Sponsors (2)
Official title: Authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to create evidence-based student success programs designed to increase participation, retention, and completion rates of high-need students.
Introduced June 11, 2026 by Martin Heinrich · Last progress June 11, 2026
The bill directs new, evidence-focused support toward high-need and tribal students and strengthens accountability, but does so at a fiscal cost and with program rules and evidence demands that may favor better‑resourced institutions and reduce funds available to some other programs and recipients.
High-need students (low-income, first-generation, caregivers, students with disabilities, stopped-out, justice-impacted, and military-connected) would receive expanded, evidence-based supports at participating colleges to help enroll, persist, and complete degrees.
Colleges, consortia, and nonprofits would have clearer eligibility rules and guidance — including an explicit, inclusive seven-category definition of 'high-need' — making it easier to target services to the students who need them.
The program establishes a three-tier evidence framework and requires evaluations and a final report to Congress, promoting use of stronger, tested interventions and generating accountability and useful evidence about what increases completion.
Under-resourced students and colleges risk being left out because narrow cross-references, formal 'high-need' labels, tiered evidence priorities, and grant competition favor better-resourced institutions and those with evaluation/grant-writing capacity.
A portion of appropriations is reserved or used for set-asides (a tribal reservation and up to 7% for administration, evaluation, and technical assistance), which reduces the dollars directly available for student services and grants to non‑tribal entities.
Expanding targeted programs and reserved funding increases federal spending or requires reallocations, raising taxpayer costs and potentially reducing funds available for other programs under the Act (including a 2% annual reservation noted for tribal funding).
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes FY2027–FY2032 competitive grants to fund evidence‑tiered reforms that increase participation, retention, and completion for high‑need postsecondary students, with set‑asides for Tribal entities and tier‑3 projects.
Creates a competitive grant program for FY2027–FY2032 that funds evidence-based activities to boost participation, retention, and completion for "high-need" postsecondary students. Grants go to public colleges, consortia, and nonprofit partnerships, with a permanent 2% set-aside for Tribal College governing entities and a minimum 20% set-aside for projects that include the strongest evidence (tier 3) reforms. Applications must describe evidence-tiered reforms, benchmarks, evaluation plans, Pell/ demographic data, and sustainability. The Department of Education may set aside small portions for administration, research, and technical assistance, must fund program evaluations, and must report results to relevant congressional committees within 18 months after enactment.