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The Recovery Bill of Rights
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Campaigns: Financial Aid for All Students
Eligibility for financial aid was restored to all students with prior drug convictions in an important victory for recovery advocates in 2006. In a Faces & Voices of Recovery press release Merlyn Karst, chair of the Faces & Voices of Recovery Board of Directors said, ““We applaud this important first step in making financial aid available to all Americans. It will increase the availability of aid to thousands of people, many of whom are in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.”
Repeal of the ban on federal financial aid to students with drug convictions is one element of Faces & Voices of Recovery’s Right to Addiction Recovery platform. The victory comes after years of work by recovery advocates and their allies since the ban was passed in 1998. Since then over 100,000 students have been denied aid, many of them in recovery. Efforts are underway to achieve total repeal of the provision.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Let people know about their right to student financial aid.
1. Put up our flyer where people in recovery and their family members will see it – at Recovery Centers, treatment centers and other places where the recovery community gathers.
2. Put articles in newspapers and on your listservs.
How the New Law Works
Students can receive aid unless they are convicted of a drug felony or misdemeanor while in school. Students convicted while receiving federal aid will remain ineligible – for one year for a first possession offense, two years for a second and indefinitely for a third, with harsher penalties for sales.
if you have a prior drug conviction or know of someone who has one and is thinking about going back to school, talk with a financial aid counselor at the school you would like to attend about filling out the FAFSA financial aid form.
Faces & Voices continues to work for full repeal. Under the law, students convicted while receiving federal aid will still lose their eligibility – for one year for a first possession offense, two years for a second and indefinitely for a third, with harsher penalties for selling. We will also continue to work to remove the drug conviction question from the financial aid form.