This Insight Brief discusses how students with intellectual disability can utilize federal financial aid to help pay for college. This publication is updated annually to reflect current legislation and policy related to federal financial aid for students with intellectual disabilities. The information provided is current as of January 2023.

Nationally, Ithaka S+R estimates that over six million students have completed credits at postsecondary institutions that they cannot document due to a past due balance. These overdue balances contribute to a national problem of stranded credits--credits that students have completed but cannot document because they were unable to fulfill their…

Since 1997, education tax benefits have become an increasingly important component of federal higher education policy. For 2023, 11 higher education-related tax benefits are available. After 2025, absent legislative action, this number will effectively increase to 13. Two provisions that are temporarily suspended are scheduled to be…

Sara Goldrick-Rab is the Founding Director of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice and Professor of Sociology & Medicine at Temple University. She is the recipient of the William T. Grant Foundation's Faculty Scholars Award and the American Educational Research Association's Early Career Award, and in 2016 POLITICO named her one…

This is the executive summary for the report, "Graduate Degrees: Risky and Unequal Paths to the Top" which proposes new measures to improve accountability and transparency in graduate education through a regulatory framework for Grad PLUS loan eligibility that includes both an in-field earnings premium test and a debt-to-earnings test.…

Government-backed student loans are not a panacea for educational inequality or social ills. By examining student loans as a means of social control, Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence can provide novel ways to encapsulate debt-response patterns across cultures and geographies. This gentle, invisible violence creeps in via misrecognition, a…

Given the skyrocketing costs of higher education, some borrowers -- particularly those with low incomes and those who were scammed by for-profit colleges -- genuinely need assistance. But portraying student loan forgiveness as a working-class issue is highly misleading. In fact, data on student borrowing shows that debt relief benefits few…

The Bring Bobcats Back program was established at Texas State University in 2018 for students who had "stopped out" to return and finish their degrees. Bring Bobcats Back has expanded thanks to federal and state grant funding born out of the pandemic. Through the U.S. Department of Education's Stabilization Fund Program via the…

Higher education took center stage during the Democratic presidential primaries, and congressional leaders in the party are calling for universal student loan forgiveness and tuition-free public college. The incoming Biden administration will thus face pressure to radically expand subsidies for higher education. Conservatives and moderates tend to…

This is a reflexive account of carrying out 'dirty research' on "cis" women's experiences of working as erotic dancers while at university in the UK. Focusing on the recruitment process, I discuss how universities avoided becoming 'subjects' of research by blocking the study and labelling it 'extremely sensitive' or 'inappropriate'. By…

Sixteen years ago, the Kalamazoo Promise went into effect guaranteeing full college scholarships to eligible graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) district. The Kalamazoo Promise provided the model for a unique type of college scholarship program, one in which the allocation of funds is based not on merit or need, but on…

Evidence-based teaching strategies (EBTs) have become increasingly popular among practitioners looking to create classroom communities that provide supportive and rigorous learning environments for students of color. The practices have been linked to positive academic outcomes (such as higher grades and better retention). Research on EBTs have…

The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant (TEACH Grant) Program awards grants to students who intend to teach, to help pay for their postsecondary education. TEACH Grants are available to eligible students who are enrolled at a school that participates in the TEACH Grant Program, in a program of study that the school…

The "Code of Virginia" vests the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) with the responsibility to develop a statewide strategic plan that reflects statutory goals for higher education in the Commonwealth, identifies a coordinated approach to such state and regional goals, and emphasizes the future needs for higher…

Student affairs practitioners, faculty, and researchers rely heavily on surveys to assess elements of students' college experience such as student satisfaction and cocurricular participation. The ubiquitous student survey has serious drawbacks for informing institutional improvement, however, given typically low response rates and systematic…