As the Department of Education begins the process of implementing the higher education provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), APA Services will continue our advocacy to ensure that federal financial aid for doctoral psychology students and student loan repayment options for psychologists remain as robust as possible. In the coming months, the department will produce regulations to administer the newly established student loan limits for graduate and professional students, the new income-driven repayment plan, and new programmatic accountability measures.
Last week, APA Services submitted comments specifically on the student loan limits provisions, urging the department to explicitly include health service psychology as part of the professional degree designation, which provides an aggregate loan cap of $200,000. Our comments focused on the OBBB’s definition of professional degrees, which clearly applies to health service psychology; current department policy, which already groups clinical psychology with other health professions for the purposes of student loan limits; and Congress’ intent in utilizing a broad definition in the law to ensure that most health professions, including psychology, are included as part of this designation.
As the regulatory process moves forward over the next several months, APA Services will closely monitor the forthcoming negotiated rulemaking sessions and submit comments on the proposed rule, once it is published, both on the student loan limits as well as other provisions of importance to psychology.
For more information, contact Kenneth Polishchuk.