DRUG HISTORY PUTS CRIMP IN STUDENT AID

Prior Convictions Ruin Eligibility For Many Seeking Help With College
Expenses

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 yesterday.

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

At the University of Washington, no student has been turned down for
financial aid because of prior drug convictions, said Ernest Morris, UW vice
president for student affairs.

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.

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 of possessing or selling drugs.