Nothing in this chapter or in the office’s rules shall be interpreted as limiting the ability of student financial aid administrators, on the basis of adequate documentation, to adjust a student’s dependency status or elements of a student’s cost of attendance for federal needs analysis calculation to allow for treatment of individual students with special circumstances, with the exception of the cost of attendance defined under section 136A.121, subdivision 6. In addition, nothing in this chapter or in the office’s rules shall be interpreted as limiting the ability of the student financial aid administrator to use supplementary information about the financial status of eligible applicants with special circumstances in selecting recipients of state financial aid and determining the amount of awards. Nothing in this section precludes a financial aid administrator from establishing an appeals process for other extenuating circumstances.