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School defined. A school can be an ele- mentary school, a junior or senior high school, a college, a university, or a technical, trade, or mechanical school. However, an on-the-job training course, correspondence school, or school offering courses only through the Inter- net doesn't count as a school. Vocational high school students. Stu- dents who work on “co-op” jobs in private indus- try as a part of a school's regular course of classroom and practical training are considered full-time students. Permanently and totally disabled. Your child is permanently and totally disabled if both of the following apply. • Your child can't engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a physical or mental condition. • A doctor determines the condition has las- ted or can be expected to last continuously for at least a year or can lead to death. Residency Test To meet this test, your child must have lived with you for more than half the year. There are exceptions for temporary absences, children who were born or died during the year, adopted or foster children, kidnapped children, and chil- dren of divorced or separated parents. Temporary absences. Your child is consid- ered to have lived with you during periods of time when one of you, or both, is temporarily absent due to special circumstances, such as: • Illness, • Education, • Business, • Vacation, • Military service, or • Detention in a juvenile facility. Death or birth of child. A child who was born or died during the year is treated as having lived with you more than half the year if your home was the child's home more than half the time the child was alive during the year. The same is true if the child lived with you more than half the year except for any required hospital stay fol- lowing birth. Child born alive. You may be able to claim as a dependent a child born alive during the year, even if the child lived only for a moment. State or local law must treat the child as having been born alive. There must be proof of a live birth shown by an official document, such as a birth certificate. The child must be your qualify- ing child or qualifying relative, and all the other tests to claim the child as a dependent must be met. Stillborn child. You can't claim a stillborn child as a dependent. Adopted child or foster child. You can treat your adopted child or foster child as meeting the residency test as follows if you adopted the child in 2022, the child was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption by you in 2022, or the child was an eligible foster child placed with you during 2022. This child is considered to have lived with you for more than half of 2022 if your main home was this child's main home for more than half the time since this child was adopted or placed with you in 2022. Kidnapped child. You can treat your child as meeting the residency test even if the child has been kidnapped, but the following statements must be true. 1. The child is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who isn't a member of your fam- ily or the child's family. 2. In the year the kidnapping occurred, the child lived with you for more than half of the part of the year before the date of the kidnapping. 3. In the year of the child’s return, the child lived with you for more than half the part of the year following the date of the child’s return. This treatment applies for all years until the earlier of: 1. The year there is a determination that the child is dead, or 2. The year the child would have reached age 18. Children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart). In most cases, because of the residency test, a child of di- vorced or separated parents is the qualifying child of the custodial parent. However, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the non- custodial parent if all four of the following state- ments are true. 1. The parents: a. Are divorced or legally separated un- der a decree of divorce or separate maintenance; b. Are separated under a written separa- tion agreement; or c. Lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year, whether or not they are or were married. 2. The child received over half of the child’s support for the year from the parents. 3. The child is in the custody of one or both parents for more than half of the year. 4. Either of the following statements is true. a. The custodial parent signs a written declaration, discussed later, that they won't claim the child as a dependent for the year, and the noncustodial pa- rent attaches this written declaration to their return. (If the decree or agree- ment went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, see Post-1984 and pre-2009 divorce decree or separa- tion agreement, later. If the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008, see Post-2008 divorce decree or sep- aration agreement, later.) b. A pre-1985 decree of divorce or sepa- rate maintenance or written separa- tion agreement that applies to 2022 states that the noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent, the decree or agreement wasn't changed after 1984 to say the non- custodial parent can't claim the child as a dependent, and the noncustodial parent provides at least $600 for the child's support during the year. If statements (1) through (4) are all true, only the noncustodial parent can: • Claim the child as a dependent; and • Claim the child as a qualifying child for the child tax credit, the credit for other depend- ents, or the additional child tax credit. However, this doesn’t allow the noncustodial parent to claim head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expen- ses, the exclusion for dependent care benefits, or the earned income credit. See Applying the tiebreaker rules to divorced or separated pa- rents (or parents who live apart), later. Example—earned income credit. Even if statements (1) through (4) are all true and the custodial parent signs Form 8332 or a substan- tially similar statement that the custodial parent won’t claim the child as a dependent for 2022, this doesn’t allow the noncustodial parent to claim the child as a qualifying child for the earned income credit. The custodial parent or another taxpayer, if eligible, can claim the child for the earned income credit. Custodial parent and noncustodial pa- rent. The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the year. The other parent is the noncustodial parent. If the parents divorced or separated during the year and the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the rest of the year. A child is treated as living with a parent for a night if the child sleeps: • At that parent's home, whether or not the parent is present; or • In the company of the parent, when the child doesn't sleep at a parent's home (for example, the parent and child are on vaca- tion together). Equal number of nights. If the child lived with each parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is the pa- rent with the higher AGI. December 31. The night of December 31 is treated as part of the year in which it begins. For example, the night of December 31, 2022, is treated as part of 2022. Emancipated child. If a child is emancipa- ted under state law, the child is treated as not living with either parent. See Examples 5 and 6. Absences. If a child wasn't with either pa- rent on a particular night (because, for example, the child was staying at a friend's house), the child is treated as living with the parent with whom the child normally would have lived for that night, except for the absence. But if it can't be determined with which parent the child nor- mally would have lived or if the child would not have lived with either parent that night, the child is treated as not living with either parent that night. Publication 501 (2022) Page 13