How long are parents legally supposed to support children through school?

[iCADesignguy]

I have a 21 year old male who is returning to school. When applying for financial aid at his college, he was told that his parents have to fully support him through age 25 in the state of California. Is this true?

 

[irish223]

I have a 21 year old male who is returning to school. When applying for financial aid at his college, he was told that his parents have to fully support him through age 25 in the state of California. Is this true?

Are you referring to the FAFSA requirement that your financials must be included in the application for financial aid? If so, generally a student is not considered independent, and cannot file without parental financial information, until the student is 24. There are exceptions if the student can prove that he has been financially independent of his parents and self-supporting.

 

[StudentUnaware]

This is what the federal FASFA preparers told me the past two years I've tried to claim independence on my form

You have to meet one of the following requirements:
25 years of age
Married
Have a dependent whom you pay over 50% of bills for

the only other way around this is if the person under 21 was at risk of being homeless or was homeless July 1st of the previous year. And that has to be supported by social services or some other government help program.

I've had to put off school 5 years because the government wont help me out with this because I'm only 20, unmarried and I choose to not get pregnant so I can reach my goals in life. Its a sad but true realization that between the ages of 18 and 22 in this country you can not get help from the government.

Now you do not have to support him no, but if you want to claim his school on your tax return then you have to pay 50% of his living expenses. Again I found this all out the hard way. My mom kicked me out at 18, refused contact with me, so I used a thousand dollars I had saved up to go to the community college and then my mother tried to claim my school on her taxes. So yeah, fun times.