In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor invited postsecondary institutions to participate in an experiment to learn how federal financial aid might be used to cover the costs of prior learning assessment (PLA). PLA is the process of evaluating a student's prior workplace and experiential learning for academic credit. While the experiment is still underway, several of the participating institutions are finding that the regulatory waivers permitted through the experiment are making it possible for more students to successfully use this alternative pathway to credit-earning. This is an important early result of the experiment, which can help to inform Congress as it considers the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The experiment provides a useful blueprint for what effective policy changes to the regulatory and statutory limits around PLA in Title IV may look like. This brief highlights some of the same experiences and successful results of the experiment so far, while also pointing to how this new application of federal financial aid might be best supported if available nationwide.