The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) was a series of three federal emergency grant programs created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing direct financial relief to colleges, universities, and their students between 2020 and 2023. HEERF I was authorized under the CARES Act in March 2020 (approximately $14 billion); HEERF II followed under CRRSAA in December 2020 (an additional $21.2 billion); and HEERF III was authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021 (approximately $40 billion)—bringing total HEERF funding to roughly $75 billion across the three tranches.
Funds were split between an institutional portion and a student portion, distributed as direct emergency grants to help students cover disrupted costs of attendance, including food, housing, child care, and healthcare expenses including mental health care. HEERF III carried the strictest student-grant requirements: institutions were required to direct at least 50% of their HEERF III institutional-share allocation to student emergency grants (100% for for-profit institutions). All three HEERF programs' spending authority and reporting periods have since closed—the Department of Education's own guidance confirms all HEERF funds expired as of June 30, 2023, and no further HEERF funding is available under any circumstance.
HEERF is included in this glossary as historical reference, not as an active funding opportunity—it remains a meaningful case study in how emergency federal relief flowed into higher-education institutions serving rural and underserved student populations, and it provides useful context for understanding the funding landscape that the Strengthening Institutions Program and other current higher-education programs now operate within, absent the emergency-relief supplement that existed from 2020–2023.
HEERF was a series of three federal emergency grant programs created in response to COVID-19, providing direct financial relief to colleges, universities, and students between 2020 and 2023, totaling roughly $75 billion across HEERF I, II, and III.
No. All HEERF spending authority and reporting periods have closed; the Department of Education confirms all HEERF funds expired as of June 30, 2023, with no further HEERF funding available under any circumstance.
Student emergency grants could cover disrupted costs of attendance, including food, housing, child care, and healthcare expenses including mental health care, with HEERF III requiring institutions to direct at least 50% of their institutional share to student grants.
HEERF remains a meaningful case study in how emergency federal relief flowed into higher-education institutions serving rural and underserved students, and it provides useful context for understanding current programs like the Strengthening Institutions Program that now operate without that emergency-relief supplement.
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