This brief summarizes five key lessons aimed at strengthening the support institutions provide to help students in accessing public benefits and basic needs supports. Insights from the pilot learning engagement highlight the potential and the complexity of outreach efforts to connect eligible students with public benefits. Drawing on practitioner…

Appendix C includes publicly available data at the district level for all school districts within at least one Regional Challenge Grant (RCG) partnership's service region. The included data capture key outcomes and student sub-groups identified in RCW 28B.120.060. Specifically, district-level high school graduation rates, direct to college…

Appendix A includes publicly available data at the district level for all school districts within at least one RCG partnership's service region, as required by RCW 28B.120.060. Specifically, district-level high school graduation rates, direct to college enrollment rates, and college completion rates overall and by race/ethnicity, FRPL status, and…

This document discusses a range of policy and practice options that states can undertake to increase college student access to public benefits. The Center for Law and Social Policy, Inc. (CLASP) has leveraged its hands-on policy and cross-issue technical assistance expertise to identify these options. Many states have already implemented one or…

Tennessee is at the vanguard of the free-college movement. Launched in 2015, Tennessee Promise makes technical and community colleges tuition-free for recent high school graduates in the state. With the addition of Tennessee Reconnect in 2018, adult students can attend tuition-free as well. The efforts of the state's leadership, especially its…

Higher education can help improve Washington residents' outcomes so they will have the opportunity to lead productive and financially rewarding lives and contribute to the economic success and social wellbeing of the state. But the COVID-19 crisis is having a major impact on higher education, and postsecondary enrollment in Washington was down 13…