DRUG CONVICTIONS HURT STUDENTS SEEKING FINANCIAL AID

Thanks to a new law, 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 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 first
conviction on a drug-possession charge, and two years for a second
conviction. They can be suspended indefinitely for a third conviction.

About 790,000 applicants initially failed to answer the question of 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.

"Everyone will agree it could have been done better," she said. She said
the question will be simpler and more direct on next year's form.

Kristi Ringor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Students Association in
Washington, said her organization fought the policy and remains opposed to it.

"It denies access to education to those who need it most," she said. "It is
not a sound anti-drug policy."

The drug-conviction restriction was imposed by Congress when it renewed the
Higher Education Act in 1998. The provision denies aid to students who have
been convicted in state or federal court of possessing or selling drugs.