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Fact Sheet

Policy Solutions: Increasing Accessibility in Higher Education for Learners with Disabilities

July 9, 2025

Only 18% of disabled adults over 25 have a bachelor’s degree—half the rate of adults without a disability. With college completion a leading indicator of economic success, this divide contributes to people with disabilities having significantly lower labor participation rates and higher rates of unemployment at 8.2%, compared to 3.9% for people without disabilities. The attainment gap is a result of longstanding barriers to success facing disabled learners from when they first enroll, to having access to the right accommodations throughout their studies and connecting to a career after graduation. By building more inclusive and accessible systems, federal policymakers and higher education leaders can increase college completion and career outcomes for learners with disabilities.

Letter

Sign-on Letter Supporting the Pell Grant

June 6, 2025

CHEPP joined more than 170 signatories from higher education, workforce development, and business sectors calling on Congress to protect and fully fund the Pell Grant, including funding the projected Pell shortfall. The letter explains that any changes to eligibility or cuts to the program would increase costs for the more than seven million students nationally receiving a Pell Grant and result in many students stopping out instead of completing their degree.

Letter

Sign-on Letter to Senate Leadership Opposing Changes in the House-Passed Reconciliation Bill That Would Exacerbate College Students' Basic Needs Gaps and Increase the Cost of College

June 4, 2025

CHEPP joined 62 organizations representing a broad coalition of national and state advocates, institutions of higher education, students, service providers, labor unions, and researchers raising concerns with changes in the House-passed reconciliation bill that would harm college students. The letter opposes the changes to the Pell Grant that would reduce Pell for nearly three million students and result in more than 1.3 million students losing Pell altogether. The letter also opposes the elimination of subsidized student loans and cuts to Medicaid and the SNAP program.

Letter

Sign-on Letter to Congressional Appropriations Committee Leadership Supporting Funding for the Basic Needs Grant in Fiscal Year 2026

May 20, 2025

CHEPP joined 67 organizations, institutions of higher education, advocates, and researchers urging congressional appropriators to include $45 million for the Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Program in the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill. Nationally, 23% of undergraduate students experience food insecurity, and nearly 1 in 10 are housing insecure. This grant program provides essential funding for colleges to provide more comprehensive supports to students so their basic needs are met and they are able to stay enrolled and graduate. Students at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) who received just-in-time grants from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) during the COVID-19 pandemic were as much as 15 percent more likely to stay enrolled the following semester.