How to Fill Out and Submit Form 1810: Texas College Tuition Waiver

Form 1810 is the one-page DFPS document that certifies your foster care history to a Texas public college so your tuition and mandatory fees are waived. To use the Texas college tuition waiver through Form 1810, you download the form from the Department of Family and Protective Services, complete the identifying information, sign the release, and route it to the DFPS staff member who handles your case. That staff member verifies your records, signs the certification, and the form is delivered to your school’s financial aid office, which then zeros out your tuition and fee balance.¹

Confirm You Qualify Before You Start

Two Texas Education Code sections create this waiver, and which one covers you decides who at DFPS signs your form.

Under Section 54.366, you qualify as a former foster youth if you were in DFPS conservatorship on the day before your 18th birthday, on the day you graduated high school or earned a GED, or on or after your 14th birthday if you were also eligible for adoption. You also qualify if you were in conservatorship the day before you were adopted or placed in permanent managing conservatorship with someone other than a parent, provided that event occurred on or after September 1, 2009. Current foster youth enrolled in dual credit courses are covered too. You must enroll as an undergraduate, or in a dual credit course, no later than your 25th birthday.²

Under Section 54.367, you qualify as an adopted student if you were adopted from foster care and were the subject of an adoption assistance agreement that provided monthly payments and medical assistance. An agreement that only reimbursed one-time expenses like court costs or attorney’s fees does not count.³

Where to Get Form 1810

DFPS publishes Form 1810, titled “DFPS Verification of the State College Tuition and Fee Waiver,” in the Child Protective Services Handbook section of its website, where it can be downloaded as a PDF.¹ You can also request a copy directly from the DFPS staff member who will certify it for you.

If you were in foster care and were not adopted, contact your regional Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) coordinator. DFPS keeps a directory of regional PAL staff with phone numbers for each region of the state.⁴

If you were adopted from foster care, contact an adoption assistance program specialist at (800) 233-3405, or find your regional adoption assistance contact through the DFPS Adoption Support page. If you’re unsure which route applies, the DFPS State College Tuition Waiver page lists contacts for youth currently in care, youth who aged out, and adopted students.⁵

What to Put on the Form

The form is short. Have this information ready before you start:

Your full legal name, matching what DFPS has on file. If your name changed through adoption or a court order, confirm which name appears in the department’s records.
Your date of birth.
Your Social Security number.
Your DFPS case identification number. If you don’t know it, your PAL coordinator or adoption specialist can look it up.
Your current mailing address and phone number.
The name of the college or university where you plan to enroll or are already enrolled, so the certified form reaches the correct financial aid office.

Sign the release on the form. Without your signature, DFPS cannot share your foster care records with the school, and the verification cannot move forward. Check the spelling of your name and each date against what DFPS has on record. Staff need an exact match to pull your file, and small mismatches are the usual reason forms get held up.

Submitting the Form to DFPS

Once your portion is filled in and signed, send the form to the DFPS staff member responsible for your case, either a PAL coordinator or an adoption eligibility specialist.⁶ That person reviews your DFPS records, confirms you meet the statutory requirements, and signs the form to certify your eligibility.

Ask how the certified form will reach your school. In some regions, the DFPS coordinator sends it to the financial aid office directly. In others, DFPS returns the signed form to you and you deliver or mail it. Either way, confirm with the school’s financial aid office that they received it.

Start early. Processing times vary by region and workload, and a hold on your student account is easier to prevent than to lift. Once the financial aid office has the certified form, they apply the exemption and clear your tuition and mandatory fee balance for the term.⁷ Keep a copy of the signed form. If a billing issue comes up in a later semester, your own copy prevents you from starting the process over.

What the Waiver Actually Pays For

The exemption covers tuition and all fees authorized under Chapter 54 of the Education Code, including base tuition, mandatory campus fees, and course-specific charges such as lab fees.⁶ It applies at any Texas public institution of higher education, which includes community colleges, four-year universities, technical institutes, and public medical or dental schools.⁷

Room and board, meal plans, textbooks, and personal expenses are not covered. The waiver also does not extend to private universities or out-of-state schools. If you qualify under Section 54.366, the benefit is limited to undergraduate enrollment and dual credit courses; it does not reach graduate or professional programs.²

Dual Credit While Still in Care

If you are currently in DFPS conservatorship and enrolled in a dual credit course that earns both high school and college credit, that course is covered by the waiver. The statute lists dual credit enrollment as a qualifying category, and DFPS confirms it on the tuition waiver page.²⁵ You need to be in conservatorship during the academic term the course runs. Ask your caseworker or education liaison to help you request Form 1810 before the semester starts so the college does not bill you for it.

After the First Semester

You do not submit a new Form 1810 every term. Your school verifies each year that you remain eligible, but the student side is a one-time step. As long as you stay enrolled and in good standing, the exemption continues to apply.

If you transfer to a different Texas public school, the new school needs its own copy of the certified form. Contact your DFPS coordinator to arrange verification for the new school before you transfer, not after.

1
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. 10300 Post-Secondary Education Programs
2
State of Texas. Texas Education Code EDUC 54.366
3
State of Texas. Texas Education Code 54.367 – Exemptions for Adopted Students Formerly in Foster or Other Residential Care
4
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Regional Lead Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) Staff
5
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. DFPS – State College Tuition Waiver
6
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Tuition Exemptions Related to Individuals Currently or Formerly in Foster Care in Texas
7
Texas Children’s Commission. Tuition and Fee Waiver for Foster Care Students