During the fiscal year 1976, outlays for social security student benefits made it the second largest federal program for direct aid to students (second to the Veterans' Readjustment Benefits). Benefits paid on account of a dependent child normally end on a child's eighteenth birthday; but 1965 legislation extended coverage to 18-to-21-year-old unmarried, full-time student dependents of dead, disabled and retired workers. This paper provides background about a variety of proposals to limit or eliminate social security benefits payable under current law to these students. Such proposals are given separate treatment from other social security questions because they raise a mixture of issues affecting funds and the policy of the federal government generally to encourage equal access to postsecondary education. The report contains no recommendations. (JMF)