Ohio is set to place college and career advisers inside 130 middle and high schools statewide after landing a $50 million federal grant. Governor Mike DeWine announced the award at the Ohio Department of Higher Education's annual trustees conference in Columbus, saying every student should have the chance to pursue college, an apprenticeship, or other training leading to a good-paying job.
The money comes through the federal TRIO Talent Search program, and according to Cleveland.com, Ohio was the only new state to receive Talent Search grant funding in this cycle, and it received the largest award among all applicants. The state will collect $10 million per year for five years, and DeWine said the grant gives Ohio another opportunity to help students see what is possible for their future.
Individual Talent Search grants have historically gone to single university or community college access offices, allocating roughly $230,000 to $300,000 annually to serve 500 to 1,000 local students, according to a comparison drawn from SAM.gov federal grant records. The grant proposal estimates that Ohio's program will reach 20,000 middle and high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds, per the same account.
Who Qualifies and Who's Doing the Work
Federal rules under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 require that at least two-thirds of participating students meet federal criteria as both low-income and potential first-generation college students, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Talent Search itself dates back to the War on Poverty era, when it was created to address socioeconomic barriers to higher education. The program's advisers are meant to help students navigate the college application process, connecting them with tutoring, career exploration, college application assistance and apprenticeships, and providing academic, career and financial counseling along the way, according to Cleveland.com's reporting. The plan aims for one adviser per school.
To actually staff the network, Ohio is leaning on regional nonprofits with existing footprints in college access work. The grant proposal included partnerships with College Now, Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, Toledo Tomorrow, the GRIT Project, Sinclair Community College, the Education Service Center of Central Ohio, and Junior Achievement, per Cleveland.com. College Now Greater Cleveland alone already advises students across more than 100 middle and high schools in Northeast Ohio, reaching over 42,000 students and adult learners annually, according to Cause IQ. Its services include advising and scholarship services across seven counties.
Regional Partners Bring Track Records — and Reach
Cincinnati Youth Collaborative brings its own scale to the effort, serving 14 Southwest and Central Ohio counties while maintaining a 95% average on-time high school graduation rate among participating seniors, according to the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. The organization also serves as a regional FAFSA management lead for those same 14 counties. Meanwhile, the GRIT Project — short for Growing Rural Independence Together, which originated in Adams County in 2019 — focuses on career coaching, pre-apprenticeships, and employer pathways across Ohio's Appalachian counties, as reported by the Marietta Times.
That rural focus matters because the numbers behind Ohio's push are stark. Only 47.6% of Ohio high school graduates in the Class of 2021 enrolled in a college or university within two years of graduation, according to state tracking data compiled by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and cited by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. FAFSA assistance has also been part of Ohio's effort, per Open Campus.
State Policy Priorities and Federal Framing
The Ohio Department of Higher Education formally established a statewide biennial research agenda in January 2026 prioritizing research into declining college-going rates and strategies to meet state workforce demands. ODHE Chancellor Mike Duffey framed the federal grant as consistent with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon's stated commitment to return education to the states by channeling federal dollars into state-directed administration, according to the governor's office.
Federal program guidelines place firm limits on how the money can be spent. TRIO Talent Search funds cannot be used for direct participant cash stipends, application fees, or capital construction and facility remodeling, according to SAM.gov's federal grant records — restricting the $50 million instead to advisory services, tutoring, career exploration, and college preparation programming.
Ohio has not yet publicly identified which of its middle and high schools will host the 130 embedded advisers, and it remains to be seen how the state will measure postsecondary persistence and completion over the full five-year grant period. The rollout addresses Ohio's college-readiness pipeline.
