maximum amount that the government funds for each applicant. The maximum amount for the 2022–2023 award year is $6,845. The maximum amount of the grant usually depends on the EFC and several other factors, including cost of attendance, the amount of time the student plans to attend college, whether it is a full academic year, and whether one is a full-time or part-time student. Once one has been considered eligible, the money can be obtained a couple of ways: the student's school can apply Pell Grant funds to school costs, pay the student directly, usually by check, or combine these methods. The school must tell the student in writing how much the award will be and how and when it will be paid, and it must disburse Pell Grant funds once a semester/term or twice during the academic year. Under certain circumstances, Pell funds can also be used to fund Career Pathways programs and support services. Uses of grant Typically, the college first applies the grant or loan money toward a student's tuition, fees, and (if the student lives on campus) room and board. Any money left over is paid to the student for other expenses: books, living expenses if the student does not live on campus, and transportation. Impact Students coming from low-income families already face increased challenges that hinder their ability to receive a higher education. The Pell Grant addresses one of the issues by making college accessible to students that may need the financial assistance. It has been shown to increase the college enrollment of students coming from lower and moderate-income families. It can also reduce the chances of them dropping out. There have been advocacy efforts to reinstate prisoner eligibility for Pell grants as a preventative to re-incarceration. In 1997, one study on 3,200 prisoners in three states showed that receiving education while incarcerated reduced the likelihood of re-incarceration by 29 percent. Lynn Novick, the director of "College Behind Bars" and a collaborator with Ken Burns, recently wrote in the Seattle Times about how access to college education in prison was markedly reduced: "Higher education in prison was commonplace in America until 1994, when the Clinton Crime Bill banned federal Pell Grants for people in prison. Overnight, college behind bars was decimated. Privately funded programs like the one we visited, the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), slowly sprang up, but they do not begin to fill the