Congress passed the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief legislation Wednesday, which provides about $40 billion for higher education including provisions for financial aid and student loan forgiveness. Here’s what college students and parents need to know about the bill, which President Biden is expected to sign into law this week,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

…”Students can use the funds from this legislation to cover any component of the cost of their attendance, as well as any emergency costs that have arisen due to the coronavirus, including tuition, food, housing, healthcare, mental healthcare and child care, says Megan Coval, the vice president of policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Students might have to complete an application to receive the funds.

How students will receive the funds will depend on the institution.

At some schools, under previous rounds of aid, administrators gave direct payments to students who qualified, such as those with Pell Grants, or those who had low expected family contributions based on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa, forms. Other schools set up pools of funds that they distributed after reviewing student applications. “We did see a fair amount of schools that did a hybrid of both,” says Ms. Coval.

Students will need to check with their individual schools to learn more about how funds will be distributed, says Ms. Coval. Additionally, some students should expect to wait a few weeks before their institutions determine how the money will be spent. “Where this gets difficult is, we don’t know right now if undocumented or DACA or international students can get those funds, so there are some schools that hope that’s the case, and they aren’t pushing all of their funds out yet,” she says. Ms. Coval said there isn’t yet written guidance from the U.S. Department of Education on whether these students qualify for the December round of funding, and she hopes guidance is issued in the next few weeks."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 3/11/2021