February 9, 2006

At least 175,000 people are denied federal financial aid due to prior drug offenses according to a recent article in Yahoo News. However, the Budget Reconciliation Act that was just passed has provided a provision to allow students who have drug offenses a new chance at federal student financial aid.

The provision is targeted at older non-traditional students. Federal Financial aid forms began requesting information on convictions in the year 2000. Individual states vary in how their policies for distributing aid to drug offenders.