CLIENT ALERT: The COVID-19 Funds Provide Emergency Grants for College Students even if they are Responding to Sexual Misconduct under Title IX
CLIENT ALERT
The COVID-19 Stimulus Legislation Includes Emergency Financial Aid Funds for College Students as a Grant
Whether you are a respondent or a complainant in a Title IX student misconduct process, the COVID-19 crisis-response legislation provides you with a chance to receive a small emergency direct loan to you—for your expenses, not for your tuition.
Remember, a school that denies you funds or otherwise mistreats your financial aid requests or applications because you are responding to sexual misconduct is a school that is discriminating and retaliating against you. See, e.g., https://www.studentmisconduct.com/news/male-respondents-to-sexual-misconduct-and-coronavirus-client-alert and https://www.studentmisconduct.com/news/client-alert-when-do-the-new-title-ix-rules-start-and-do-they-help-men-under-investigation-for-sexual-harassment
YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY APPLY TO YOUR FINANCIAL AID OFFICE FOR MONEY FROM THE CARES ACT’S HIGHER EDUCATION EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND.
The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund covers expenses that are your own and include those you did not anticipate because who in today’s world could have anticipated a COVID-19 full blown crisis? (That is sarcasm, of course the WHO, the Gates Foundation, and the Obama Administration anticipated this. Several movies did as well).
So, for example, if you need help for something as expensive as long-distance learning computer equipment, or something as basic as food, this grant is for you. See, e.g., https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/caresact.html
Even if your FAFSA determination includes a EFC, STILL APPLY!
Your family, also, is experiencing financial turmoil from unanticipated COVID-19 expenses. Their income—which yielded the EFC—has changed.
The Federal Department of Education gave the grant money to your financial aid office. It is up to them to pick and chose which students get it first. But no student who does not apply will get it. In addition the ever popular Secretary of Education, Betsy de Vos, has made it clear that the money is for real life needs you have as you adapt to the COVID-19 life, as opposed to for helping you pay overpriced tuition, room or board fees:
See, “The CARES Act provides institutions with significant discretion on how to award this emergency assistance to students. This means that each institution may develop its own system and process for determining how to allocate these funds, which may include distributing the funds to all students or only to students who demonstrate significant need. The only statutory requirement is that the funds be used to cover expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to Coronavirus (including eligible expenses under a student’s cost of attendance, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care).” [Emphasis added].
Available at:
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/caresactgrantfundingcoverletterfinal.pdf
Even the IRS is on your side on this one. The money can be used for things as basic as food and it is not income—that means it is not going on your tax forms and thus it will not count against you for next year’s financial aid determinations.
See, Q1: I am a student who received an emergency financial aid grant under section 3504, 18004, or 18008 of the CARES Act for unexpected expenses, unmet financial need, or expenses related to the disruption of campus operations on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Is this grant includible in my gross income?
A1: No. Emergency financial aid grants under the CARES Act for unexpected expenses, unmet financial need, or expenses related to the disruption of campus operations on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as unexpected expenses for food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, or childcare, are qualified disaster relief payments under section 139 of the Internal Revenue Code. This grant is not includible in your gross income.
Finally, this client alert was necessary, because the press and the schools have focused on how much money they received (or would have liked to have received) from the CARES Act—but that’s money to fund their operations, not money to help their students pay for things like food. Under the CARES Act schools have received billions in subsidies. For example, in Philadelphia, $95 million of CARES funds got distributed already so the schools can keep going:
CARES Act funding for Philly area colleges (in $1,000s)
Arcadia 2,563
Bryn Mawr 1,023
CCP 16,102
Drexel 13,179
Haverford 874
Holy Family 2,024
La Salle 4,277
Moore 442
Penn 9,908
St. Joe's 2,796
Swarthmore 1,201
Temple 28,740
Thomas Jefferson 4,240
University of the Arts 1,826
USciences 1,476
Villanova 4,299
This money is completely different from the money that you as a student in any of these schools can receive through a Cares Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund grant.
SO APPLY NOW!
Raul Jauregui
Jauregui Law Firm
I am an attorney and I defend mostly respondents of sexual misconduct in colleges or universities. This is absolutely not my legal opinion or my legal advice, but rather survey of the Title IX topic. If you’re in this situation, in any way, consult a lawyer now.
As posted in Quora: