APA advocacy staff participated in several sessions during APA 2020 Virtual focused on student financial assistance issues and highlighting the work APA continues to do on behalf of doctoral psychology graduate students and early career psychologists. A live session provided information on federal student loan repayment and forgiveness options; an overview of several pending bills that would create new loan forgiveness opportunities for individuals in the mental and behavioral health-care work force; and the impact of COVID-19 on federal student loan borrowers, including student loan and borrower provisions in COVID-related legislation. The presentation underscored APA’s advocacy efforts to ensure that any forthcoming emergency stimulus bill addresses the needs of doctoral psychology students and borrowers. APA recently joined several other health groups in urging Congress to include loan forgiveness options for frontline health-care workers and researchers in the next COVID-19 relief package.
Additionally, APA advocacy staff provided content for an APA Collaborative Session held via Twitter chat on “Supporting First-Generation and Low-Income Doctoral Students in Psychology,” which included information on federal student financial assistance programs APA supports and opportunities to engage in advocacy.
For more information, contact Kenneth Polishchuk.
