Transgender Students
The requirement to register depends on the sex listed on the student's
birth certificate. Transgender individuals who are born female and
undergo sex reassignment surgery are not required to
register. Transgender individuals who are born male and undergo sex
reassignment surgery are required to register. (If the draft is
instituted, transgender individuals who were born male and who have
had sex reassignment surgery may file a claim for exemption from
military service.)
The rules are unclear for intersex students, who were born with
ambiguous differentiation of gender-specific physical
characteristics. This can include individuals who demonstrate the
physical features of both sexes and individuals whose physical
features are intermediate in nature. In most cases, however, surgical
intervention occurs soon after birth and the intersex individual is
listed as female on the birth certificate.
Although students who are born female and become male are not required
to register, they may run into data match problems. Such students may
want to register if they became male during the 18-26 year old period,
simply to avoid running into problems.
Note that the name listed on the FAFSA form should always be the
student's current legal name. Anything else will cause a mismatch with
the records of the Social Security Administration. A student should
only use his or her new name after he or she finishes getting a legal
name change and has notified the Social Security Administration.
See the Guide to Completing the FAFSA for LGBT Families
for additional information.
What If You Didn't Register and It's Now Too Late?
Male students who did not register with the Selective
Service and are now age 26 or older are ineligible for
Federal student aid and other Federal and state benefits.
There are only a few options for regaining eligibility,
and they depend on showing that either the student was
not required to register, or that the failure to register
was not knowing and willful.
If the student was not required to register, he will need to obtain a
status information letter from Selective Service. This
letter will indicate whether the student was or was not required to
register.
To obtain such a letter, call 1-847-688-6888 or 1-888-655-1825 (stay on the line until
the operator answers) or write to Selective Service System, PO Box
94638, Palatine, IL 60094-4638 and ask for a status information letter.
The student will need to describe, in detail, the circumstances that
prevented him from registering (e.g., hospitalization,
institutionalization, incarceration, military service) and provide
documentation of those circumstances. The documentation should be
specific as to the dates of the circumstances. (For example, if the
student served in the military and was released before age 26, he
would still have been required to register within 30 days of his
release.)
If the student was not
a US citizen, he will need to provide documentation
of when he entered the United States. The student
should also provide his name, Social Security Number,
date of birth, and mailing address.
A status information letter is not required if the student can
document his status as a veteran (copy of DD-214, active duty orders,
military ID card) or that he was born before 1960. Also, non-US men
under certain circumstances will not be required to obtain a status
information letter.
A
Request for Status Information Letter
form and
instructions
can be found on the
Selective Service web site.
If the student did not satisfy any of the criteria for a waiver of the
registration requirement, the student will need to
show by a preponderance of evidence that
his failure to register was not knowing and willful.
The term "preponderance of evidence" refers to the
standard of proof used in civil litigation, where the evidence for a
fact is of greater weight or more convincing than conflicting
evidence. In other words, the probability that the
assertion is true must be greater than 50%.
The best evidence is original documentation, especially when it is
first hand documentation produced at the time of the event. In other
words, direct evidence is better than indirect or circumstantial
evidence. Examples of direct evidence include a birth certificate, a
date of entry stamp in
a passport, and a certificate of mailing. It is best if
the source of
the evidence is an independent disinterested third-party. For example,
a signed statement by the student is a fairly weak form of evidence,
although it can shed light on the student's situation and his sincerity.
Positive evidence is better than negative evidence, since it is very
hard to prove a negative. Original documentation is better than a copy.
Accordingly, it is in the student's best interest to provide as much
evidence as possible and in as much detail as possible.
The final decision regarding eligibility is made by the
financial aid administrator, not the Selective Service. The Selective
Service only makes a determination as to whether the student was
required to register, not whether the failure to register was knowing
and willful. The financial aid administrator's decision is final and
cannot be appealed to the US Department of Education. The US
Department of Education will only hear appeals from students who have
provided their schools with a status information letter demonstrating
compliance (i.e., that they registered or that they are exempt from
registration) but are still being denied aid based on the registration
requirement.
For students who were required to register,
the financial aid administrator will base his or her decision on
whether the failure to register was:
- Knowing. Was the student aware of the requirement
to register or not? If the student knew about the requirement
to register, was he misinformed about the applicability of the
requirement to him (e.g., veterans who were discharged before
their 26th birthday were occasionally told that they did not
need to register)? On which date did the student first learn
that he was required to register? Where did the student live
when he was between the ages of 18 and 26? Does the status
information letter indicate that Selective Service sent letters
to the student and did not receive a response?
- Willful. Was the failure to register done deliberately
and intentionally? In other words, did the student
have the mental capacity to choose whether or not
to register and decided not to register?
In addition to the status information letter,
the financial aid administrator may also require a signed statement
from the student explaining why he did not register and independent
third party documentation of any unusual circumstances or facts
pertaining to the student's failure to register. It is very important
to provide sufficient documentation, since many financial aid
administrators will deny the request for an override without
documentation. A signed statement on its own is often not sufficient to
justify awarding of federal student aid.
(Frankly, many financial aid administrators find it hard
to believe that a student was not aware of the requirement, given the
extensive publicity by Selective Service.)
Ultimately, the decision will depend on whether the financial aid
administrator believes the student and the student has credibly argued
that his failure to register was either not knowing or not willful.
The most common examples where financial aid administrators have
granted an override include the following. Please note that each
situation is reviewed individually.
- Student served in the Armed Forces on full-time active duty, was
released under a condition other than dishonorable before his 26th
birthday, and either assumed or was misinformed about not being
required to register.
- Student tried to enlist in the military, but was turned down, and
didn't realize that enlisting and registering for Selective Service
are different requirements.
- Student was kidnapped by a parent in a custody battle, and that
parent prevented the student from registering.
- Parents were illegal aliens and kept the student unaware of the
requirement to register.
- Student claims he was not aware of the requirement and lived
abroad for the entire period from age 18 through age 26.
- Student was aware of the requirement, but incorrectly believed
that the requirement did not apply to him because he is his parent's
only child or because all of his parent's other children are already
serving in the armed forces.
- Student documents that he did submit a registration. (During the
mid to late 1990s, data for some students who tried to register for
Selective Service using the FAFSA form was never transmitted to
Selective Service. In particular, data for students who had not yet
reached their 18th birthday was never transmitted to Selective
Service. A documented attempt to register demonstrates that the
failure to register was not willful.)
Schools are much less likely to grant an override when the excuse is
ignorance of the requirement without extenuating
circumstances. Likewise if the student failed to register because of
an error made by the student, such as thinking that registering to
vote automatically registered one for selective service. But on the
whole, schools tend to be lenient when the excuse is reasonable and
they believe the student is being honest.
If the student insists that he registered but the Selective Service
web site disagrees, the student will need to provide documentation of
the attempt to register, such as a photocopy of the registration
form. Occasionally the Selective Service database will have the
student's information recorded under a different date of birth or
social security number. This can happen when there are digit
transpositions in the social security number or the month and day are
swapped. The financial aid administrator should ask the student for a copy
of their social security card and birth certificate, and then call
Selective Service to ask for a name search.
