How Many College Students in Your State Have Lost Financial Aid Due to Drug Convictions?

Download SSDP's State-by-State Report.

Nearly 200,000 would-be college students from around the country have been stripped of their financial aid just because they have drug convictions. Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) obtained state-by-state information as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit settlement with the U.S. Department of Education. SSDP's state-by-state report is available for download. You can also read SSDP's lawsuit against the Department of Education.

Get the Raw Data

To see the excel spreadsheet obtained and compiled by SSDP, click here. Note that there are multiple tabs in the file - one for each year, one showing the total across all years, and two graphs.

What's Wrong with the Aid Elimination Penalty?

• The law punishes individuals twice for the same infraction. Affected students have already been dealt with by the criminal justice system. Taking away their access to education after they’ve already paid their debt to society is unnecessary. This violates the "double jeopardy" clause of the Fifth Amendment.

• Putting up roadblocks on the path to education does nothing to solve our nation’s drug and crime problems; it only makes them worse. Forcing students convicted of drug charges to drop out of school makes them more likely to fall into drug abuse or commit crimes (thus becoming costly burdens on the criminal justice system) and less likely to become productive taxpaying citizens (thus reducing the nation’s economic productivity). Congress has no rational basis to attach student aid eligibility to drug convictions, especially since murderers, rapists, burglars, and arsonists can still receive financial aid. This violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment's "due process" clause.

• The law hurts only students from low- and middle-income families – the very same people federal financial aid programs are intended to assist. Students from wealthier families can afford to pay for tuition without public assistance and can frequently afford the cost of a lawyer to avoid a drug conviction in the first place.

• The law disproportionately affects people of color. Because of racial profiling and the discriminatory enforcement of drug laws, the aid ban is keeping minorities out of school at a much higher rate than the general population.

• The law only affects hardworking and determined students who are doing well in school, since there are already minimum GPA requirements for receiving financial aid.

• More than 250 organizations have called for the full repeal of the law, including the National Education Association, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, the Association for Addiction Professionals, the NAACP, and the United States Student Association.

Want More Information on the Aid Elimination Penalty?

Check out SSDP's HEA Aid Elimination Penalty campaigns page for more detailed background information. Also have a look at SSDP's most recent press releases and media hits.