Brief
Lessons from the CARES Act and the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
Evaluation of the CARES Act’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
Overview
Under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020, Congress created the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) as the first-ever federal emergency aid program in higher education.
MDRC, in collaboration with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, evaluated the distribution of emergency aid under the CARES Act. Lessons from the rollout of this program can provide insights and best practices for policymakers and practitioners interested in developing future emergency aid programs at the federal, state, or institutional level.
Additional Project Details
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) and their members collaborated with MDRC to evaluate and assess the distribution of emergency aid made available to colleges under the CARES Act. Specifically, the project sought to answer the following research questions:
- What were the successes and challenges related to the allocation, application, and distribution of CARES Act funds to institutions, including timing, communication, and processes?
- Which essential roles and functions are needed to award and disburse the emergency aid at the institutional level, and what patterns emerged in the strategies institutions used to distribute their CARES Act and subsequent emergency aid funds?
- What measures did colleges take to ensure they allocated money and resources quickly and equitably, and which strategies were deemed most effective in ensuring students who most needed the funds received them?
- How did institutions commonly allocate CARES Act emergency grants to meet their institutional needs and support their institutional goals?
- How did students use the funds they received? Did students report feeling these funds helped them continue their education, and/or did they identify additional needs?
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
Primary data collection activities for this project included document reviews, an online survey of about 450 college administrators involved in their institutions’ emergency aid programs, two forums with smaller groups of administrators, and four focus groups with college students attending several public and private four-year institutions.
