51³Ô¹Ï

While the political landscape in the United States remains tumultuous at best, one area currently enjoying bipartisan support is the movement to standardize and demystify financial aid offers. If you’ve been following 51³Ô¹Ï’s advocacy efforts over the last few years, you’re likely familiar with some of the key pieces of legislation we’ve supported: the Understanding the True Cost of College Act, the College Transparency Act, and the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (SICAA).

For the uninitiated, here are brief descriptions.

Understanding the True Cost of College Act

will require schools to use a standardized financial aid offer letter and remove the word “award” from the document (because $60k in loans isn’t really an award). This will enable students to more easily compare college costs and better understand the aid being offered. According to a , over 30% of colleges currently list loans as grants in their letters.

College Transparency Act

In the same vein of keeping students informed about the enormous investment they are making when choosing to attend a college, will ensure greater transparency regarding student outcomes at postsecondary institutions while securely protecting individual student privacy. Modernizing the reporting system is critical as college costs continue to rise.

Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (SICAA)

, signed into law at the end of 2024, aims to enhance oversight and ensure the safety of youth in residential programs. The legislation mandates the creation of a Federal Work Group on Youth Residential Programs and requires a study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to identify the nature, prevalence, and severity of child abuse, neglect, and deaths in these programs. The collected data will then be used to improve the implementation of best practices. Unfortunately, the funds appropriated for the work group have not been released by the current administration, but the GRC remains hopeful to retain a seat at the table when the time comes to inform the study.

51³Ô¹Ï’s Advocacy Day is typically held in early March, but this year’s later scheduling (on March 25) gave us the opportunity to see the cherry blossoms in bloom, and to learn about recent changes to the legislation. To our great surprise, the timing proved especially beneficial: the Senate’s version of the Understanding the True Cost of College Act was rewritten less than a week before our advocates arrived on the Hill.

Upon initial review of the new language, we were concerned that the Act’s purpose was being dismantled, since the new language removed the requirement for institutions to use a standardized financial aid offer template. However, after closer examination and reflection following a meeting with Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Republicans, we realized the new language serves the same purpose as the standardized template: different costs and aid categories will still be clearly broken down using standardized terminology and elements. Specifically, the new language will require a breakdown of direct costs, indirect costs, gift aid, and loans, in that particular order, enabling students and families to compare items line by line.

The GRC recognizes that these bills will continue to evolve through the legislative process, but the fact that this legislation has bipartisan support and is being actively discussed in both the House and the Senate means there is real momentum behind it.

In total, the 17 IECs who participated in Advocacy Day met with more than 50 congressional offices. 51³Ô¹Ï’s CEO, Stephanie Simpson, also joined a handful of GRC members in meetings with the House Education and Workforce Democrats, the Senate HELP Democrats, the Senate HELP Republicans, and the House Education and Workforce Republicans.

In general, the offices we met with were supportive of these bills. For the first time in decades, there is real momentum in the college transparency space—both the House and Senate’s relevant committees have held hearings on the topic, and both are actively considering and amending bills designed to make college aid letters easier to read and comprehend. Our members learned firsthand that the legislative process can be long, winding, and tricky, but we are using our voice to influence it on behalf of the families we serve. This year, it became clear how important the relationships we’ve built over the years have been: we were recognized, our opinions were sought after, and the advice we offered was considered and incorporated.

There is a role for every 51³Ô¹Ï member as we continue to build momentum for this critically important work. Regardless of your comfort level navigating the policy space, I know each of you brings different skillsets, passions, and capacities. We’d love for you to share how you’d like to get involved so 51³Ô¹Ï can connect you with opportunities that work best for you.