Student Financial Services

Special Circumstance Review

Request for Review

Your financial aid award is based on the household and financial information reported on your FAFSA — usually from tax information filed the year before. A lot can change between then and now: a parent loses a job, a family goes through a divorce, a medical crisis wipes out savings, or a student's living situation changes in ways the FAFSA form was never built to capture. When that happens, we may be able to reconsider your award.

There are two distinct ways we do this, depending on what has changed:

  • Your family's financial situation has changed — income, expenses, or circumstances not reflected on your FAFSA. This is a special circumstance, and it's the more common of the two.
  • You can't provide parent information on the FAFSA at all because contact with a parent isn't safe or possible. This is a different, rarer situation called an unusual circumstance (dependency override), evaluated under its own, more stringent standard.

Read the section that matches your situation below to see what qualifies, what documentation is required, and how to get started.

Questions?

Both of these processes exist because your FAFSA is a snapshot, and snapshots don't always tell the whole story. If you're not sure which situation applies to you, or whether you have enough documentation to start, contact Student Financial Services at studentfinancialservices@wittenberg.edu — we're glad to talk it through before you submit anything.

Life doesn't always match the tax return your financial aid was built on. If your family's financial situation has changed significantly since you filed the FAFSA — or has changed in a way the FAFSA doesn't ask about — we may be able to adjust your financial aid to better reflect your current circumstances. This is called a special circumstance appeal.

This is different from a dependency override for unusual family circumstances, which is a separate, less common process — explained further down this page.

What counts as a special circumstance

A special circumstance is a financial change affecting you or your family that isn't reflected on your FAFSA. Common examples include:

  • Loss of a job or a significant reduction in income (yours or a parent's)
  • Death of a parent or spouse
  • Divorce or separation since the FAFSA was filed
  • Loss of untaxed income or benefits (for example, Social Security or child support)
  • A one-time income event that inflated your FAFSA income, such as a retirement account withdrawal or a capital gain that won't recur
  • Extraordinary, unreimbursed medical or dental expenses
  • Other significant, documentable financial changes not listed above

What typically doesn't qualify

A few situations come up often enough that it's worth naming them directly. These generally are not grounds for a special circumstance appeal on their own:

  • Ordinary credit card, consumer, or student loan debt
  • Voluntarily reducing work hours or leaving a job by choice
  • The cost of a sibling attending a private K–12 school
  • Anticipated future expenses that haven't yet occurred
  • Disagreement with your calculated Student Aid Index in the absence of an actual documented change

If you're not sure whether your situation fits, reach out — we'd rather answer a question than have you guess.

How it works

  1. Complete the Special Circumstance Appeal Form and gather documentation that supports the change (for example: a termination letter, a death certificate, a divorce decree, medical bills, or a benefits-end notice).
  2. Submit your documentation through the Financial Aid Document Portal.
  3. A financial aid administrator will review your appeal individually. Every appeal is evaluated on its own facts — there's no formula, and approval isn't automatic. We may follow up if we need additional documentation.
  4. We'll notify you of the outcome and, if approved, any resulting change to your aid.

Because every situation is reviewed individually, appeals take time. Submit as early as you can after the change occurs, and expect 2 weeks for a decision once your file is complete.

Separately from the process above, some students are unable to provide parent information on the FAFSA at all — not because of a financial change, but because contacting or obtaining information from a parent isn't safe or possible. This is a dependency override, and it's evaluated under different, more stringent federal documentation standards than a special circumstance appeal.

What may qualify

  • An abusive family relationship (physical, sexual, or emotional) that makes contact with a parent unsafe
  • Parental abandonment or estrangement, with no ongoing contact
  • Both parents deceased or incapacitated, with no adoptive or legal guardian
  • Human trafficking, as certified by a counselor, teacher, clergy member, or other professional
  • Refugee or asylee status separating a student from their parents
  • Incarceration of both parents, or another circumstance that makes contact genuinely unsafe or impossible

What typically doesn't qualify

  • A parent's unwillingness to complete the FAFSA or contribute financially
  • A parent's refusal to claim the student as a dependent on their taxes
  • The student living independently or supporting themselves financially
  • A student simply preferring not to involve a parent

These situations may still leave a student eligible for other kinds of support — talk to us before assuming nothing can be done.

Documentation and process

Because a dependency override sets aside FAFSA's normal requirement for parent information, federal rules require corroborating documentation from someone other than the student — for example, a counselor, teacher, clergy member, social worker, attorney, or law enforcement official who can confirm the circumstances. A personal statement alone isn't sufficient.

  1. Complete the Unusual Circumstance Form.
  2. Submit third-party documentation along with the form through the Financial Aid Document Portal.
  3. A financial aid administrator will review your request individually — this determination is made case by case, as required by federal law.
  4. We'll notify you of the outcome. If approved, you'll typically be granted provisional independent status while any additional required documentation is finalized.