Washington has strived to make student eligibility for SEAG grants as simple as possible, with few restrictions on student eligibility. Students experiencing emergency circumstances submit applications for funding, and reviewers prioritize based on need, award availability, whether other resources may be available to address students’ needs (including those off campus), and whether partial or full awards can be given. Overall, institutions have been encouraged to trust students who submit requests.

Washington’s SEAG program is administered by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), which provides grants to individual participating CTCs that then award emergency assistance funds to applicant students in emergency circumstances impacting their ability to continue their education.

For the 2023 – 2025 biennium, the SEAG program was allocated $8,000,000 ($4,000,000 per year). This number is increased from the initial allocation in 2019 of just $750,000 which was increased to $8,000,000 in the 2021 – 2023 biennium and maintained since then. With this increase, SEAG has provided grants to 27 participating CTCs totaling $4,707,500, which averages to about $174,352 per participating institution.

In fiscal year 2025, Washington’s CTCs received 13,136 student requests for assistance and were able to fund 38% (5,002 students) totaling $3,998,481—an average award of $799 per student. The remaining 62% of requests were unable to be met largely due to insufficient SEAG funding and constraints on students’ unmet financial aid need.

Demand far outpaced available resources: students requested a total of $23.8 million in emergency assistance, of which only 16.8% could be funded with the amount provided by the Legislature, leaving $19.8 million in unfunded requests. The average request per student was $1,813, while the average award was $799. Despite the gap, SEAG continues to demonstrate clear impact: 91% of students completed the credits and/or credentials they attempted in the same quarter in which they received SEAG aid, and 66% of FY 2024 recipients were still enrolled or had completed credentials by fall quarter 2025—compared to 60% fall-to-fall retention or completion for first-time entering students in the same year.

Participation has expanded significantly from 16 colleges in 2019, to 30 colleges in 2025-26, with the remaining four community and technical colleges completing planning grants during fiscal year 2026, so that all 34 colleges will be fully participating by fiscal year 2027. For 2025-26, the SEAG program is anticipated to be funded at $4,655,000. The growing reach of the program—and the persistent gap in unmet requests—underscore both the value of the program and the magnitude of student emergency needs across the system.

SEAG funding is used for a variety of reasons. In fiscal year 2025, housing was the most requested reason, followed by transportation and food. Though less requested, students also use funds to cover utility and non-utility bills, child-related needs, books, and other fees and fines not related to tuition costs. Campuses often deny requests due to insufficient funding to meet high demand, rather than eligibility reasons.

The SEAG application process has adopted a more inclusive and streamlined approach that eliminated the requirement for students to submit additional documentation relating to their needs or submit the FAFSA and instead only require the application itself to be submitted. Additionally, the colleges provide online and in-person support services to help students submit their application.

Applications are reviewed utilizing “established priority funding models with specific criteria” which determine if the student can receive full or partial funding or if other resources can be used to support. The priority funding models are not explained further. The colleges themselves also conduct follow-up assessments and evaluations at 10- and 45-day intervals to ensure that the students' needs were met.

The SEAG program has a report that is submitted for every fiscal year that examines the number of students who received emergency assistance, the reasons assistance was requested, and the amount of aid distributed. Additionally, outcomes and findings from the follow up assessments and evaluations are reported to the SBCTC quarterly.