The Department of Education is urging the nation's higher education institutions to stop asking college applicants to disclose their criminal history on their college applications.

In a new report from the department's Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education titled "Beyond the Box," the agency encouraged schools to stop asking applicants about criminal history and instead limit disclosure of such information to convictions of certain crimes.

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"Colleges should establish a specific policy about which convictions require disclosure," the report said. "There is little evidence linking criminal records to campus crime. A college that continues to inquire about criminal justice information should identify which convictions they are interested in and for what reason."

The report says schools should only consider felony convictions committed after the applicant turns 19 and refrain from asking about arrests, misdemeanor convictions, and other "infractions."

"Further, the school should take care to evaluate each criminal record individually, considering the specific circumstances and how they will impact campus life," the department said in the report.

"It is not enough to broadly conclude that any criminal record reflects poor moral character; instead, admissions should weigh the specific crime and circumstances against the positive impact of campus diversity, increasing access to education, and supporting rehabilitation and overall public safety."

According to the report, 72% of colleges still require students to disclose their criminal history despite a movement away from the practice. The Common Application, which is used by over 1,000 schools across the country, does not ask students about their criminal records.

"Despite the progress made, this still represents a significant barrier for formerly incarcerated individuals seeking to enroll in higher education," the department said in the report.

In a Department of Education blog post, Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education Amy Loyd touted the success of the Second Chance Pell program, which was launched in 2015 by the Obama administration to provide Pell grants to imprisoned people, while encouraging institutions to rethink the ways they can serve students who were formerly imprisoned.

"[The Department of Education] calls upon institutions across the country to re-examine their admissions and student service policies and holistically determine how they can better serve and support current and formerly incarcerated students," Loyd wrote. "We call on you to ban the box!"

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Cully Stimson, the deputy director of the Heritage Foundation's Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told the Washington Examiner in a statement that schools "have every right, both morally and legally, to ask prospective students if they have any adult convictions" and noted that juvenile convictions are usually sealed.

"Current students, faculty, and employees of the college have a right to be safe on their campus," Stimson said. "The admissions office, which represents the administration and acts under the guidance of the board, must screen out those individuals whom they deem unfit for admission based on criminal histories, especially if the applicant was convicted of a sex crime or crime of violence. Colleges and universities should do what is right for their schools and not allow the Biden administration to bully them into ignoring common sense and public safety."