Schools get advice to drop crime questions from applications
H.R. 10661 — Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act of 2026 · Filed by Madeleine Dean (D-PA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Oct 1, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill tells the Secretary of Education to give schools advice. The advice says schools should remove crime and youth court questions from application forms. Schools do not have to follow this advice. If schools do ask about crime, the advice tells them to wait. They should decide about students first, then ask about crime. Schools must tell students why they were denied if crime was the reason. Schools must train staff to avoid unfair treatment and protect privacy.
Who it affects
The bill aims to help about 70 million Americans with crime records. These people often have trouble getting into school and finding jobs. Schools get advice on how to handle crime questions fairly.
One thing to notice
The bill only recommends that schools drop crime questions. It does not require schools to do this. The bill does not change state laws about crime records. State laws can still stop people with records from getting certain jobs or money for school.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Oct 1, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 1, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- crime — An act that breaks the law.
- youth court — A court that handles cases involving people under age 18.
- advice — Suggestions from the federal government that schools can choose to follow or ignore.
- unfair treatment — Treating a person badly based on their race, gender, or other traits.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (8,631 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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