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The Department of Education has begun to notify students who attended closed institutions -- including Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute -- that their lifetime Pell Grant eligibility will be restored.
Democratic senators, led by Washington Senator Patty Murray, have pushed the department since last fall to grant students who attended those institutions the ability to get additional Pell funding so they could attend another university. After previously insisting that federal law did not give the department authority to restore Pell eligibility, the department in October said it would do so after all, citing a provision of the Higher Education Act identified by Murray.
In an update posted to the website of the Office of Federal Student Aid Monday, the department said it will begin to identify students who received a Pell Grant to attend a closed school and who were not reported in the National Student Loan Data System as having graduated. The department will adjust those students' lifetime Pell eligibility to remove the portion awarded to attend a closed school, the update said.
"This is an important step to provide relief to students, but it can’t be the last one -- and I am going to keep pushing this administration to put students and borrowers ahead of for-profit colleges and Wall Street investors," Murray said in a statement.
