[Oasfaa] Parents married?

[Good, Linda]

We decided that we were finding errors with parent’s marital status too often just when students or parents would talk to us and usually after aid had already disbursed, so oftentimes we ended up pulling back aid, which no one likes.  So for the first time in 1819 we have written a popsel in Banner that batch posts what we call a marital status document (basically we ask them to clarify their marital status) anytime the tax filing status seems to contradict the marital status of the parent.  We are doing something similar with students as well.  So in addition to finding them when they are selected for verification, we find them this way as well.

So yes, we are doing some institutional selection to resolve what in many cases turns out to be incorrect information.  I don’t think it is necessarily conflicting information, but when we find out it’s wrong, we have to correct it, of course.  We are just being more proactive now than in the past in finding the incorrect information up front.  We have several hundred parents and several hundred independent students for whom we’re requested documentation.

Linda Koehn Good
Associate Director, Client Services
Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid
Oklahoma State University
119 Student Union | Stillwater, OK 74078
405-744-7568
financialaid.okstate.edu<https://financialaid.okstate.edu/>

[cid:image001.png at 01CD3500.5B9D73D0]<financialaid.okstate.edu>

From: OASFAA [mailto:oasfaa-bounces at lists.onenet.net] On Behalf Of Jonna Raney
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2018 2:58 PM
To: oasfaa at lists.onenet.net
Subject: [Oasfaa] Parents married?


I'm finding many students that still struggle with the parent's marital status. I'm finding them by running a report of those that show divorced/separated but filed married joint or married separate returns.



I know this can happen, but when the divorce/separation date is 2005, I find that they answered the question based on the biological parents but the custodial is remarried. In most cases, I think it's an honest error but then the income questions only ask for one parent's income info so they usually qualify for more aid than they should.



I have 78 students on the report that I ran today. My question is, are any of you researching, institutionally selecting, or otherwise trying to resolve what I consider to be conflicting info? It's time consuming and of course, makes you the "bad school" if other schools don't resolve it, but I feel like it should be looked at to protect tax dollars for which these students are not eligible.



What do you think? no judgment...just asking. 😊





[Oklahoma Baptist University]

Jonna Raney

Director of Student Financial Services

405.585.5020
Oklahoma Baptist University



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