The Boothbay Region High School Guidance Department is hosting a FAFSA Filing Lab on Wednesday, Oct. 18 from 5 to 7 p.m. The event will be held in the computer lab on the first floor of BRHS next to the library and will focus on helping senior year student college applicants and parents of students to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

“Filling out the FAFSA can be an incredibly confusing process,” said Hannah Johnson, Guidance Department secretary. “Often times we find that parents will delay filing because they don't have the information they need or they're simply overwhelmed by the whole process.”

Students will be required to bring a parent with them. If a parent cannot attend, then students are being asked to bring their parents’ tax information (tax returns and other financial documents listed in the flyer).

“Also important is that one parent per student needs to have created their FSA-ID,” said Johnson. “We can show them how to do this, but the parent absolutely has to be present in order to create that, as it's illegal for us to create IDs for people not present. Technically the FAFSA belongs to the parent when the student is a minor.”

Johnson said that if a parent is unable to attend, to contact her in the guidance office in advance of the 18th.

The materials students and parents will need to have with them for the Filing Lab are:

• FSA ID (student and parent)
• Social Security numbers
• Driver’s License numbers
• W-2s
• 2016 Tax Return
• Records of untaxed income (child support, rental income, etc.)
• Records of cash, savings, investments, IRAs, etc.
• Records of real estate and assets other than primary income

Any questions can be answered by Hannah Johnson at hjohnson@csd3-brhs.org or Kerrin Erhard at kerhard@csd3-brhs.org and the FAFSA hotline is: 1-800-433-3243.