02/25/2026

NCDA Calls on the Department of Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 25, 2026

Contact: Sarah JanTausch and Steven Thomas GovernmentRelations@ncda.org

 

NCDA Calls on the Department of Education to acknowledge counseling, nursing, education, and other licensure-based degrees as professional programs. New federal loan limits could exacerbate nationwide shortages in mental health services, healthcare, and education.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 23, 2026 — The National Career Development Association (NCDA) is calling on the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to expand its definition of “professional programs” under the new federal student loan limits proposed in the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) rulemaking process. Under ED’s current proposal, many critically needed licensure-based programs, including counseling, nursing, education, social work, physical therapy, and physician assistant studies, would be confined to graduate-tier loan limits of $20,500 per year, far below the actual cost of completing required clinical and supervised training. 

 

The RISE Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), released in January 2026, establishes two borrowing tiers: graduate programs ($20,500 annually; $100,000 lifetime) and professional programs costing $50,000 annually and $200,000 over a lifetime. However, ED emphasizes that the “professional” designation is strictly tied to loan-limit interpretation under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), the classification choice now determines whether students in these fields can realistically afford completion. 

 

A Bipartisan Workforce Issue

Stakeholders across political lines have voiced concern that placing counseling, nursing, education, and social work outside the professional tier will deepen existing workforce shortages. The American Nurses Association (ANA) warns that restricting graduate nursing students to $20,500 per year will push them toward high-interest private debt, despite average program costs frequently exceeding $30,000 annually. More than 200,000 nurses and patients have already urged the ED to correct this classification. 

 

Education leaders have issued similar warnings. The National Education Association (NEA) notes that loan-tier caps unfairly suggest education degrees are “less professional,” at a time when the country is experiencing a significant teacher shortage, NEA warns that educators may increasingly rely on private lenders—loans that typically lack the consumer protections and public-service alignment of federal programs.

 

In the counseling field, the American Counseling Association (ACA) has expressed alarm that counseling students—restricted to the graduate tier—will face financial barriers that discourage them from pursuing the profession, despite the urgent national demand for it behavioral-health providers. ACA’s advocacy updates highlight that such caps risk pushing students into costly private loans or out of counseling programs entirely.

 

Consequences for Access and Community Well-Being

Many degrees excluded from the professional tier lead directly to state licensure and clinical practice. The AAPA’s explanation of H.R. 1 confirms that “professional degree programs” are those that meet 34 CFR 668.2, including programs that require advanced clinical skills and post-baccalaureate preparation for entry into a regulated profession, criteria met by the counseling, nursing, social work, and education fields. 

Failing to recognize these programs as professional does not reduce costs; it merely shifts them from safe, fixed-rate federal loans to high-interest private credit. For rural and underserved communities already experiencing critical shortages of mental health clinicians, nurses, and teachers, the effect will be immediate and measurable. Healthcare leaders warn that restricting access to advanced practice nursing education would particularly harm rural regions, where APRNs are often the primary care providers. 

 

NCDA’s Position

“America cannot afford to lose future counselors, educators, or nurses who cannot access the financial tools needed to complete the training their professions legally require,” NCDA stated in its public comment. “Recognizing licensure-based programs as ‘professional’ is not just a matter of fairness, it is a matter of national workforce stability and public well-being.”

NCDA urges ED to:

1. Expand the “professional program” category to include licensure-based fields with extensive clinical or supervised practice requirements.
2. Prevent widening workforce gaps, particularly in mental health, education, and healthcare.
3. Protect public-service pipelines by maintaining access to federal financing aligned with PSLF and other service-oriented programs.

 

About the National Career Development Association (NCDA)

Founded in 1913, NCDA advances career development through standards, credentials, publications, and advocacy, supporting practitioners who help individuals achieve meaningful career and life goals.

 

 

Read NCDA's letter to the Assistant Secretary in the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education.