The U.S. Department of Education (Department) has enacted new rules that make it easier for students who acquire a disability to get their federal student loans forgiven. The new rules, which become effective July 1, 2013, recognize certain disability findings by the Social Security Administration as sufficient grounds to discharge student loans. Under the current law, borrowers who develop severe and lasting disabilities are entitled to get their loans forgiven, but these students must go through a separate inquiry in order to receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. This new rule will help students with disabilities avoid this double review of disability eligibility.

The new rule comes on the heels of a joint investigation by ProPublica and the Chronicle of Higher Education that found the Department's system to be "erratic, duplicative, and dysfunctional" and kept many eligible students with disabilities buried in debt. This investigation led Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, and Rep. George Miller, D-CA, to write a letter to the Department urging them to fix the disability discharge program. After proposing new rules in the Summer of 2012 and considering nearly 3,000 public comments that followed, the Department settled on these newly enacted rules.