The Obama administration has set out new guidelines that allow for students sentenced to juvenile correctional facilities to be eligible for federal Pell grants.
The U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice sent out a joint release Monday that clarified an earlier law.
Congress in 1994 prohibited inmates at federal and state prisons from receiving Pell Grants in response to a rapidly rising national crime rate.
The new guidance is the first time this law has been amended for these students.
The policy only applies to Pell Grants. No inmate, even those a juvenile detention centers, is eligible for federal student loans, according to the release.
The change is a part of a push by the Obama administration to lower recidivism rates and to raise the number of college graduates in the U.S.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that access to higher education, which the Pell grant will allow for, helps reduce the chance that young people will re-enter the criminal justice system.
“Young people should not fall off-track for life just because they come into contact with the justice system,” Duncan said in the release.
There was no information available Tuesday about how a discussed cut to Pell grant funding in next year’s budget would impact this new guideline.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has proposed taking $303 million from the Pell grant program to pay private student loan servicers in this year’s spending bill, a move that would likely leave the program mired in debt within a year.
