New Pell Grant Experiments

Posted by U.S. Department of Education on August 17, 2015

In the last few weeks, the Department of Education has announced three new “experimental site” opportunities for which institutions of higher education can apply to participate. Those who participate in the experimental sites (called ex-sites in Washington parlance) can operate outside of the financial aid regulations for the specific area of their experiment. The goal is to test out innovative or alternative ways for delivering financial aid. The three new experiments allow:

• A limited profile of incarcerated individual to access Pell Grant funds for credit-bearing courses while in prison,
• Graduates with a bachelor’s degree but who are unemployed or underemployed to use remaining eligibility for vocational training that lasts up to one year, and
• Students to use Pell Grants for courses with a minimum of 150 clock hours over 8 weeks (down from 600 clock hours over 15 weeks).

The latter two experiments are aimed at helping individuals earn specific credentials that are valuable on the workforce. The first experiment, however, revisits education for incarcerated individuals after a 20-year ban on Pell Grants for those with criminal records. Congressional Republicans have said that the Department cannot use its experimental site authority to waive this ban (even for a limited number of individuals) because Congress expressly forbid it in the law, but the Administration is currently proceeding as planned.

There are currently eleven other financial aid experiments under way including: using Title IV aid for prior learning assessment or competency-based education, use of federal work study dollars as the sole source of funding for students serving as near-peer counselors, and several related to student loans, including one to limit the amount of unsubsidized loans students borrow.

http://www.collegeaccess.org/SD08112015Article5