This Electronic Announcement provides guidance to institutions of higher education performing the required reporting for a Prison Education Program (PEP). Specifically, the Electronic Announcement identifies the two reporting mechanisms used to provide information to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) about the institution’s PEPs and the students enrolled in those programs. It also provides guidance to institutions to share PEP approval with accrediting agencies and oversight entities.
In ED’s Dec. 3, 2024, PEP Guidance Letter to Accrediting Agencies, we announced a plan to update the notification process that will inform institutions to provide a copy of their approval documents to the accrediting agency. This Electronic Announcement serves as that notification to schools.
When we approve a PEP, we send the institution an approval letter or an approval notice and an Eligibility and Certification Approval Report (ECAR) that lists the PEP and its initial approval date. The institution should provide a copy of these approval documents to the accrediting agency and the oversight entity. This will inform them of when the Best Interest Determination time frame starts and of their respective responsibilities. For more information about Best Interest Determinations, see Electronic Announcement GEN-26-23.
The FAFSA Simplification Act, passed on Dec. 27, 2020, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, made important changes to the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), including restoring Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) eligibility for confined or incarcerated students who enroll in an eligible PEP. We provided an overview of the requirements for an eligible PEP in Dear Colleague Letter GEN-23-05. The regulations under 34 CFR 668 govern awarding a Pell Grant to confined or incarcerated individuals and specify a process for institutions to follow for their PEP to retain such Pell Grant eligibility.
Among those requirements to maintain Pell Grant eligibility, PEPs must annually report to ED specific information about the individual students receiving Pell Grants, as well as additional information about the PEP itself. There are two aspects to this required reporting:
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Institutions must provide information about every Pell Grant awarded to a student enrolled in a PEP. This is accomplished using a template through the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website (cod.ed.gov). By completing this report, institutions link additional information about the student receiving a Pell Grant to the data reported in COD, which includes data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form. Both the template and the method to submit the completed report are available in COD.
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Institutions also must complete a school survey that collects information about the schools’ PEP(s) offerings themselves. This survey covers a range of topics, such as the challenges the institution faced when offering its PEP, student transfer and release data, the types of services being provided to incarcerated students, and how satisfactorily the “best interests” of incarcerated students are being monitored. ED will contact PEP institutions with instructions to access the institution survey portion of the required annual PEP reporting.
Institutions are asked to complete both the report in COD and the institution survey about students enrolled in their PEP(s) in the 2025–26 award year by Dec. 31, 2026. ED is exploring improvements to the PEP reporting mechanisms for subsequent award years with a goal of streamlining reporting into one system and process. We will announce any changes to PEP reporting instructions when appropriate.
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Prison Education Program Topics page on the Knowledge Center
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The FSA Training Center has a seven-section, on-demand course on prison education programs.
If you have questions about PEP reporting, email PEP@ed.gov.