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The Biden-Harris Administration continues to mobilize a whole-of-government effort to prepare for the impacts of Hurricane Milton, including pre-positioning resources and personnel and expediting debris removal efforts. These efforts supplement the ongoing response and recovery efforts to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast.
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is lifting up a series of resources available for students, families, borrowers, and schools and institutions of higher education impacted by these hurricanes. These resources include guidance, on-the-ground support, technical assistance (including in accessing federal resources), and peer-to-peer connections for state and local leaders; resources for recovery needs such as mental health support for students and educators and to restore learning environments; flexibilities to help institutions of higher education continue to manage the federal financial aid programs; and automatically enrolling affected borrowers with missed payments into a natural disaster forbearance. Thanks to regulations issued by the Biden-Harris Administration, this forbearance will count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness.
“Increasingly powerful storms like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton not only threaten lives and livelihoods, but also disrupt learning and leave students and their families facing displacement and other heartbreaking challenges,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “As President Biden and Vice President Harris organize a whole-of-government response to these immense natural disasters, I have directed our team at the Department of Education to leverage every possible resource available to meet the needs of impacted students, families, and school communities. From helping schools restore healthy learning communities for students, to supporting college campuses battered by these storms, to protecting student loan borrowers from going into default, we will do everything we can to help our fellow Americans in their time of need.”
The Department is urgently working to support impacted states with recovery efforts. The Department’s Disaster Recovery Unit (DRU) provides leadership, financial and technical resources, and support to assist education communities with recovery following a natural disaster. The DRU also collaborates with Federal recovery partners to support disaster recovery and connects education entities with disaster recovery experts to support specific recovery solutions. Following Hurricane Helene, the DRU reached out to state educational agencies and over 500 institutions of higher education in the impacted disaster areas to inform these entities of financial assistance opportunities, including Project SERV funds, which provide short-term funding for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education that have experienced a violent or traumatic crisis, including weather-related natural disasters, to assist in restoring a safe environment conducive to learning. The Department will conduct similar outreach following Hurricane Milton. The Department is exploring options to offer program flexibilities, which can include extending grant application windows and waivers.
Assisting K-12 Schools
The Department has offered technical assistance to states and local educational agencies to support recovery efforts and shared critical resources, including those developed by other federal agencies and organizations, to support restoring the teaching and learning environment. Below are some examples of technical assistance offerings the Department provides:
Assisting Institutions of Higher Education
The Department’s office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) has flexibilities that are automatically available to affected institutions of higher education to help their continued management of the federal student aid programs. These flexibilities help schools if they need to adjust their academic calendars, such as due to unexpected closures, and also help students who may need to take a leave of absence. The flexibilities also help students avoid reductions in their federal aid due to any state or federal disaster assistance provided. FSA will also work with affected institutions that need help on other areas, such as paying credit balances.
FSA also provides outreach and support to domestic and foreign higher educational institutions that participate in the federal student aid programs, as well as school community stakeholders in the wake of and in response to natural disasters. FSA reaches out to the leadership of schools in impacted regions to determine the school’s operational status, impact to students and staff and to offer key reminders and information about the special resources and regulatory relief available to institutions affected by disasters. As noted above, institutions of higher education are also eligible for Project SERV funds.
FSA has communicated with hundreds of schools located in the areas impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Those communications included existing Department guidance about how natural disasters impact schools and their administration of financial aid, resources, and links to FEMA disaster aid information. FSA’s communications also included a way for schools to share more information about the disaster impact on their campus and submit questions about administrative relief and flexibilities.
Current guidance about natural disaster assistance for institutions that participate in the federal student aid programs is available here.
Automatically Helping Borrowers Who Cannot Make Payments
The Department is ensuring affected borrowers in areas impacted by the hurricanes can focus on their critical needs without needing to worry about missing their student loan payments. Direct Loan borrowers and federally serviced FFEL borrowers in the affected area who miss their payments will be automatically placed into a natural disaster forbearance. During forbearance, payments are temporarily postponed or reduced, and interest is still charged. Thanks to regulations issued by the Biden-Harris Administration, months in this forbearance will count toward PSLF and IDR forgiveness. Direct Loan and federally serviced FFEL borrowers are not required to take an action but have the option to call their servicer if they wish to enroll in the forbearance proactively. Perkins loan borrowers should contact their loan holder to request natural disaster forbearance.
Information for federal student loan borrowers and students attending colleges or career schools is at StudentAid.gov/naturaldisaster.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton
A White House Fact Sheet on the Administration’s support for communities impacted by Hurricane Helene is available here. A Fact Sheet on preparations for Hurricane Milton is available here.
Read more about Departmental resources for communities following natural disasters here. The Department’s guidance on flexibility and waivers for grantees and program participants impacted by Federally declared disasters is available here.
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