Lawmakers Warn Department of Education Student Loan Restrictions Will Devastate Access to Mental Health Care

Mental health advocates, Professional Counseling organizations, and bipartisan members of Congress gathered on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of economic and access to care risks posed by proposed policy changes in Department of Education (ED) professional degree recognition and federal financial aid access. The proposed Department of Education policies  threaten the Mental Health Counseling workforce at the worst possible time—during an unprecedented national mental health crisis.

The briefing, titled “The Crisis in Mental Health: Professional Degree Loan Limits,” was sponsored by Congresswoman Andrea Salinas (D-OR), Co-Chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, hosted by NBCC, and brought together leadership from nine national Counseling, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy organizations representing hundreds of thousands of mental health providers nationwide.

Department of Education Proposed Policy Threatens Access to Care and Workforce Capacity

The Department of Education’s proposed reclassification of Counseling, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy programs as “graduate” rather than “professional” degrees will create insurmountable financial barriers for students seeking to enter these critical professions.

Kylie Dotson-Blake, President and CEO of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), opened the briefing by framing the stakes clearly: “At its core, this issue is about whether future mental health providers can afford to enter the professions. At a time when, across the country, we are seeing the highest levels of need for mental health services we have ever seen, our country cannot afford to dramatically reduce the workforce and access to professional care.”

Under the proposed rule, Counseling students will face:

• reduced federal loan limits, from $50,000 to $20,500 annually.
• elimination of Graduate PLUS loans starting July 1, 2026.
• forced reliance on private loans with interest rates of 8%–14% and no consumer protections.
• debt-to-income ratios that make Counseling careers financially unsustainable. 

Dr. Dotson-Blake emphasized the arbitrary nature of the exclusion: “Counselors are already recognized as professional providers by Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the VA, and Indian Health Service. The Department of Education is the outlier here.”

The Workforce Reality: America Cannot Afford to Lose More Counselors

The briefing highlighted the severe mental health provider shortage already gripping the nation:

• Over 137 million Americans live in federally designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas.
• 65% of rural counties have no psychiatrists.
• Nearly half of rural counties have no psychologists.
• In many communities, Counselors are the primary—or only—mental health providers available. 

“If we make it harder for students to become Counselors, we are actively shrinking the workforce pathway at the worst possible time,” Dr. Dotson-Blake warned. “When Counselors aren't around, access collapses.”

She noted that Counselors are often the most affordable mental health providers and are more likely to accept Medicaid and Medicare; practice in community settings; offer sliding-scale fees; and serve children, families, veterans, and older adults. “Fewer Counselors means longer wait times, higher costs, more untreated mental illness, and more people ending up in emergency rooms or the criminal justice system.”

The Equity Dimension: Who Gets Priced Out of Helping Professions?

The briefing emphasized that the proposed policy does not affect students equally. Students from low-income backgrounds, first-generation college students, and those from underrepresented communities—who rely most heavily on federal loans—will face the greatest barriers.

 “Those also are the students most likely to return to rural communities and other underrepresented communities to practice—bringing their contributions to the tax base, local spending and personal community investments—in ADDITION to broadening access to care,” Dr. Dotson-Blake explained. “So, when Department of Education reduces access to federal student loans, it doesn't just reduce the workforce—it reduces access to care where it's needed most.”

The policy threatens to make Counseling careers accessible only to students from wealthy families who can subsidize education costs—fundamentally changing who can become a Counselor.

Bipartisan Congressional Support

Congresswoman Andrea Salinas (D-OR), Co-Chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus and a first-generation college student herself, emphasized her personal understanding of how professional pathways make a difference for families and communities.

Congresswoman Salinas stressed the urgency of the workforce crisis facing America’s mental health system. “The United States is in the midst of a mental health crisis, and we currently do not have enough providers to meet the needs of our communities,” Rep. Salinas stated. “More than 163 million Americans currently live in Mental Health Professional Shortage areas, and by 2037, we’re projected to face a shortage of over 400,000 mental, behavioral, and addiction treatment providers.”

Rep. Salinas, who has led 25 of her congressional colleagues in urging ED to reverse course, warned of the direct consequences of excluding mental health professions from professional degree status.

“Excluding graduate degrees in Social Work, Mental Health Counseling, Addiction Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, Nursing, and School Counseling from the ‘professional degree’ category will limit access to loans and funding for students pursuing these vital careers,” she explained. “This will only exacerbate workforce shortages and wait times for people desperately seeking mental and behavioral health services.”

As a first-generation college student who understands how professional pathways make a difference for families and communities, Rep. Salinas emphasized that the Department's decision reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how mental health care is delivered in America today.

“We believe it is essential that mental health, behavioral health, and substance use disorder professionals be recognized alongside other health professionals,” Rep. Salinas said. “Communities across the nation depend on these providers for timely, quality mental and behavioral health care services. We cannot afford policies that make it harder for qualified professionals to enter and remain in this workforce.”

Rep. Salinas called on ED and the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) Committee to “reconsider the classification of mental and behavioral health graduate programs, recognizing them as professional degree programs and essential health and human services pathways.”

Congressman Tim Kennedy (D-NY), a licensed Occupational Therapist with a master's degree who spent 11 years working with geriatric and pediatric patients, brought the perspective of a health care practitioner who understands licensure requirements and clinical training.

Rep. Kennedy warned, “These new loan restrictions will severely hinder the ability of prospective health care professionals to finance their education and enter the field, further destabilizing a health care system already in crisis. These loan limits will worsen staff shortages, restrict access to higher education, and further strain a health care system already at its breaking point.” Rep. Kennedy underscored these concerns citing deepening staff shortages, clinic closures, and communities increasingly being left without access to timely care.

“When I went to grad school to become an OT, I had to take out loans. I remember filling out those forms, hoping I’d have enough to cover tuition, books, and rent,” said Congressman Kennedy. “I remember the weight of those payments followed me for years. I took on that debt because I wanted to build a better future for my family and because I wanted to help people. This administration wants to force aspiring health care professionals to mortgage their futures before they treat their first patient. Worse, this move will deter them from answering their calling, taking an axe to the very system that trains them,” Rep. Kennedy said.

The briefing also featured powerful testimony from practicing mental health providers and current students who provided firsthand accounts of how adequate federal loan access made their careers possible—and how the proposed changes would devastate future generations of providers. Practitioners described the financial challenges they navigated to complete their training, emphasizing that without Graduate PLUS loans and reasonable federal borrowing limits, they would never have been able to afford the education required to serve their communities.

Current students shared the stark reality of trying to finance graduate programs that cost $50,000–$80,000 while completing hundreds of hours of unpaid clinical internships, warning that the proposed $20,500 annual loan cap would force them and their peers to abandon mental health careers, despite the desperate community need for mental health services.

The Educational Rigor: Counseling IS Professional Education

The briefing underscored that Counseling programs meet every criterion of professional education:

• rigorous accreditation by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)
• more than 60 graduate credit hours of specialized curriculum
• 2,000–3,000 hours of supervised clinical practice providing direct services to real clients
• state licensure required in all 50 states and DC for independent practice
• passage of national examinations (National Counselor Examination, National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination)
• terminal master's degree for full scope of professional practice 

“Most programs require 60 graduate credit hours or more, thousands of supervised clinical hours, and passage of national examinations,” Dr. Dotson-Blake stated. “The Department of Education’s exclusion is arbitrary and inconsistent with how they treat other professions with equivalent training.”

A United Front: Nine National Organizations Stand Together

The briefing demonstrated unprecedented unity across the Counseling, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy professions. Participating organizations included:

• American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)
• American Counseling Association (ACA)
• American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA)
• Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES)
• Clinical Social Work Association (CSWA)
• Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
• National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) 

“This level of alignment across organizations reflects how serious and urgent this issue is,” Dr. Dotson-Blake emphasized.

The Ask: Congressional Action Needed

The briefing concluded with three clear calls to action for members of Congress:

1. Urge the Department of Education to immediately restore Counseling, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy to professional degree status in the final rule.
2. Conduct oversight of ED’s decision and, if necessary, support legislative or appropriations strategies to update the professional program definition ahead of the July 1, 2026, implementation date.
3. Protect the mental health workforce pathway and access to care, particularly in rural and high-need communities.

What's Next

The public comment period for the ED proposed rule remains open, and mental health organizations are mobilizing practitioners, students, educators, and community members to submit comments opposing the exclusion of the Counseling profession from professional degree status. Take action by March 2 to make your voice hear on this important issue! https://www.votervoice.net/NBCCGrassroots/campaigns/133650/respond

Several legislative proposals have also been introduced to address the crisis, ranging from complete reversal of the loan restrictions (H.R. 6677, Professional Degree Access Restoration Act) to explicit statutory recognition of Counseling and related professions as professional degrees (H.R. 6718, Professional Student Degree Act).

“Professional degree status is NOT symbolic—it directly determines who can afford to enter the profession and ultimately impacts access to care,” Dr. Dotson-Blake concluded. “The Department of Education’s proposed policy undermines federal investments in the mental health profession and may cause workforce pathways, especially in rural and high-need communities, to collapse.”

“The bottom line is simple,” she added. “We are already in a mental health workforce crisis. We cannot solve it by making it financially impossible for students to become Professional Counselors.”