This year, over 200,000 students have left one question blank on their financial aid forms — the question asking if they have ever been convicted of a drug offense.
The U.S. Department of Education has now told universities not to hold up processing the forms for the 13 percent of the student population who chose not to answer the drug question. In fact, the Department of Education is telling schools that they will not be independently verifying the honesty of the students who did answer the question. As of March 5, less than one percent of the 1.7 million students who applied for financial aid have admitted to a drug conviction.
As required by an amendment to the 1998 Higher Education Act, the drug question was added to this year’s federal financial aid forms. If a student is convicted of a drug charge, they lose their financial aid for one year. A second conviction results in two years ineligibility and after a third conviction, the student is disqualified for life. Students convicted of selling drugs receive a two-year ban and a subsequent conviction results in permanent disqualification.
“As predicted, out of the gate, this new federal law is an abject failure,” said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. “Clearly, universities do not want to deny financial aid to America’s college students. I do not believe this law will ever go into full effect or withstand a substantive legal challenge.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751.
