How is dependency status affected when a student has a child during the academic year?
A. A student with a dependent child is considered an independent student, provided the student provides at least half of the child’s support. A student can include an unborn child as a dependent on the FAFSA if that child will be born before or during the award year and the student and/or the student’s spouse will provide more than half of the child’s support from the projected date of the child’s date of birth to the end of the award year. A student must update his or her dependency status if it changes at any time during the award year (unless the change is due to a change in marital status). If the school has not yet certified a Federal Stafford Loan for the student, the school may submit the updated information to the Central Processing System for reprocessing and use the recalculated Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to certify the loan. If the school already has certified a Federal Stafford Loan, the school can use the updated status and recalculated EFC to request additional lo
