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Hello all. Your voices are needed. Please see below for an opportunity to advocate for our profession. </div>
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Peace,</div>
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Dr. Foreman</div>
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<b>From: </b>Association for Counselor Education & Supervision <Aces@wildapricot.org><br>
<b>Date: </b>Monday, December 8, 2025 at 12:09 PM<br>
<b>To: </b>Foreman, Tamarine <foremant@ohio.edu><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[External] Protecting the Professional Degree Status for Counselors<br>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>PROTECTING THE PROFESSIONAL DEGREE STATUS FOR COUNSELORS</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>The Situation:</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"> Under the terms of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill
</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(209, 52, 56);"> </span><span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">(H.R. 1), the Repayment Assistance
Plan (RAP) will replace existing loan repayment programs, including the Grad PLUS Program and much of the Parent PLUS program. Under RAP, annual federal loans for new borrowers will be capped at $20,500 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students
per academic year. The Department of Education identified 11 degrees, including medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and law, that would be considered professional degrees. Counseling and Therapy programs were not included on this list, meaning students in these
fields would not qualify for the higher funding cap. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>Affected Master’s Degrees:</b> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"> Accounting </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Architecture </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Audiology </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Business Masters </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b><i>Counseling and Therapy</i></b><i> </i></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Education </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Engineering Masters </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Nursing </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Occupational Therapy </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Physical Therapy </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Physician Assistant </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Public Health </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Social Work </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Speech and Language Pathology </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>Why This Matters:</b> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">Reducing federal financial aid for counseling and therapy students will restrict entry into mental health professions at a time when shortages are already
severe. Fewer students may be able to afford these degrees</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(209, 52, 56);"><u>,</u></span><span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"> which
will shrink the future behavioral health workforce. Excluding counseling and therapy from professional status undermines efforts to meet rising mental health needs across the United States. With more than one-third of Americans living in
</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><u><a href="https://bhw.hrsa.gov/workforce-shortage-areas/shortage-designation" data-outlook-id="a9105860-4df6-441c-a094-e69797bb5b01" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Mental
Health Professional Shortage Areas</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);">, any new barrier to entering the mental health field will further harm public well-being. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>Take Action Today:</b> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>I. Contact your congressional representatives
</b>using our VoterVoice system. <a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.votervoice.net%2FNBCCGrassroots%2FCampaigns%2F131783%2FRespond&data=05%7C02%7Ccounselor_educ%40listserv.ohio.edu%7C22369121b1374d199c1408de373b1c52%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C639008924160109337%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Oe0fXlqqKWuz9L4SJS0aRvTDHVsDFaEzfA1XTf%2FUL9Y%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://www.votervoice.net/NBCCGrassroots/Campaigns/131783/Respond" target="_blank" originalsrc="https://www.votervoice.net/NBCCGrassroots/Campaigns/131783/Respond" data-outlook-id="73dfa9be-f6a9-41db-a3b9-be9aa0fafb92" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://www.votervoice.net/NBCCGrassroots/Campaigns/131783/Respond</a></span></p>
<p dir="ltr" class="mj-column-px-600 mj-outlook-group-fix" style="text-align: left; line-height: 1; margin: 16px 0px; display: block;">
<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>II. Share your personal experience receiving federal student aid</b> and how this support allowed you to complete your education and succeed in your
profession. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(88, 88, 88);"><b>III. Spread awareness</b> ahead of the 2026 public comment period for higher education rulemaking. </span></p>
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