PELL Act of 2025

This bill creates “Workforce Pell Grants” to help people pay for short, job-focused training programs starting with the 2026–2027 school year. Students must already qualify for regular Pell Grants and be enrolled in an approved short-term program. Graduate programs don’t qualify. These grants follow most of the same rules as Pell, and can be prorated for very short programs. You can’t get both a regular Pell and a Workforce Pell at the same time, and the time you use still counts toward your overall Pell limit .

Programs must be 8–15 weeks long and 150–600 hours, not correspondence-only, and tied to high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand jobs in the state. They must lead to a recognized, portable or stackable credential, or to the one credential required for that job, and they must count for credit toward further certificates or degrees. To qualify, programs need at least a 70% completion rate and a 70% job placement rate, and must have been offered for at least one year. Tuition and fees can’t be higher than the program’s “value-added earnings” (how much completers earn above a set poverty benchmark, adjusted for local prices). New programs can get up to three years of provisional approval by providing strong alternate earnings data. Providers also must meet basic quality standards and not be under recent sanctions. These changes take effect July 1, 2026 .

• Who can get it: Students who qualify for Pell and enroll in an approved short-term workforce program; not for graduate students .
• What changes: Adds a new Pell option for short programs, with guardrails on program quality, job outcomes, and tuition vs. earnings; no “double-dipping” with regular Pell; prorated awards allowed for very short programs .
• When it starts: Award year 2026–2027 and beyond; effective July 1, 2026 .