Adult Learners Thought This Program Was A Path To College. They Were Wrong 4 Hawaii schools continued to operate a popular alternative diploma program from 2014 to 2019, despite it not meeting federal standards. Now some of those graduates are unable to access financial aid.
Aaliyah Mays was partway through her first semester at Portland Community College this fall when school officials told her she was not eligible for federal aid because she didn’t have a valid high school diploma.
The 45-year-old says she was shocked to learn that the Hawaii Adult Community School Diploma she’d earned five years earlier on Oahu was not a high school diploma equivalent and did not meet federal standards.
“It completely derailed all of my plans,” she said.
Mays is part of a large cohort of students, possibly thousands, who earned Hawaii Adult Community School Diplomas through a competency-based diploma program known as C-Base between 2014 and 2019 — a period when the diplomas no longer met federal standards but state-run schools were still issuing them.
