This bill revises the Higher Education Act’s school drug-and-alcohol prevention duties to require institutions to adopt evidence-based or evidence-informed programs addressing alcohol and substance misuse, and expands what institutions must disclose about counseling, treatment, recovery, reentry, and recovery-support services. It broadens reporting to include overdoses and replaces earlier phrasing about ‘‘abuse’’ with modernized language that centers prevention and recovery.
The bill also creates a new interagency tasking between the Department of Education and HHS to develop best practices and issue guidance; authorizes competitive grants for campus and community-based recovery services with a $15 million annual authorization for five years; and adds a certification requirement for institutional participation in federal student aid, with a two-year compliance delay for certain amendments. The measure aims to shift campus responses from punitive-only approaches to integrated prevention, treatment access, and recovery supports — but it ties those expectations to modest federal funding and nonbinding guidance from agencies.
At a Glance
What It Does
It amends HEA section 120 to require evidence-based or evidence-informed alcohol and substance misuse prevention programs, mandates disclosure of counseling/treatment/recovery services, authorizes grants for campus recovery and integrated care activities, and directs DOE to coordinate with HHS to produce best practices and guidance.
Who It Affects
All institutions participating in Title IV programs must certify they operate an accessible prevention program; campus health centers, student affairs, and community-based recovery organizations become eligible grant partners; DOE and HHS take on coordination duties; State agencies that administer Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grants are named collaborators.
Why It Matters
The bill recasts campus prevention policy to include treatment and recovery as core elements, conditions institutional Title IV eligibility on having these programs, and funnels targeted federal grant support to campus–community partnerships — changing how colleges will design student behavioral health services and how federal and state agencies coordinate on campus substance use responses.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill rewrites the existing campus drug-and-alcohol prevention language to focus on ‘‘alcohol and substance misuse’’ and requires institutions to adopt programs that are evidence-based or evidence-informed. That change is more than semantic: institutions must not only maintain prevention education but also describe available counseling, treatment, rehabilitation, recovery, reentry, and recovery support services they provide directly or through community partnerships.
The reporting items an institution submits are expanded to capture incidents including overdoses and other substance-related events.
On the federal side, the Department of Education must enter into an interagency agreement with HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use within 180 days to develop best-practice criteria for what qualifies as an appropriate evidence-based or evidence-informed campus program, to set up dissemination processes, and to promote coordination between campuses and State block-grant agencies. Within one year of that agreement, DOE (with HHS) must issue guidance describing the criteria.
The intent is to give institutions a federal baseline for program design and implementation while allowing local adaptation.The bill expands and clarifies the grant authority under HEA section 120(e): DOE may award grants to institutions and to community-based organizations that partner with campuses (explicitly including collegiate recovery programs). Grant funds may finance recovery support and peer services, integrated primary care–mental health–substance-use screening and treatment connections, reentry assistance for students whose academics suffered because of substance use disorders, overdose prevention (including disaster recovery for services), and training for faculty and staff on recognizing crisis signs and de-escalation.
The measure authorizes $15 million per year for five years to fund these activities.To link compliance, the bill modifies the Title IV program participation certification: institutions must certify they operate an accessible alcohol and substance misuse prevention program per section 120. DOE will treat institutions as compliant unless there is a showing that the institution knowingly and willfully failed to implement such a program.
Finally, the Act requires DOE to report to Congressional education and workforce and HELP committees on agency efforts and best practices at one and three years after enactment, and it phases in selected amendments two years after the law takes effect.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill requires institutions to adopt and implement an evidence-based or evidence-informed alcohol and substance misuse prevention program and to disclose available counseling, treatment, recovery, reentry, and recovery-support services.
DOE must enter an interagency agreement with HHS within 180 days and issue guidance on program criteria within one year to define best practices and dissemination processes.
Grants may be awarded to institutions and community-based organizations partnering with campuses for recovery support, integrated care, reentry assistance, overdose prevention (including post-disaster restoration), and crisis education.
The measure authorizes $15,000,000 per fiscal year for fiscal year 2027 and each of the following five years to carry out the grant program.
Institutions must certify compliance for Title IV participation; DOE will presume compliance unless there is evidence the institution knowingly and willfully failed to implement a prevention program, and some amendments are phased in two years after enactment.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Modernizes scope to 'alcohol and substance misuse' and requires evidence-informed programs
This part replaces older ‘‘drug and alcohol abuse’’ phrasing with ‘‘alcohol and substance misuse’’ and raises the statutory standard: programs must be evidence-based or evidence-informed. Practically, colleges must review existing prevention activities and either document or redesign those programs to meet the new evidentiary standard. The statutory text also tightens required program descriptions to include not just prevention education but counseling, treatment, rehabilitation, recovery, reentry, and recovery-support services, explicitly recognizing nonpunitive pathways.
Expanded disclosure requirements and incident reporting
Institutions must include in their disclosures a description of alcohol and substance misuse policies and available recovery and treatment services. The bill also expands incident reporting fields to capture overdoses as part of the institutional record. Administrators should expect to update student- and employee-facing materials and internal compliance packets to reflect these broader disclosure requirements and incident categories.
DOE–HHS coordination to define and disseminate best practices
DOE must enter an interagency agreement with HHS within 180 days to develop criteria that satisfy the new evidence-based/evidence-informed requirement, and to set up dissemination and coordination channels with State Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant administrators. That agreement is the mechanism for turning statutory words into operational standards; the bill then instructs DOE and HHS to issue formal guidance within one year, which will function as the primary federal interpretive document for institutions and grant applicants.
Competitive grants expand to recovery, integrated care, reentry, overdose prevention
The grant program is narrowed to fund evidence-based or evidence-informed campus and campus–community programs. Eligible activities now include recovery support and peer services, integration of primary care with mental-health and SUD services, screening and treatment linkages, reentry help for students academically impacted by SUD, overdose prevention and service restoration after disasters, and training on crisis recognition and de-escalation. Applicants should plan partnerships with community-based recovery organizations and document how proposed activities meet the evidence threshold; the section also sets a $15 million annual authorization for five years.
Title IV certification requirement tied to prevention program existence
Institutions must certify they operate an accessible alcohol and substance misuse prevention program to maintain eligibility for federal student aid. The bill creates a compliance safe harbor: DOE will consider an institution compliant unless there is a demonstration it knowingly and willfully failed to implement a qualifying program. This shifts much of the enforcement calculus from automatic technical violations to cases where evidence shows deliberate nonimplementation.
Congressional reporting and two-year delayed applicability for some changes
DOE must report to relevant Congressional committees on agency implementation and on best practices from grant recipients at one year and three years after enactment. The bill delays application of certain amendments — notably those added in section 2 paragraph (2) and the program participation certification changes — until two years after enactment, giving institutions time to align programs and disclosures with the new federal standards.
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Explore Education in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Students with substance use disorders: They gain clearer access pathways to counseling, treatment, recovery supports, reentry help after academic setbacks, and campus-linked overdose prevention services.
- Campus health and counseling centers: The law creates funding and a statutory expectation for integrated care models (primary care, mental health, and SUD services), making it easier to secure grant funds and formalize service partnerships.
- Community-based recovery organizations: The grant language explicitly allows community partners and collegiate recovery programs to receive funds when partnering with campuses, expanding their funding streams and institutional collaborations.
- State block-grant administrators: The interagency coordination requirement elevates their role in campus–community alignment and can help them leverage federal guidance to align state SUD resources with campus needs.
- Collegiate recovery programs: Programs that provide peer support and recovery services become recognized grant-eligible entities and are specifically named in the statute, increasing visibility and funding prospects.
Who Bears the Cost
- Institutions of higher education: Colleges must review and likely redesign prevention programs to meet the evidence-informed standard, prepare new disclosures, coordinate with community partners, and certify compliance — all requiring administrative and programmatic resources.
- Department of Education and HHS: Both agencies must negotiate an interagency agreement, craft guidance, disseminate best practices, and administer a competitive grant program, requiring staff time and oversight capacity beyond the grant dollars.
- State agencies and community-based organizations: While eligible for grants, these partners must compete for limited funds and may need to adapt to federal evidence standards and reporting requirements, which can impose administrative burdens.
- Federal taxpayers/congressional appropriations: The bill authorizes $15 million annually, so Congress must appropriate that amount; if Congress underfunds the program, expectations in the statute could outstrip available funds, shifting costs back to campuses or communities.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill balances two legitimate objectives — giving institutions flexibility and avoiding punitive federal overreach versus establishing consistent, evidence-based standards and accountability — by delegating definitional work to an interagency agreement and guidance while tying Title IV eligibility to a certification that is only rebuttably presumed met; the central dilemma is whether this design will produce meaningful, standardized campus SUD services or simply create a new paperwork exercise with limited practical change absent sufficient funding and enforceable standards.
The bill sets an evidence-based or evidence-informed standard but leaves the substantive meaning of those terms to an interagency agreement and subsequent guidance. That sequencing helps agencies craft technical criteria, but it also means institutions must wait for federal interpretive documents to know precisely how to comply.
The compliance presumption in the Title IV certification (DOE treats institutions as compliant unless there is proof of knowing and willful failure) lowers the risk of automatic sanctions but creates ambiguity about what level of effort or documentation will satisfy DOE and when enforcement will be triggered.
Funding is authorized at $15 million per year for five years — modest relative to the number of Title IV-participating institutions and the scale of campus behavioral-health needs. The statute expands authorized program activities to include integrated care, reentry assistance, and disaster recovery for SUD services, but the limited funding and competitive nature of grants mean many campuses will need to fund baseline implementation from institutional budgets.
Finally, the bill encourages coordination with State block-grant agencies, which raises practical questions about data-sharing, student privacy (FERPA and 42 CFR Part 2 intersections), and differing state practices for SUD treatment — all matters that require careful operational work in the rulemaking and guidance phase.
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