Are Incarcerated Students Housed As Federal Inmates at a Local Detention Center Eligible For Pell Grants Or Direct Loans?

Award Year: 2023-24 KA-36487 Helpfulness Rating 158 page views

This guidance is specific to the 2023-24 award year and later.

An incarcerated student is eligible for a Federal Pell Grant, provided the student is enrolled in an eligible prison education program (PEP). Refer to the final rules published in the October 28, 2022 Federal Register. No student who is incarcerated can receive a Direct Loan. [34 CFR 668.32(c)(3)].

Effective July 1, 2023, a confined or incarcerated individual is defined as “An individual who is serving a criminal sentence in a Federal, State, or local penitentiary, prison, jail, reformatory, work farm, juvenile justice facility, or other similar correctional institution. An individual is not considered incarcerated if that individual is subject to or serving an involuntary civil commitment, in a half-way house or home detention, or is sentenced to serve only weekends.” (See 34 CFR 600.2)

See also GEN-23-05, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) Prison Education Program Questions and Answers website, the ED Confined or Incarcerated Student Fact Sheet, and the Prison Education Programs Topics website.

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