Centering Student Voice: Engagement, Leadership, and Community Building for Incarcerated Students
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
By: Patrick Rodriguez, Director, Georgia Coalition for Higher Education in Prison
Reading time: 6 minutes 
When Pell Grants were removed for incarcerated learners in 1994, prison education programs across the country nearly vanished overnight. The reinstatement of Pell
through the FAFSA Simplification Act is more than a policy shift, it’s the restoration of an educational pipeline that can help people inside transform their futures and communities for years to come. However, opening the door to classrooms alone
isn’t enough. The legislation also requires, and rightfully so, that incarcerated students are engaged beyond the classroom, through academic and career advising. So, how can the prison education community ensure that programs are meeting the
requirements in full by building out robust pathways for advising and leadership development that mirror the best of what campuses offer? Read on to learn more.
Regulations & Requirements
Education in prisons has too often been reduced to credit hours and seat time. Yet, real learning and long-term transformation happens when students are treated as whole people and not just “offenders” or “inmates.” The FAFSA Simplification Act requires that colleges offering Prison Education Programs (PEPs) provide academic and career advising services comparable to those available on the main campus. The
law explicitly states that programs must provide: “relevant academic and career advising services to participating confined or incarcerated individuals while they are confined or incarcerated, in advance of reentry, and upon release.”
Federal regulations also require PEPs to demonstrate that students have equal access to these services and that there is meaningful consultation with stakeholders, including the students themselves, corrections partners, faculty, and community voices. In practice, this means advising must go beyond course registration, to ensure that students understand degree pathways, transfer credits, licensure requirements, plans for employment, and that they are prepared to navigate the transition home. College access and success (CAS) programs with experience advising students who are incarcerated or recently released may have a unique and important perspective to add to the PEP approval process. They should consult with state leaders to ask if they can participate in the approval process as key community stakeholders.
To gain and maintain approval as a PEP, an institution must consult with the “oversight entity”—either the state department of corrections, the Bureau of Prisons, or the agency that oversees the facility. The PEP must engage stakeholders, including incarcerated students, correctional staff, faculty, employers, and community partners, when designing the program and its advising services. Programs are also required to demonstrate equivalency, by showing how advising, library access, career counseling, and other supports match or exceed what’s offered to students on the main campus.
Lastly, PEPs must also undergo a “best interest determination,” at least every two years, where the oversight entity reviews whether the program is effectively serving students’ educational and employment outcomes, including, but not limited to credit transfer, job placement, earnings, and recidivism rates. The programs have a responsibility to support students in a way that pushes them beyond credit hours and prepares them for reintegration back into the community, while the state-level agencies must ensure that students are getting an education that is in the best interest of the student and mirrors campus equivalents. By partnering with college access and success programs, PEPs may be better positioned to demonstrate that they are meeting the statutory requirements.
Partnerships in Practice
There are numerous ways that college access and student support programs can partner with PEPs to achieve the goals outlined in the law. Here are some examples:
- Advising teams can visit correctional facilities regularly to hold one-on-one or group degree planning sessions. Practitioners can help to ensure that students are staying on track with their coursework and that they are making meaningful progress towards a degree program, while receiving the financial support for which they are eligible. These engagements may be virtual or hybrid depending on the facility in which the PEP is functioning, creating a network of trusted support for course planning, and laying the groundwork for successful credit transfer and reentry navigation.
- Post-release advising, including from reentry success coaches, dedicated transfer liaisons, or financial aid experts, can help students enroll in continued degree programs, secure housing, find jobs, and complete FAFSA paperwork. Many college access programs are already well-suited to fill this role, as they have extensive experience guiding students through financial aid applications and supporting students to excel in a variety of postsecondary pathways. College access programs often partner with other community based organizations (CBOs), creating a broader network of resources from which students can benefit.
Both of these types of support may be provided by college access non-profit organizations. These partnerships not only enhance advising and reentry support, but also program sustainability and community engagement, as many CAS programs are well-connected, and work in partnership with other community-based organizations. PEP’s can fulfill federal requirements around stakeholder consultation and holistic student support by partnering with college access nonprofits and implementing localized and responsive services that complement academic advising, in turn, creating a more robust and student-centered educational ecosystem.
Student Engagement in Action: Program Examples
Programs like the Husky Post-Prison Pathways
initiative provide a continuum of support post-release, bridging advising, peer support, and reentry navigation to help students finish degrees and build stable lives. At Cal State Fullerton’s Project Rebound
, the leadership pipeline is crystal clear: formerly incarcerated students step into executive roles, shaping the future for those who come after them. Both of these programs are examples of what can be done to provide meaningful leadership opportunities
and engage students outside of the classroom. These kinds of collaborations can help to ensure that PEPs meet federal requirements and deliver holistic, student-centered support before and after release.
Project Rebound, led by Executive Director Dr. James “JC” Cavitt, offers a powerful example of why representation matters. As Cavitt notes, “Empowering formerly incarcerated people to lead is where this movement needs to go.” For too long, the work relied on allies; today, lived experience is essential to guiding programs' direction and purpose. When system-impacted individuals hold meaningful leadership roles, they bring hope, model what is possible, and strengthen the pipeline for those who follow. Project Rebound reflects this belief in practice: all executive leadership positions are held by formerly incarcerated people. Leaders who served decades inside and are now running programs, earning advanced degrees, and reshaping the narrative of what happens post-release. Their example sends a clear message to students: “It tells them, ‘If they can do it, so can I,’” says Dr. Cavitt. “That’s powerful.”
What’s Next?
Taken together, the FAFSA Simplification Act and its regulations signal a clear shift: advising and student engagement are not optional—they are foundational to program approval and essential to long-term student success. The reinstatement of Pell is not the finish line but the starting line for building higher education that truly centers justice-impacted students as scholars, leaders, and community builders. Fully realizing this promise requires PEP advising pathways that match campus-based supports and meaningful opportunities for students to shape and lead their learning communities. At its core, this work demands more than academic access; it requires learning environments that restore dignity, build skills, and prepare students for thriving futures, both inside and post-release.
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(Photo credit: Complete College America Photo Library)
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