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Professional Judgment

For most students, the FAFSA effectively evaluates their family's financial strength. However, it falls short in addressing students facing extenuating circumstances. To address this, Congress has empowered financial aid administrators with the authority to exercise their professional judgment, allowing them to consider these circumstances. 

The requests can be made using these three forms: 

1. Appeal for Independent Status: Request to declare a student independent for FAFSA completion purposes due to personal hardship, abuse/neglect, etc. 
2. Special Circumstance Request: Request to adjust FAFSA figures to reflect changes in income or resources.  
3. Budget Increase Request Document (BIRD): Request to modify the Cost of Attendance (COA) to account for non-standard educational expenses or higher than average expenses. 

Any adjustments made are discretionary and must be supported with documentation that can withstand an audit. DOCÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔENTATION IS KEY. 

Professional judgment is guided by the FAFSA Simplification Act, which amends section 479A of the HEA. It distinguishes between different categories of professional judgment: 

• Special Circumstances: These are financial situations, such as job loss, that justify an aid administrator's adjustment of data elements in the COA or EFC calculation. 

• Unusual Circumstances: These are conditions, like human trafficking or parental abuse, warranting an aid administrator's modification of a student's dependency status, commonly known as a dependency override. 

A student might have both special and unusual circumstances. Financial aid administrators (FAAs) can make appropriate adjustments for each student's situation with the requisite documentation. The request forms can be found on our website www.umt.edu/finaid/forms under as: Appeal for Independent Status, Special Circumstances Request and Budget Increase Request Document (BIRD)  

Appeals for Independent Status: 

Students who cannot provide required documentation for independent status but have extenuating circumstances may submit an appeal. All appeal letters must be signed with a wet ink signature or a finger stylus; computer font signatures are not accepted. 

Professional Judgment

The FAFSA Simplification Act (the Act) distinguishes between different categories of professional judgment by amending section 479A of the HEA. Special Circumstances refer to the financial situations (loss of a job, etc.) that justify an aid administrator adjusting data elements in the COA or in the EFC calculation. Unusual Circumstances refer to the conditions that justify an aid administrator making an adjustment to a student’s dependency status based on a unique situation (e.g., human trafficking, refugee or asylee status, parental abuse or abandonment, incarceration), more commonly referred to as a dependency override.

A student may have both a special circumstance and an unusual circumstance. Financial aid administrators (FAAs) may make adjustments that are appropriate to each student’s situation with appropriate documentation.  Professional Judgment forms can be found on our forms page under the headline: Professional Judgment.

Special Circumstances

An aid administrator may use PJ on a case-by-case basis to adjust the student’s cost of attendance or the data used to calculate his or her EFC. This adjustment is valid only at the school making the change. The law gives some examples of special circumstances that MAY be considered (HEA Sec. 479A):

• Change in employment status, income, or assets
• Change in housing status (e.g., homelessness)
• Tuition expenses at an elementary or secondary school
• Medical, dental, or nursing home expenses not covered by insurance
• Child or dependent care expenses
• Severe disability of the student or other member of the student’s household
• Parent passed away after the FAFSA was filed
• Other changes or adjustments that impact the student’s costs or ability to pay for college.

This is not an exhaustive list. Occasionally aid administrators have made decisions contrary to the professional judgment provision’s intent. These “unreasonable” judgments have included, for example, the reduction of EFCs based on recurring costs such as vacation expenses, tithing expenses, and standard living expenses (e.g. utilities, credit card expenses, children’s allowances, etc.). Aid administrators must make “reasonable” decisions that support the intent of the provision.

Unusual Circumstances

The FAFSA Simplification Act provides a clearer directive for FAAs to assist applicants with unusual circumstances to adjust dependency status on the FAFSA form to reflect students’ situations more accurately (dependency overrides).

Under HEA Sec. 480(d)(9), the FAFSA Simplification Act incorporated additional unusual circumstances to consider when a student is unable to contact a parent or where contact with parents poses a risk to such student.

Unusual circumstances include:

• Human trafficking, as described in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.);
• Legally granted refugee or asylum status;
• Parental abandonment or estrangement;
• Parental abuse or neglect;
• Student or parental incarceration.

In such cases a dependency override might be warranted based upon the student’s individual circumstances.

Unusual circumstances do not include:

• Parents refuse to contribute to the student’s education.
• Parents will not provide information for the FAFSA or verification.
• Parents do not claim the student as a dependent for income tax purposes.
• Student demonstrates total self-sufficiency.

Special Circumstances Documentation Table

This is a listing of some of the documents that may be requested. Since the process is reliant on documentation, please take the time to gather the requested documents and submit documentation along with the Special Circumstance Request form. Place your student’s name and ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ Identification # on all contributor (parent) documents so that the documents can be kept together. Also, double-check for signatures and schedules before submitting documents

TIPS:

Please contact the office if you have any difficulty gathering required documents, have questions or need another option for document submission. Call (406) 246-5373 or visit Aber Hall, 5th floor.

* If submitting copy of 1040 tax form, double-check that the tax filer has signed the second page where it states SIGN HERE using a handwritten signature using a ‘wet ink’ pen or finger/stylus.
* All schedules must be submitted along with the signed 1040 tax form. In lieu of the 1040, we can accept the IRS Tax Return Transcript with in often more helpful as all the information required in on one document and the tax filer isn’t needing to search for the schedules. Signed foreign tax returns are also acceptable.

We often have to pause processing due to complete documentation not being submitted so please take the time to double-check. Students may check the status of the Special Circumstances request on CyberBear and also via their ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ email account.
Also, don’t forget to write the student’s name and ID # that starts with 790 on all documents.