Bill guides schools to remove crime questions from college forms.
S. 5614 — Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act of 2026 · Filed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill tells the Secretary of Education to give schools guidance. The guidance says schools should remove crime and youth court questions from college forms. Schools do not have to follow this guidance. The bill also gives schools ways to ask these questions fairly. It pays for training and a center to help schools.
Who it affects
About 70 million Americans with arrest or crime records could apply to college more easily. More than 500,000 young people in the youth court system each year could also apply. Schools get guidance on how to handle crime records fairly.
One thing to notice
The bill only recommends that schools remove these questions. It does not require schools to do it.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 7 Democrats.
- Sep 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- guidance — advice or tips from the government that people can choose to follow
- youth court — the court system that handles crimes by people under age 18
- college forms — papers students fill out to ask a school to let them attend
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (8,657 characters) on Oct 8, 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.
“Bill guides schools to remove crime questions from college forms.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5614/simple Report an error
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