How Pell Grant Restoration Impacts Jails

Brief
Topics:
Correctional Education
Reentry population:
Adults
Date:
Source:
Amanda Nowak, Jamie Hin Hon Wong

How Pell Grant Restoration Impacts Jails

Pell Grant restoration took effect on July 1, 2023, ending the nearly 30-year prohibition on need-based federal postsecondary financial aid for people incarcerated in United States prisons. Although people incarcerated in jail settings had remained eligible during the intervening period—as the 1994 Crime Bill’s ban was limited to “federal or state penal institution[s]”—the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Simplification Act, in addition to reinstating Pell Grant access for people in prisons, dictated new regulations impacting jails. According to those new regulations, any criminally sentenced person must enroll in a U.S. Department of Education (ED)–approved prison education program (PEP) to be eligible for Pell funding. To help officials from educational and correctional institutions, and other relevant stakeholders, as they modify existing and develop new program opportunities, the Vera Institute of Justice summarized and interpreted key regulatory information.

 

Key Takeaway

New regulations require colleges to become ED-approved PEPs in order to administer Pell Grants to criminally sentenced students, at jails and prisons alike. When developing and modifying Pell-eligible postsecondary programs, stakeholders should consider how to best accommodate the circumstances of students in jail settings, including people sentenced to a prison term but temporarily housed in the jail and those with shorter-term sentences.

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