KENTUCKY — A new report from the Council on Postsecondary Education outlines new ways to assist Kentucky students in meeting basic needs. The new strategies result from a year-long effort to understand and increase basic needs supports for currently enrolled students and find strategies to connect more public assistance recipients to postsecondary programs. With funding support from Lumina Foundation, the report outlines eight recommendations to assist those college students.

During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Dr. Aaron Thompson with CPE discusses some of the issues students face, including a lack of affordable food, housing and other necessities. The report’s recommendations include: benefits eligibility screening for students and providing training for postsecondary faculty and staff to make referrals to assistance programs.

“We’ve been working heavily on affordability for a while and we’ve kept tuition low in the last many last few years. But we also wanted to make sure that we were giving out more aid on our campus from the tuition dollars we have and from state dollars that we get. So I feel good that we’re in a high aid state. I feel good that we focus on you know the needs of a student, as well as the health of a student in many ways,” explains Thompson.

The 32-page report is available on CPE’s website.

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.