The Second Chance Pell Initiative enables incarcerated students to participate in post-secondary education programs through Pell Grant funding. This expansion is part of the Biden administration’s comprehensive strategy, developed in June 2021, to address gun violence and ensure public safety through successful reentry programs.
The Obama-Biden administration launched the initial Second Chance Pell Initiative in 2015. This program partnered 67 colleges and universities with more than 100 federal and state correctional institutions to offer educational and training programs to approximately 12,000 incarcerated individuals.
In December 2020, Congress moved to lift the long-standing ban on access to Pell Grants for formerly incarcerated persons in the fiscal year 2021 Omnibus bill. In July 2021, the Department of Education expanded the Second Chance Pell experiment for the 2022-2023 award year, allowing up to 200 colleges and universities to access support from the Pell Grant Program in order to provide prison education programs, an increase from the 131 colleges and universities that are currently participating.
The expansion of eligibility for the Second Chance Pell Initiative will allow selected colleges and universities to partner with federal and state penal institutions in nearly every state. Educational institutions include historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions and the majority of the selected schools are public institutions (both two and four-year programs). A list of the new institutions invited to participate in the program can be found here.
In a press release, the White House stated its intention to “offer opportunities for meaningful employment to the more than 600,000 people that leave prison every year.” Furthermore, the White House acknowledged that “advancing successful reentry outcomes makes our communities safer, disrupts cycles of economic hardship, and strengthens our economy.”
In a Department of Education press release, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona stated that “The expansion of Second Chance Pell and these new pathways out of default are critical steps for incarcerated individuals to be able to access educational opportunities that will provide second chances to build a future.”
