When they crack down on this, it’s going to hurt a lot of vulnerable kids (like in the last scandal, which involved faking disabilities to get testtaking accommodations.) Kids who get guardians are usually in a bad situation.
We are seriously considering taking in a 16 year old relative. We’d need guardianship to enroll her in school, get medical care, etc. But there’s no way we’d be able to help pay her college— we’ll be withdrawing from retirement accounts just to set up a room and pay her ticket out here. She wouldn’t be here long enough to get in-state tuition when she gets to college either.
She’s living like Cinderella with her dad and stepmom. They have a nice multibedroom house, but for 4 years she’s slept on a couch in the basement rec room with her clothes in bags, while she cares for her infant and toddler half sisters and scrounges her own food. They are both physically and emotionally abusive. He could definitely contribute towards her college, but realistically she’d be lucky if he even agreed to fill out a FAFSA for her. But I can’t envision a policy that would screen out the strategic guardianships in the article that wouldn’t also hit kids like Cinderella.
