March 5, 2025

All Americans should be able to afford higher education and training. This principle is essential for a prosperous, innovative, and resilient economy—and creating a society where everyone can meet their full potential. However, to reach our goals for higher education access and attainment, students must be able to meet their basic needs and fully focus on their learning. Students must have enough food, a stable place to live, quality health care, flexible child care, and accessible transportation to complete their degrees and credentials. 

Yet today, millions of college students experience extreme challenges in affording the basic necessities they need to live. According to The Hope Center’s Student Basic Needs Survey, 3-in-5 students experience some form of food or housing insecurity while enrolled, reducing their chances of succeeding while in school, finding a steady job, and maintaining long-term financial stability. Rates of basic needs insecurity are even higher among students from low-income and working-class backgrounds, Pell Grant recipients, parenting students, former foster youth, students with disabilities, and Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA+ students. 

Struggles with basic needs insecurity have also intensified in recent years as the cost of everyday goods and services spiked, causing deep strain on family budgets. At the same time, living costs and rent have risen dramatically in many areas, contributing to a record level of homelessness across the country. Annual child care costs, a particularly acute concern for the more than 4 million students with dependent children, exceed the cost of tuition and fees in most states. Meanwhile, the total cost of attending higher education continues to rise while the reach of financial aid continues to decline relative to the rise in students’ expenses.

Basic needs insecurity also deeply intersects with our nation’s persistent mental health crisis. According to the nationally representative Healthy Minds Survey, 4-in-10 students experience depression and another 1-in-3 experience anxiety. The Hope Center survey also found that more than half of students (57%) who had previously stopped out of college reported doing so because of mental health issues. These mental health challenges form a mutually reinforcing relationship: those experiencing basic needs insecurity are more susceptible to mental health challenges and crises, while those struggling with their mental health are also more likely to struggle with financial and material basic needs insecurity. 

Now more than ever, our leaders must act to ensure all students enrolled in higher education have the support they need to succeed. There are shockingly few federal, state, and institutional resources addressing these challenges in a systemic way. As the burden of college costs continues to weigh on families, state higher education funding remains volatile and inequitable, with no federal accountability mechanism for states that fail to adequately fund public colleges and universities and, in turn, pass costs onto vulnerable students and families. Meanwhile, the maximum Pell Grant now covers less than one-quarter of the average cost of attending an in-state public four-year college, forcing students to work long hours, drop out, or take on tens of thousands of dollars in risky and often unmanageable student debt. While many institutions and states have begun to prioritize basic needs and fund interventions on campus, the total federal investment toward enhancing or duplicating these promising initiatives amounts to a rounding error on the federal budget. 

Meanwhile, federal public benefit and safety net programs—which offer many families experiencing poverty, job loss, and food & housing insecurity a lifeline to get back on their feet—often contain specific rules that shut out most students in higher education through complex and outdated eligibility rules and red tape. 

Fortunately, we do have a precedent for addressing the needs of our most vulnerable students in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. Between 2020 and 2023, during both Republican and Democratic Administrations, federal policymakers provided needed support for students through temporary expansions to public benefit programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and investing tens of billions in student emergency aid grants. These actions helped stabilize family budgets, kept students enrolled in their degree programs, and led to dramatic reductions in poverty. 

Policymakers must take lessons from these initiatives by responding to the experiences of students and families today rather than the student body that existed half a century ago. Our current patchwork system of financial aid, complex public benefits, and meager institutional supports is confusing and insufficient for students and families, difficult for institutions to follow and implement, and does little to promote student access, affordability, and attainment.  

In short, it’s time for a new Congress and Administration to reform a system that too often serves only to hold students back from achieving their goals. Doing so will help build a robust and durable economy and workforce, while addressing long-standing racial and economic inequities and making good on our principles of social and economic mobility. The Hope Center is proud to release our federal policy priorities for 2025 as a roadmap toward meeting these goals. We call for: 

• reforming public and tax benefits to focus on students’ basic needs; 

• investing in grant programs that support students’ basic needs; 

• improving outreach to students about available resources they qualify for, and 

• more equitably designing and implementing the federal financial aid programs. 

Priorities for the 119th Congress 

The following priorities for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 2025 include both authorizing and funding requests. To view specific appropriations letters, return to our Policy & Advocacy homepage.

Eliminate barriers to education, training, and student success in SNAP. 

The Problem

National surveys, including The Hope Center’s Student Basic Needs Survey, and federal data reveal that millions of students across the country report low or very low levels of food security, with particularly high rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and community colleges. Rates of student food insecurity have remained unacceptably high for at least a decade. 

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is our country’s largest and most successful anti-hunger program, and it has proven effective and durable in reducing household food insecurity. Yet, due to an incredibly complex and counterproductive set of eligibility requirements, very few low-income students who experience food insecurity can enroll in SNAP. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that among nearly 3.3 million students who are likely eligible for SNAP, over two-thirds do not receive benefits.  

The SNAP program’s dizzying maze of student rules creates significant administrative burdens, confuses students and staff, worsens food insecurity, and undermines the country’s workforce development efforts. Most students who meet SNAP’s stringent income criteria (generally at or below 130% of the federal poverty level) must also meet one of a series of convoluted “exemptions” to gain access. The most common exemption is working 20 hours per week on top of a full-time course load. This “work for food” rule increases the likelihood that under-resourced students will fall behind and eventually drop out. Other criteria make the program incredibly complex to administer and communicate to eligible students. 

The work-for-food rules also prevent SNAP recipients who have not yet attained a higher education degree or credential from going back to school or upskilling to improve their economic security and reduce their need for SNAP in the first place. If such SNAP recipients enroll in college, they often lose their food benefits.

The Solution 

As Congress works to reauthorize the Farm Bill in 2025, it must seize the opportunity to remove barriers to SNAP for college students by overhauling and simplifying SNAP eligibility rules for students and avoiding any new barriers. The most seamless way to remove the unnecessary penalties on students would be to allow enrollment in higher education to satisfy all activity and participation requirements for income-eligible students, as proposed by the Enhance Access to SNAP (EATS) Act.  

Other solutions include the Student Food Security Act, which would simplify the current list of student exemptions to include categories of students who do not have the financial means to contribute out-of-pocket costs to higher education. These models show how Congress can expand eligibility for SNAP while reducing bureaucracy and making state and institutional outreach far more seamless. Congress should also streamline the three separate parenting student exemptions into a single exemption for all students with a dependent child. 

Congress must also protect the SNAP program from any damaging cuts that could reduce benefit levels and exacerbate food insecurity among the students who have managed to obtain benefits. Proposals to reduce SNAP allotments and further restrict eligibility only serve to harm vulnerable families and increase levels of poverty.

Provide flexibility for federal financial aid to address students’ unexpected expenses.  

The Problem 

During the school year, most students face unexpected emergency expenses and financial disruptions. These expenses can come in the form of a car repair, surprise medical bill, or family financial emergency, and—without sufficient and timely support—can dramatically increase the risk of dropping out, especially for under-resourced students who already face considerable unmet need even after federal and state financial aid. Emergency aid is an effective strategy for helping students meet unforeseen costs, including those related to basic needs. 

During two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress provided nearly $40 billion for “emergency aid” for students to help them survive and stay enrolled in college through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). Most recipients reported using emergency funds for food or housing, transportation, utilities, medical expenses, clothing, or technology. Studies have found that students who received HEERF emergency aid persisted and graduated at higher rates compared to students who were unable to access the funds.  

Congress also temporarily removed restrictions on campus-based aid between 2020 and 2023, specifically the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program, to allow SEOG to function as emergency aid. Through SEOG flexibilities, institutions were able to hold a portion of funds to give to students who face unexpected expenses that may otherwise force them to drop out. Congress also gave authority for institutions to transfer at least a portion of Federal Work-Study funds into SEOG, providing more flexibility for institutions to meet student needs at times when they are particularly acute.  

These funds and flexibilities have both expired, leaving many students once again unable to cover unexpected expenses at a time of high prices, rising living costs, and broad financial uncertainty. While nearly all institutions of higher education now have the infrastructure to deliver emergency aid, the available funds do not come close to meeting the current needs of students.  

The Solution 

To meet the urgent needs of students, Congress should act swiftly to restore the SEOG flexibility that was previously in effect from 2020-23; this would allow the existing SEOG program to better support student success at no cost to the federal budget. 

Such flexibility for SEOG could also automatically address emergencies and natural disasters that colleges and universities are routinely facing by giving institutions additional sources of funds to help their students deal with unexpected expenses like temporary housing or transportation that they need in the wake of fires, flooding, hurricanes, heat waves, winter storms, and more. 

Congress could also establish a permanent emergency aid program for students, modeled on the successful HEERF program, as proposed by the Emergency Grant Aid for College Students Act.  

Fund comprehensive approaches to student basic needs security on college campuses. 

The Problem 

Students who experience basic needs insecurity are usually experiencing multiple interrelated and compounding financial challenges. Yet, far too often, students find it difficult to locate or access programs that could help alleviate any of the challenges they face. Siloed efforts by institutions to provide their own direct services like food pantries, transportation subsidies, emergency aid, and temporary housing can be beneficial for students but often fail to address systemic issues at the necessary scale. A growing body of evidence suggests that comprehensive and centralized approaches to addressing students’ basic needs hold the most promise for student success.   

A comprehensive approach to addressing basic needs involves strategies such as regularly surveying the needs of students, leveraging public and tax benefits that students may not be aware of, and connecting students to resources in one central location (sometimes called a “basic needs hub” or “one-stop center). These coordinated approaches also require sufficient staffing to help students through complex application processes.  

The Solution 

Beginning in 2021, Congress funded the Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Program (“Basic Needs Grants”), which provides competitive funding for under-resourced institutions, including community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) to implement systemic interventions to support basic needs insecurity.  

The funding for Basic Needs Grants falls far short of the demand and student needs; the meager $10 million per year only reaches about a dozen colleges (out of well over 100 institutions that apply each cycle). 

Congress should protect and expand funding for this vital program, which will allow for more innovation across institutions and continue to build an evidence base for comprehensive basic needs interventions. In addition, Congress can look to the BASIC Act  as a way to codify and enhance the Basic Needs Grant program for colleges.  

Address the crisis of student mental health challenges. 

The Problem 

On campuses across the country, mental and behavioral health challenges have reached crisis levels. Studies show that mental health and basic needs are mutually reinforcing: students with inadequate nutrition and housing or other challenges of basic needs experience higher rates of anxiety, stress, and depression. Mental health challenges that go untreated can result in students experiencing basic needs insecurity while enrolled in school, leading students to drop out. 

Improving student mental health demands that policies move beyond strategies focused exclusively on treatment and invest in evidence-based strategies of prevention to promote mental health and well-being. It can also be part of a broader strategy to improve student retention: according to The Hope Center’s 2023-24 survey, 4-in-10 students who had previously stopped out of college reported that improvement in their mental or physical health was one of the reasons they were able to re-enroll. 

While mental health programs serving K-12 students have received significant new funding in recent years, the crisis of mental health in higher education has gone largely unaddressed. The Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Campus Suicide Prevention Grant remains the only federal program directly supporting college students’ mental and behavioral health. The GLS campus grants’ anemic funding of only $8.5 million per fiscal year prevents the program from reaching more than a few dozen institutions each year out of nearly 3,600 public and private nonprofit degree-granting institutions nationwide.  

The Solution 

Lawmakers must substantially increase the funding for GLS campus grants and put funding for this program on par with other HHS mental health grants. Further, Congress should ensure that the program prioritizes grants to community colleges, HBCUs, TCUs, and other MSIs, where students report higher rates of untreated mental health challenges and where resources are scarce. 

In addition, lawmakers should commit to efforts that ensure students know about mental health resources that may be available on campus or in their community, including the existence of financial resources and public benefits. In particular, Congress should fix outdated Higher Education Act (HEA) language to require colleges to provide information to their students on affordable mental health resources (beyond suicide prevention) and refer struggling students to public benefits to help them address contributing factors to their mental health.  

Ensure parenting students have affordable and convenient child care. 

The Problem 

Over 4.1 million students are caring for a dependent child while enrolled in higher education, including nearly one in five undergraduates, and more than one in four graduate and professional students. Despite the fact that over half work full-time while enrolled in classes, parenting students experience basic needs insecurity at substantially higher rates than non-parenting students, including extremely high rates among Black parenting students in particular.  

In addition to the everyday costs that all students shoulder, parenting students routinely report that finding affordable, high-quality, and convenient child care is among their largest barriers to enrolling and succeeding in college. Child care costs rival (and often dwarf) tuition and fees, forcing parenting students into greater debt or requiring family members to help out so they can juggle work and school. According to The Hope Center’s 2023-24 survey, an overwhelming percentage of parenting students (86%) report that child care is not at all affordable or only somewhat affordable. 

Providing adequate child care in convenient on-campus or near-campus locations is expensive. Despite the growing need, there has been a decline in the number of campuses offering campus-based childcare over the last two decades. Additional federal support is urgently needed. The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program is the only program dedicated to campus child care and is designed to provide child care for low-income parenting students either on campus or through a community partner. For those who are able to access it, CCAMPIS participation is associated with higher rates of retention and completion, as well as better academic performance. Despite modest increases for CCAMPIS over the past several years, funding remains far below the actual need; one estimate suggests that only 1% of potentially eligible students are served, and an overview of CCAMPIS recipients also reveals an underrepresentation of rural-serving institutions as well. 

The Solution 

Congress should, first and foremost, significantly increase funding for the CCAMPIS program. It should also consider the CCAMPIS Reauthorization Act, which would permanently reauthorize the CCAMPIS program and help connect parenting students with other benefits for which they may be eligible. For example, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contains specific exemptions for some parenting students, but many parenting students aren’t aware that they’re eligible.  

Lawmakers can also ease the burden on parenting students by reinvesting in proven supports for children and families, like the Child Tax Credit (CTC). During the pandemic, an expanded CTC provided low-income parents with a monthly allowance, led to a record decline in child poverty across the country, and allowed parenting students to seek education and training opportunities. Congress’s decision to allow the expanded monthly CTC to expire at the end of 2021 subsequently threw five million children back into poverty at a time of rising prices. Reinstating the expanded CTC could have a profound impact on the ability of parenting students to meet their intersecting financial challenges. 

Finally, Congress should require colleges and states to identify and track student-level outcomes for parenting students through provisions of the Understanding Student Parent Outcomes Act, or a version of the College Transparency Act that includes parenting status, to better understand the needs of this unique population. Lawmakers should also require colleges and state higher education agencies to conduct regular outreach to parenting students about the existing CTC to boost take-up rates and support their child care expenses at tax time. 

Expand access to federal financial aid, including the Pell Grant. 

The Problem 

Access to federal financial aid is often the difference between enrolling in or forgoing college for students and families. For many years, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was extremely complex, and the length of the form was a substantial barrier to students accessing aid.  

To streamline the federal financial aid process, Congress passed the bipartisan Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act in 2019 and the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020. Together, these laws made it easier for students to obtain federal, state, and institutional grants, loans, and scholarships—particularly for the students who disproportionately experience basic needs. These changes were long overdue. However, many students still find it challenging to access federal financial aid. 

Restrictive eligibility rules in federal financial aid make it harder for students to get the help they need to afford college. Enrollment intensity thresholds, academic progress requirements, and semester limits harm many students—particularly older students going back to school. Additionally, whenever the funding for federal financial aid programs is under pressure, Congress has considered additional eligibility restrictions that exacerbate student basic needs insecurity. 

The Solution 

Congress should continue to conduct bipartisan oversight of the implementation of the FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification Act to ensure the benefits are fully realized for students—and that all students can access the federal financial aid they’re eligible for. This includes making sure that student data privacy is protected, FAFSA outreach campaigns continue, and call centers are adequately staffed.  

It is also critical for Congress to robustly fund the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid so that they have the resources they need to improve customer support and outreach to students about financial aid.  

Congress must also continue to fund the Pell Grant program, including by adding new funding for the program to close any potential funding shortfall. No new eligibility restrictions or cuts to the maximum award should be considered, given that the program is already enormously complex for students and families and the purchasing power of Pell is at an all-time low. 

Instead, lawmakers should remove eligibility restrictions from financial aid programs by allowing students and families who receive means-tested benefits to automatically qualify for the maximum Pell Grant and make undocumented students, including Dreamers, eligible for federal financial aid. Congress should adopt the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act to permanently fund the Pell Grant and substantially increase the maximum award, allow students more time to use their federal aid, and reform inequitable Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policies that exacerbate basic needs insecurity and take away aid from students when they often need it the most.

End the tax on Pell Grants, scholarships, and other aid. 

The Problem 

Today, non-tuition expenses like food, housing, and transportation make up the majority of the cost of attendance at both two- and four-year public colleges. Yet the portion of grants and scholarships that students spend on non-tuition expenses like food, housing, and child care is often treated as “income” for tax purposes, triggering a surprise tax bill for students who are already struggling financially. 

Not only does this approach overcomplicate the tax code, but it also penalizes students who receive need-based aid for basic expenses. For the majority of students who work, it can result in a larger tax burden, undermining the Pell Grant as well as other federal, state, and institutional aid. Approximately three million students now have their grants and scholarships taxed each year. 

The Solution 

Congress should repeal the taxability of Pell Grants and provide relief to working students with low and middle incomes and allow them to keep more of the aid they need to succeed in higher education, as proposed by the bipartisan Tax-Free Pell Grant Act, to provide relief to working students with low and middle incomes and allow them to keep more of the aid they need to succeed in higher education. 

Congress should also remove tax liability from state and institutional financial aid, scholarships, and any other grant aid. Further, Congress should introduce legislation to consolidate, reform, and enhance education tax benefits like the American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit, the full benefits of which are unable to be claimed by low-income households and disproportionately favor wealthier tax filers. The American Opportunity Student Tax Relief Act serves as one model to streamline education tax benefits. 

Reduce housing insecurity and homelessness for students. 

The Problem 

Across the country, the high cost of housing and rent prices often make up the single largest basic needs expense for students, often leading to extreme financial strain and homelessness for many families. The high cost of housing forces students to make impossible choices, including working long hours, sacrificing meals, or forgoing other necessities in order to pay rent and utilities. Students who experience homelessness, or are at-risk of becoming homeless, are more likely to stop out of college. 

There are only scarce federal resources to address the crisis of homelessness across the country, but federal policy often makes it worse. Students in college are subject to additional and severe restrictions that limit them from housing assistance. Since 2005, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) public and assisted housing programs and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) have contained restrictions that prevent nearly all college students under age 24 from receiving support because of the false and outdated assumption that all college students have access to on-campus housing or otherwise financially supported by (or live with) their family. 

Additionally, financial aid received by students for non-tuition costs is generally counted as “income” for determining a family’s HUD program eligibility, which significantly and unfairly disincentivizes students in supported families from seeking higher education. Congress could easily remove these restrictions in HUD programs and exclude all financial aid from being counted as income. Former foster youth, a population particularly susceptible to homelessness, also struggle to afford college without family resources, with as few as 14% of former foster youth being able to complete college. 

The Solution 

Congress should end counterproductive restrictions in HUD housing programs by removing a damaging rider in the HUD appropriations bill, which denies access to students. It should also exclude all financial aid from being counted as income for HUD program eligibility. In addition, lawmakers should pass the Housing for Homeless Students Act, which would allow students to live in LIHTC housing if they’ve experienced homelessness within the last seven years.   

To advance success for former foster youth and students experiencing homelessness, Congress should pass the Higher Education Access and Success for Homeless and Foster Youth Act and Fostering Success in Higher Education Act to simplify the financial aid process for these students. 

Restore the Affordable Connectivity Program. 

The Problem 

Students need reliable and affordable internet access to complete their coursework. Most students, including the overwhelming majority of community college students, commute to class, and most students are taking at least one class online, meaning that stable, affordable, and reliable internet is essential for their academic careers. And students who attend higher education predominantly online—often adults going back to school while they take care of their families—rely on broadband internet for their entire college experience. 

The recently-expired Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provided 23 million low-income people—including  over one million students  who receive Pell Grants—with substantial discounts on their monthly internet bill. In the FY 2024 appropriations process, Congress failed to provide additional funding for the ACP, resulting in higher bills and less access to this crucial public utility. As a result, many families have once again lost access to the internet, especially in rural areas. 

The Solution 

Congress should restore funding for ACP and permanently extend the program, or a similar successor program by passing the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act. It should also require that institutions of higher education and state agencies commit to robust and consistent outreach about potential discounts on their monthly internet bill. 

Priorities for the Administration 

Reduce administrative burdens and regularly notify students about available resources to lower college costs. 

Students and families need clear information on the financial aid and means-tested programs that could help them afford the cost of their education and training programs. Unfortunately, too often, states and institutions of higher education do not conduct outreach or provide timely information on programs for which students may be eligible. 

We urge the Administration to reduce administrative burdens and red tape for students in financial aid and benefit programs, and to clearly communicate how students can access the resources they need to succeed. The bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act authorizes data-sharing agreements between the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and all federal agencies that administer public benefit programs to automatically and regularly identify students who could be eligible for support. We encourage the Administration to implement these data-sharing agreements to prioritize government efficiency and foster better communication with schools and students.  

We also encourage ED to build off of current guidance to states and institutions on conducting voluntary outreach to students about public and tax benefits, and to share best practices for effective outreach. Additionally, ED should proactively, automatically, and regularly notify all students applying for federal financial aid of their potential eligibility for public benefits programs, as the FAFSA Simplification Act authorizes.  

Maintain and expand the transparency of college costs and outcomes. 

Students and families need clear, timely, and accurate information on the price of college, the resources available to them, and their potential outcomes. Fortunately, Congress already requires ED to shed light on students’ educational experiences and outcomes.  

Therefore, ED must not only maintain—but expand—the agency’s college transparency tools so that students and families can make institution-to-institution and program-to-program comparisons on costs, debt, earnings, student persistence, and the availability of financial aid. 

The College Scorecard, College Navigator, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and NCES Data Lab should be fully maintained and enhanced with even more information on colleges’ living and other non-tuition costs. Federal surveys like the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) and the Condition of Education annual report provide insight into students’ financing of college costs. These essential federal data sources cannot be interrupted by delays and contract cancelations. If anything, these surveys and reports should be fielded and released more frequently, not less.  

We also encourage ED to help institutions accurately calculate and communicate their “cost of attendance” (COA) to students, including their ability to maintain reliable estimates of food, housing, textbooks, child care, and other costs. Research has shown a troubling variation in how institutions estimate living costs—including examples of significant “undercounting”—which can significantly limit students’ eligibility for need-based aid and make colleges appear cheaper than they really are.  

Financial aid administrators are also stretched thin, limiting their ability to create data-driven estimates and ensure they’re regularly updated. However, widespread underestimation of costs can also force students to borrow through more risky forms of credit, take on unsustainable levels of outside work, or worse, drop out due to not having the financing to pay.  

Further, we recommend that ED clearly indicate that students with a negative Student Aid Index (SAI) can receive additional federal, state, and institutional aid beyond the stated COA to help students most in need of support. 

Continue to simplify the FAFSA and ensure financial aid access. 

The 2024-25 financial aid cycle was deeply challenging for students, financial aid administrators, and college access professionals. Delays in the new FAFSA form resulted in a decrease in FAFSA and worrying enrollment trends.  

In order to improve access to financial aid, we encourage ED to fully implement the FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification Act and seize every available opportunity to support students’ basic needs security. The Hope Center offered several suggestions for changes to the FAFSA for the 2025-26 cycle that would help improve the process for students, including eliminating additional questions or hurdles not otherwise authorized by law. To fulfill Congressional intent, ED should also significantly increase the staffing for call centers that help students and families troubleshoot FAFSA and financial aid issues. 

As previously mentioned, too few colleges or states are currently conducting outreach to students and families about public or tax benefits. ED should add a “check box” to the FAFSA that allows financial aid applicants to consent to securely share data from the FAFSA—including federal tax information—with agencies that can enroll and verify students in public benefits. 

Defend and increase basic research that promotes student success and basic needs security. 

Policymakers and college leaders cannot make sound decisions without the help of high-quality, timely, and consistent research. Through the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), ED has been at the forefront of data-driven research and evaluation of the effectiveness of thousands of education initiatives, including those that address students’ basic needs. This role must continue unabated. 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) also help inform colleges’ research on the “social determinants of health,” which include improving families’ access to higher education and their economic stability. The NIH and NSF help colleges understand how best to help their students graduate and successfully enter the workforce. Downsizing or reducing the capacity of IES, NIH, or NSF research would have severe consequences for students in higher education, public health, and the U.S. economy. Instead, the Administration should maintain existing grants and contracts and propose expanding investments in IES, NIH, and NSF research. 

Over the past decade, institutions have quickly scaled up interventions to address student basic needs insecurity, such as rapid housing, food pantries and vouchers, emergency aid, case management, and basic needs centers. These vital interventions are being funded and expanded through existing federal grant programs, such as the Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students (“Basic Needs Grant”) and Postsecondary Student Success Grant programs. States, systems, and institutions are also in need of consistent technical assistance in replicating these efforts. Higher education needs the data and evidence gathered by IES to make continuous improvements to these critical investments.  

We encourage ED to prioritize evidence-based strategies to measure and address basic needs in 2025 and beyond. Resources such as the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) are vital to the mission of improving educational outcomes. ED must maintain the ongoing and uninterrupted operation of the WWC and expand other tools that identify and promote promising, evidence-based, and scalable strategies to address student basic needs insecurity. In addition, ED should explore third-party evaluations of other basic needs programs like CCAMPIS to show how support for parenting students increases college persistence and graduation rates, and to help colleges understand how they can improve child care and other interventions to best support their students. 

Promote additional resources on student mental health. 

On campuses across the country, mental and behavioral health challenges are persistent and have reached crisis levels. Addressing mental health challenges in higher education necessitates a comprehensive and coordinated approach within and across institutions, state agencies, and federal policymakers. 

Over the past several years, several promising practices have emerged to help holistically and comprehensively address basic needs insecurity on campus. Lessons from these types of comprehensive, wraparound efforts are instructive for addressing mental health challenges on campus and for those colleges looking toward prevention.  

We encourage ED, in tandem with HHS and other relevant federal agencies, to regularly publish and share best practices and help institutions coordinate federal, state, institutional, community, and philanthropic resources to address the challenges facing their students. As ED works to provide technical assistance to institutions to prioritize mental health challenges, we encourage the Department to pair those efforts with comprehensive strategies to reduce basic needs insecurity. We also encourage ED to leverage programs like the Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students and Postsecondary Student Success Grants to invest in proven strategies that tackle mental health as a part of an overall basic needs strategy.