Compliantly Prioritizing Students with Exceptional Need

In the recent HEERF III guidance,  the Department of Education (ED) showed a commitment to ensuring all students who are in need of financial assistance have access to it through the vehicle of emergency aid.  While the guidance is a clear victory for students, it has put considerable pressure on institutions to understand how to identify and prioritize students with exceptional need. 

According to the Department of Education, 1 in 5 Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) has previously targeted students based on Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data and Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) to overcome this administrative burden and create an easy mechanism to process emergency aid. However, with ED opening up eligibility criteria and explicitly pushing institutions to consider all students, it’s clear that the urge to use FAFSA data or EFC as a proxy for exceptional need now puts institutions at risk for being out of compliance. 

At Beam, formerly Edquity, we celebrate the Department’s move as we have seen the toll the pandemic has taken on the lives of the students we serve on behalf of our college and community partners. We know using FAFSA data doesn’t account for the radical life changes many students have experienced during the pandemic and often misses students, like undocumented students, DACA students, or other marginalized students who struggle to complete the FAFSA, who are truly facing a challenge that a small infusion of cash at the right time could help them resolve. The reliance on EFC information also doesn’t reflect the student’s current reality and doesn’t capture hardships brought on by the pandemic.

To best understand the evolving nature of students' basic needs insecurity, a scoring rubric methodology supported by evidence-based research allows our partners to assess the depth of a students need in real time. We’ve helped our partners understand the unique challenges students are facing across six dimensions: housing, transportation, food, childcare, learning resources, health & safety. The depth of student challenges reassures federal compliance by mapping emergency aid applications into three tiers:

• Students with high exceptional needs are the most vulnerable population. They are most likely to have many basic needs insecurities across issue areas that are stacked up simultaneously. These students should be prioritized first for emergency funding. We recommend that student support teams follow up with them when possible as these students face the greatest barriers to graduate.
  

• Students with exceptional needs face at least one major barrier impacting college persistence. These students are worth engaging with continuously as their challenges may re-appear or deepen, even after funding.
  

• Students in need of support but may be better assisted through non-monetary means or essential community-based resources. These students may face some basic needs challenges but it does not impact their likelihood to drop out of college. Their levels of need are lower but their situations could change quickly in the coming weeks, especially with the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  

In assessing students’ hardships in this way, Beam's methodology allows institutions to consider all students and prioritize exceptional need in a consistent and scalable manner that allows for decision making in as little as 24 hours, offering a compliant, equitable, and effective approach to administering emergency aid.  

With such a historic opportunity to support student persistence, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to get this right. Ensure your institution is compliant and has a proven methodology in place to understand how to reach and assess your most vulnerable students.