Education Dept. Bars Aid To Students Who Fail To Answer Drug Question

The Education Department will no longer allow colleges to provide federal
financial aid to students who do not respond to a question on their
financial-aid application forms that asks whether they have "ever been
convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs."

Last year department officials, fearing disruption in the distribution of
aid, allowed students who did not answer the question to receive financial
aid, because of confusion over its wording. In the first several weeks of
processing aid applications last year, the department found that almost 20
percent of applicants -- about 140,000 students -- had left the question
unanswered. (See an article from The Chronicle, March 3, 2000.)

Over the summer, the department designed surveys and assembled focus groups
of aid administrators to rewrite the question to make it more clear. This
year students have to answer "yes" or "no" to the question of prior drug
convictions on their aid applications. Last year, applicants had to respond
with numbers representing a range of criminality, for example answering "1"
indicated that they had no prior convictions. The application form also now
clearly states, "Do not leave this question blank."

In an action letter sent late last month to aid administrators, Greg Woods,
the chief operating officer of the department's Office of Student Financial
Assistance, said that although "we believed that these changes would
drastically reduce the number of nonresponses, we decided to maintain the
same treatment until we were sure."

Over the first 12 weeks of processing aid applications this year, Mr. Woods
said, his office has found that the question has been left blank on fewer
than half of 1 percent of the more than three million applications it has
reviewed so far.

"The early indication is that the changes to the drug conviction question
have eliminated the confusion applicants experienced last year," Mr. Woods
wrote. "We believe that the relatively small number of nonresponses means
that together we can manage this important student eligibility issue."

Student activists, who are trying to galvanize campus opposition to the law
that blocks financial aid from going to those convicted of drug offenses,
worry that the department's action will harm a greater number of students.
"We expect to see a dramatic escalation in the number of students
affected," says David Borden, executive director of the Drug Reform
Coordination Network, a nonprofit group that works to liberalize
drug-sentencing rules and other drug policies. Last year, about 9,000 of
the 10 million students who applied for aid for the current academic year
were found ineligible.

Congress imposed the drug-conviction restriction when it renewed the Higher
Education Act in 1998. Eligibility may be suspended for one year for a
first conviction on a drug-possession charge, two years for a second
conviction, and indefinitely for a third. A student can regain eligibility
by completing a drug-rehabilitation program or by winning a reversal of the
conviction or having it set aside. (See an article from The Chronicle,
April 30, 1999.)

In his letter, Mr. Woods wrote that from now on, applicants who leave the
question blank this year will receive notices from the department telling
them that they must respond to the question to remain eligible for federal
aid. Students will be able to answer the question by phone, by correcting
their application online, or by responding on their student-aid reports,
forms that explain to applicants how much aid they are eligible to receive,
and mailing them back to the department.