NEW LAW ON OLD DRUG BUSTS HAUNTS APPLICANTS FOR STUDENT AID

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 that they are ineligible for some or all
federal financial aid because of a law that took effect with the 2000-2001
academic year. Under the law, 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.

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.

When they filled out their applications for aid, about 790,000 students
failed to answer the question of whether they had been convicted of using
drugs. After the Education Department contacted many of those applicants,
the number of those not answering the question fell 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.