You asked why Gibbs College students cannot receive Connecticut Independent College Student Grants (CICSG) and whether they are eligible for other financial assistance programs, particularly loans through the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation.

Gibbs College students are ineligible for CICSG because the school is a relatively new, for-profit institution. When it established the CICSG program in 1983, the legislature limited it to students at nonprofit institutions (other than those that primarily train clergy). But it allowed any college that was already participating in the state's existing financial aid scheme for private institutions to continue participating in CICSG. This provision made Briarwood, Post, and Paier College of Art students eligible for funds. Post University recently changed its corporate status, but a 2005 act (PA 05-245, §52) enabled its students to continue their eligibility by specifying that such a change did not affect any school that had participated in CICSG since its inception. We have enclosed OLR report 2006-R-0093, which provides a more detailed history of the CICSG program.

Gibbs students are eligible for all other forms of financial assistance including loans through the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation and federal Pell grants.

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