Overview:

College enrollments have been declining for nearly a decade, causing colleges and states to identify strategies that retain students who enroll, and help them complete their program. A lack of resources to pay for food, housing, child care, or other needs is a significant life circumstance that can get in the way of a student successfully completing college. CLASP has written extensively, and provided assistance to states, about alleviating these challenges by improving students’ access to public benefits programs. As a continuation of this work, we developed a survey to help states evaluate their internal capacity, and where there is both interest in, and opportunities for, policy change. Because these issues are intersectional, both higher education and human services in a given state must play a role in the survey process. As such, separate (but closely aligned) surveys have been developed for each. We hope this design will allow the participating agencies to come together to discuss their ideas in a collaborative manner. Complete instructions for the surveys can be found on the survey’s first page. For any questions, please contact Lauren Walizer (lwalizer@clasp.org).

Resources:

Higher Education Survey: Increasing College Student Economic Security and Success through Public Benefits
This self-assessment survey is for those in state higher education agencies who are interested in expanding community college student access to public benefits, have a general understanding of current policies and practices, and have a sense of key stakeholders’ interest in increasing public benefits for college students. The tool builds a shared understanding of a state’s current climate and goals as well as potential areas of opportunity.
 
Human Services Agency Survey: Increasing College Student Economic Security and Success through Public Benefits  
This self-assessment survey is for those in state human services agencies who are interested in expanding community college student access to public benefits, have a general understanding of current policies and practices, and have a sense of key stakeholders’ interest in increasing public benefits for college students. The tool builds a shared understanding of a state’s current climate and goals as well as potential areas of opportunity.

State Options to Increase College Student Access to Public Benefits
This document discusses a range of policy and practice options that states can undertake to increase college student access to public benefits. It is intended to stimulate state discussion, research, planning, partnership building, and action.