Sponsors (3)
The bill expands and standardizes campus substance-misuse prevention and treatment supports—improving student safety and providing federal guidance—at the cost of modest federal spending and new compliance and operating burdens that could fall on colleges (especially smaller institutions) and potentially on students.
Students at colleges and universities gain expanded access to evidence-based prevention, treatment, recovery, and reentry services on campus.
Colleges and states get federally coordinated guidance and shared best practices (developed with HHS and distributed to HEA grantees), which standardizes effective campus responses and helps institutions adopt proven programs.
Institutions that receive federal student aid are incentivized to maintain prevention programs (and must operate/certify such programs), which can reduce substance-related incidents and improve overall campus safety.
Colleges and universities will incur new costs to develop, run, or expand prevention programs, and those costs could be passed to students through fees or reduced services.
Smaller or resource-constrained institutions may struggle with administrative and compliance burdens required by the bill, risking diversion of resources and potential jeopardy to federal aid eligibility if found noncompliant.
Taxpayers will fund new discretionary costs estimated at $15 million per year for five years beginning FY2027.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires colleges to adopt evidence-based alcohol and substance misuse prevention and recovery programs, expands grant uses, mandates DOE–HHS guidance, and authorizes $15M/yr.
Requires colleges and universities to adopt evidence-based or evidence-informed alcohol and substance misuse prevention and recovery programs, expands what institutional counseling and recovery services must include, and directs the Department of Education to work with HHS to produce best practices and guidance. It broadens allowable federal grant uses to cover recovery supports, integrated care, reentry assistance, overdose prevention and training, authorizes $15 million per year beginning FY2027, adds institutional certification and reporting requirements, and phases in certain requirements two years after enactment.
Introduced January 12, 2026 by Teresa Leger Fernandez · Last progress January 12, 2026