How Did Colleges Disburse Emergency Aid During COVID-19? An Implementation Analysis of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund

To address the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress authorized the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF I) in March 2020 with over $6 billion allocated for emergency financial aid. In this paper, we utilize the administrative burden framework to analyze HEERF I implem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational researcher 2023-06, Vol.52 (5), p.259-271
Main Authors: Bell, Elizabeth, Schwegman, David, Hand, Michael, DiDomenico, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College students
COVID-19
Education policy
Educational Administration
Educational Equity (Finance)
Emergency Programs
Federal Aid
Federal Legislation
Grants
Higher Education
Institutional Characteristics
Observational studies
Pandemics
Policy
Program Implementation
Resource Allocation
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Summary:To address the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress authorized the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF I) in March 2020 with over $6 billion allocated for emergency financial aid. In this paper, we utilize the administrative burden framework to analyze HEERF I implementation for a stratified random sample of colleges, focusing on the implications for equity. We find that disbursement policies varied along two dimensions: (1) whether they imposed burdens on students by requiring applications and proof of hardship and (2) whether they targeted needy students and varied the amount of aid according to need. When we examine sectoral differences, we find that private for-profit colleges were more likely to place higher burden on students, whereas public and minority-serving institutions were more likely to reduce burden.
ISSN:0013-189X
1935-102X
DOI:10.3102/0013189X231161318