant, SEOG, College Work Study, Stafford Loans, and Parent Plus Loan, and Graduate Plus Loan). In addition, rejected applications by the federal processor will be selected for the verification process. The process involves comparing various data elements on the FAFSA to various source documents.

•  Items to be verified
  The following items will be verified: Household Size, Number in College, Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), U.S. Taxes Paid, Certain types of untaxed income including: Social Security Benefits, Child Support, IRA/KEOGH deductions, Foreign Income exclusions, Earned Income Credit, and Interest on tax-free bonds.
• Required Documentation
  Applicants selected for verification will be notified to submit the following documents:
  

  Student’s/Spouse’s Federal Income Tax forms
  Parent’s/Step Parent’s Federal Income Tax form
  Verification Worksheet (available at: www.gram.edu)
  Low Income form ( available at: www.gram.edu)
  Proof of Untaxed Income
  Other documentation as determined by the Financial Aid staff

  Documentation must be submitted by the published deadline or no later than 120 days after the last day of the student’s enrollment, whichever comes earlier. Data discrepancies may require corrections of the FAFSA data. The corrections will be done electronically and submitted to the federal processor for recalculation of the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The new EFC will be used to determine federal aid eligibility.

B. Conflicting Information
If the data reported on the FAFSA appears inaccurate or if a document is received with data different from the FAFSA data, additional documentation will be requested to resolve the conflict.

C. Dependent or Independent Status
The federal processor determines a student’s status of either dependent or independent based the FAFSA data. However, documentation will be requested if a student’s independent status is based only on one of the following:

Orphan: both parents’ death certificates and obituaries, and a copy of the student’s birth certificate
Ward of Court: legal document stating ward of court status before turning eighteen.
Student’s Legal Dependent: completed Legal Dependent form and a copy of the dependent’s birth certificate

D. Professional Judgment
Federal regulations allow financial aid administrators to use professional judgment on a case by case basis to change a dependent student’s status to independent or to change one or more of the data elements used by the federal processor to calculate the student’s EFC. Determination of unusual family circumstances will be documented and reviewed based on data provided on the following forms:
Dependent Override Request: used to explain and document unusual family circumstances that may qualify a dependent student to be considered as an independent student.
Special Circumstances Request: used to explain and document unusual family issues that may have changed FAFSA data elements resulting into a decrease or increase in the Expected Family Contribution.