PAST DRUG CONVICTIONS BEGIN TO HAUNT STUDENTS SEEKING AID

Some Students Being Told They Won't Receive Money Because Of New Measure
Requiring Such Disclosure

Nearly 7,000 college students who applied for financial aid this fall are
finding past drug convictions returning to haunt them.

The students are being told they are ineligible for some or all federal
financial aid because of a new law.

Under the law, which took effect with the 2000-01 academic year, students
with drug-related convictions can be ruled ineligible for federal grants or
loans.

Of the 8.6 million applications processed through Oct. 15, 1,311 applicants
have been ruled ineligible, and an additional 5,617 must complete a waiting
period before they become eligible, Karen Freeman, a spokeswoman for the
Education Department, said Monday.

The total of the two groups is less than 1 percent of those who applied.

Students can lose one year of federal aid eligibility for a third conviction.

About 790,000 applicants initially failed to answer the question for a
first conviction on a drug-possession charge, and two years for a second
conviction.

They can be suspended indefinitely whether they had been convicted of using
drugs when they filled out their student aid applications.

But the Education Department contacted many of those students, and the
number of those who have not yet answered is now down to 275,000.

Department officials allowed college and university administrators to award
aid this year to those who left the question blank, but warned those
students to alert the department of any drug convictions or risk penalties
for lying on their forms.

Students told officials that they didn't understand the question, did not
think it pertained to them or forgot to answer it, Freeman said.