Judge temporarily blocks restriction on coronavirus aid to Washington college students
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Friday that keeps the Department of Education from enforcing a restriction on aid for Washington state college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Washington State Attorney General filed a lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Spokane, arguing that the restriction keeps the aid from many students in need.
The guidance from the DOE in April said students have to be eligible for federal financial aid to get emergency grants under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The CARES Act designated more than $12 billion to help schools respond to the pandemic, and at least half of that is for emergency grants for students.
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit argued the DOE didn’t have the authority to make the restriction, which he said excludes students who don’t have a high school degree, adult basic education students, students who have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and others.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice’s ruling Friday said in part: “The harm to students that stems from the eligibility restriction is not only the inability to access (the CARES Act) funds; the harm is in the inability to access these emergency funds in a timely manner. Absent injunctive relief, students will continue to be denied access to emergency relief funds to which they are likely otherwise entitled.”
Leaders at Clover Park Technical College in Pierce County said last month that about 500 of its students were affected by the DOE guidance.
The Attorney General’s Office said the state’s roughly 17,000 DACA students were affected by the DOE’s decision, as were students with below a C average.
Many of the nearly 52,000 adult basic education students at Washington’s community and technical colleges, “who are acquiring reading, writing, math and language skills to leverage a job, college degree or a trade certification,” also weren’t eligible for emergency grants under the DOE guidance, the Attorney General’s Office said.
In addition to its guidance in April, the Department of Education said in a statement last week that it was releasing a rule for public comment: “that would help to ensure taxpayer-funded coronavirus relief money is distributed properly and does not go to foreign nationals, non-citizens, and students who may be enrolled in ineligible education programs.”
That statement went on to say: “By aligning student eligibility requirements for emergency financial aid grants under the CARES Act with Title IV eligibility, which dictates which students can receive taxpayer-subsidized student loans or grants, foreign nationals and most other non-citizens would not be eligible ... .”
Ferguson’s lawsuit last month argued in part: “The Department’s Eligibility Restriction is illegal whether it is a legislative or interpretive rule. If it is deemed a substantive rule, it is contrary to the plain meaning of the CARES Act and is contrary to law. If it is deemed an interpretive rule, it improperly imposes binding legal obligations on Washington institutions of higher education that diverge from the CARES Act and purports to have the force of law.”
