Parents go to great lengths when it comes to sending their children to college. Now, a ProPublica Illinois investigation has found that some suburban parents are giving up custody of their children to help them get financial aid for college. But the system doesn't seem to violate any laws.
ProPublica Illinois reporters Jodi Cohen and Melissa Sanchez found several cases in which parents, some of them doctors and lawyers, had relinquished legal guardianship of their high school students to relatives or friends.
College applicants who can claim financial independence from their parents gain access to federal, state, and university financial support that may otherwise not be available to them due to their parents' income levels.
According to the report, more than 40 guardianship cases were filed in Lake County between January 2018 and June 2019 – the second wealthiest county in Illinois, according to the 2010 census.
Cohen and Sanchez noted that nearly all of the cases were handled by two north suburban law firms: Rogers Law Group in Deerfield and Kabbe Law Group in Naperville.
Attorney Mari Berlin of Kabbe Law Group told ProPublica Illinois that several of these cases involve parents who are struggling to pay tuition even though their salaries are too high to qualify for financial aid.
“It's a solution that they were able to find because tuition is going up and they can't pay,” Berlin told ProPublica Illinois. “It is in the best interest of the minor and that is the purpose of the law.”
Andy Borst, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, sees it differently.
“It’s a scam,” Borst told ProPublica Illinois. “Wealthy families manipulate the financial aid process to become eligible for financial assistance they would not otherwise be entitled to. They take opportunities away from families who really need them.”
Cohen joins us to discuss the investigation.
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