[Wsssc] FW: CARES Act Part III: Emergency Financial Aid and The Fight for Racial Equity

Tue Jun 16 16:42:24 PDT 2020

WSSSC: see below and attached, clarification from the AG and our June 3 guidance again, for convenient reference. Sent to FAC just now. I will be briefing your presidents on this tomorrow. We will distribute to Councils and other system groups tomorrow as well. Please let me know if you have any questions. Glad to touch on this on the Thursday call as well.

Ha Nguyen has done outstanding work on this, and we are indebted to Dave Stolier in the AG Office and their litigation team for this outcome. It is a win, for now.

                             [Joe]
[Compass]
Joe Holliday
Director, Student Services
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
jholliday at sbctc.edu<mailto:jholliday at sbctc.edu>* o: 360-704-4334 * f: 360-704-4418
sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>

SBCTC Vision:

"Leading with racial equity, our colleges maximize student potential and transform lives within a culture of belonging that advances racial, social, and economic justice in service to our diverse communities."

From: Ha Nguyen <hnguyen at sbctc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2020 4:33 PM
To: Financial Aid Directors <dirfinaid at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Joe Holliday <jholliday at sbctc.edu>
Subject: CARES Act Part III: Emergency Financial Aid and The Fight for Racial Equity
Importance: High

Hello, FAC Colleagues:

With the help of a collective of system groups, particularly the Financial Aid Directors who shared heartbreaking stories of students who were denied access to the emergency aid grants in the CARES Act, the Washington State Office of the Attorney General recently filed a lawsuit and a motion for preliminary injunction asking a judge to immediately block the Department of Education's (ED) restrictions on the emergency aid grants in the CARES Act: https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-ferguson-challenges-department-education-decision-blocking-coronavirus-aid.

Last Thursday, a federal judge in Spokane agreed with Attorney General Bob Ferguson, blocking ED's decision that deprives thousands of our college students from receiving the critical aid: https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/spokane-judge-agrees-ag-ferguson-stops-department-education-decision-blocking.  At the request of WACTC, we asked Assistant Attorney General, Dave Stolier, three clarifying questions, resulting in the attached information.

I have also attached for convenient reference the most recent guidance from our office on June 3, 2020 regarding the distribution of the CARES Act emergency aid to your students. As confirmed by the Office of the Attorney General, these funds can be distributed to U.S. citizens regardless of whether they are Title IV aid eligible, until further notice. We are confident that expanding access in this way will improve access and retention for students of color and other minoritized student populations.

Thank you endlessly for continuing to work relentlessly on behalf of our students! As always, please feel free to reach out at any time.

Best,
Ha

[Compass]Ha T. Nguyen (she|her|hers)
Policy Associate|Student Services
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
hnguyen at sbctc.edu<mailto:hnguyen at sbctc.edu> * o: 360-704-4319 * c: 253.279.4299
sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>

"Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered.
We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil."
-        Adrienne Maree Brown
_________________________________________________________________________________
                                                        SBCTC Vision
"Leading with racial equity, our colleges maximize student potential and transform lives
within a culture of belonging that advances racial, social, and economic justice
in service to our diverse communities."

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