The Effectiveness of Emergency Aid Programs

Title: How Well Do College Emergency Aid Micro-Grant Programs Work?

Authors: Tristan Stein and Natalie Butler

Source: The Bipartisan Policy Center

Recognizing that financial obstacles can disrupt a student’s academic journey, many institutions have implemented emergency aid programs that provide grants, usually of less than $2,500 and often much smaller, to students to address these immediate expenses.

Many institutions of higher education are seeking to help students, who face many unexpected costs and life events, including medical issues, childcare arrangements, housing and more, address their needs. During the pandemic, over 18 million students received emergency aid support from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund as part of the CARES Act. A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center analyzes different emergency aid programs, with an emphasis on understanding how they impact students’ completion and retention.

Key details from the June 2024 report are summarized below:

Understanding emergency aid: Emergency aid programs have wide ranges of definitions for “emergency,” as well as different goals, eligibility criteria, application processes, and coverage of expenses. Most programs focus on giving funds to students that have experienced financial shocks—Austin Community College, as an example, has a dedicated aid fund that helps students experiencing unforeseen financial emergencies or events that may disrupt their education.

Effectiveness of emergency aid: Research studies that analyze the causal impact of emergency aid and micro-grants have mixed results on their effectiveness in improving retention and completion. However, the sole randomized control trial on emergency aid, from the University of Notre Dame, found that students who receive emergency aid alongside comprehensive support services such as mentoring and academic coaching are much more likely to persist and graduate. Specifically, students who received both case management services and emergency aid were 25 percentage points more likely to remain enrolled and 16 percentage points more likely to earn an associate degree.

Advancing emergency aid: Although research on the impact of emergency aid is mixed, researchers report that the mixed results may stem in large part from differences in program design and implementation. Both the experiences of those working with students and academic research suggest that emergency aid is more effective when it is part of a larger holistic support system for students.

To read the full report from the Bipartisan Policy Center, click here.

—Austin Freeman