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Overview
The Wisconsin Grant (WG-PNP) Program provides grant assistance to undergraduate, Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in degree or certificate programs at nonprofit, independent colleges or universities based in Wisconsin. The maximum award amount is established annually by Higher Educational Aids Board (HEAB). Eligibility cannot exceed ten terms.
Reference Links
- http://www.heab.wi.gov/docs/finadmin/guides/guide-wgpnplayout.docx
- Bulletin SS - 3317 Wisconsin State Financial Aid Programs
Acronyms
Inna Olshansky (Deactivated), is there a reason for numbering the acronyms?
| Acronym | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AY | Academic Year |
| 2 | COA | Cost of Attendance |
| 3 | EFC | Expected Family Contribution |
| 4 | EST | Export Student Transactions |
| 5 | FAY | Federal Award Year |
| 6 | FT | Full Time |
| 7 | HEAB | Higher Educational Aids Board |
| 8 | ISIR | Institutional Student Information Report |
| 9 | MAW | Modify Award Wizard |
| 10 | R8 | Regent 8 |
| 11 | R2T4 | Return to Title IV |
| 12 | SBL | Student Batch Load |
| 13 | sFTP | Secure File Transfer Protocol |
| 14 | SSN | Social Security Number |
| 15 | WG-PNP | Wisconsin Grant - Private Non-Profit |
| 16 | WI | Wisconsin |
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Starting with Release 4.3.1.0, Regent Didn't our support begin in 4.3.0.0? Regent Award (previously R8) is supporting automatic automated awarding and disbursement of the Wisconsin Grant. Introducing automation into the state grant processing is expected to result in significant cost savings as well as help in awarding accuracy for the schools.
How is the school notified?
A weekly notification report from Wisconsin (WI) state is received containing eligible students. Please note that this weekly roster serves as a weekly eligibility notification report as well as weekly requested disbursement approval/rejection report .
Wisconsin Grant Roster
Students who are eligible to be awarded the WG-PNP are identified by importing the WI HEAB Roster file into Regent Award via the Processes screen or FileWatcher (sFTP). The file is a tab delimited file, specific to a Federal Award Year (FAY). There will be a different file for each FAY. The file name is used to determine the FAY associated to the file. For example, the file named 06.01.2017_Notif_253_1617_20170530.txt, is for 2016-2017 FAY. The file layout is specified here: http://www.heab.wi.gov/docs/finadmin/guides/guide-wgpnplayout.docx.
Import Wisconsin State Grants Process
To import WI HEAB Roster via UI, on the Processes-->Import Process screen, select "Import State Grants" under Process Type drop-down and select "Wisconsin" under State drop-down. Only users with the "Import State Grants" permission can access this process.
The students on the roster file will be matched to a student record in Regent Award using the Social Security Number (SSN) only since the students eligible to receive the award will always have an ISIR.
Implentation Note: There is no value in the data that can be used to identify the student's Institution. That means if the same student (same person) has a student record under multiple Institutions where the same SSN is specified, then the WI data will never match to a distinct student. For schools that have only one Institution, this would not be an issue. This sort of reveals a gap in the software. Should we put this out there in our user guide or just in our internal documentation?
Any attempt to run the Import State Grants process produces a Process Log entry.
Upon successful import of the file, an Activity Log Entry "Imported on WI HEAB Roster for [amount] as [status]." is created for each student on the imported roster.
In cases where the students imported on the Roster cannot be matched to a student record in Regent Award, the Award Roster - Reprocess process can be scheduled to run per the school’s request. This process will re-process unmatched student roster records to determine if a match can be made to a student in Regent Award (because the student record has been created in Regent Award since the first attempt to match). This process also produces Process Log and Activity Log entries similar to the Import Wisconsin State Grants process.
FileWatcher
The Import WI State Grant process is also available via FileWatcher.
| Folder Name | Process Type | FileWatcher Monitored | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| StateGrantLoadWI | Import | Processed State Grant WI (Roster Award) files
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| StateGrantLoadWI_FW | Import |  | State Grant WI (Roster Award) files processing
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Reprocess
In order to match up the State-provided data that was loaded prior to students existing in Regent Award to the students once they exist, 'Roster Award - Reprocess' was created. This process reprocesses only the current and immediately prior FAY vs. all FAYs in the data. Here is how the FAYs are determined:the FAYs are determined:
What does the date, in these examples, represent? Do we mean "if today's date is 11/01/2017?"
- Example for 11/01/2017: 2016-2017 & 2017-2018 (FAYs 2017 & 2018)
- Example for 01/01/2018: 2017-2018 & 2018-2019 (FAYs 2018 & 2019)
- Example for 06/30/2018: 2017-2018 & 2018-2019 (FAYs 2018 & 2019)
- To allow for "early" and "late" files by FAY, the logic relates to the calendar year
In order for a record to be reprocessed, it must meet the following criteria from RosterAwardRawData: Is this too technical? Would a school know what "RosterAwardRawData" is?
- validForReprocess = 1
- deleted = 0
- FAY is either the current or immediately prior FAY (see note above)
Implementation Note: The school is expected to request Regent to enable this process as needed.
Eligibility
To receive WG-PNP, students must be Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in an undergraduate degree or certificate program at a private, nonprofit institution. Students who have previously earned a Bachelor’s degree are not eligible for WG-PNP. A student’s eligibility for the Wisconsin Grant is determined by their dependency status, EFC, and tuition rate.
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Eligibility criteria is outlined in detail in the exhibit Bulletin SS - 3317 Wisconsin State Financial Aid Programs. Regent Award does not take any action for is not expected to do anything with students that are ineligible on the weekly roster.
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WG-PNP is awarded annually at the Federal Award Year level. The Wisconsin FAY contains three terms: Fall, Spring, and Summer. Regent Award reviews all eligible students imported via the roster and uses the calculated amount based on the WG-PNP Formula (see below) and the tuition-dependent Tier mapping established by the school. The tuition rate is determined by a lookup of the configured cost tiers that the school sets up with the state program. This information is school specific and must be coded in Regent Award for the school to use this feature.
Upon awarding, Regent Award checks for a a valid Active ISIR (non-blank EFC) and and open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for the Wisconsin Grant. If the student does not have a valid (non-blank EFC) Active ISIR or has open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for Wisconsin Grant, the Wisconsin Grant will be blocked from packaging.
Regent Regent Award's calculation references the student’s program and enrollment level (registered program applicable units only) and divides the award amount by the number of registered eligible terms to determine the award amount for each eligible term. The resulting calculated amount will be awarded for the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms, as applicable. The award will be recalculated each term based on credit level.
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WG-PNP Formula: Anchor formula formula
If it is determined that a student will not be enrolled at least half-time in all 3 terms of the FAY (Fall, Spring and Summer), the 2-term tuition amount is used to determine the award amount. If the student is enrolled at least half-time in 2 terms, the resulting award amount is disbursed over 2 terms. If the student is enrolled at least half-time in only 1 term, the resulting award amount is divided by 2 for the single term. If the student is not enrolled at least half-time in any terms, the resulting award amount will be zero and a zero disbursement amount will be scheduled for the terms.
If a student’s award for a term results in a $0 calculated award amount for a term (e.g. tuition code or calculated amount), the student would not be eligible for a disbursement for the term. However, this is not treated in the same manner as a less than half-time term for determining if a 2-semester or 3-semester tuition code will be used. For example, a student is attending at least half-time in all 3 terms of the FAY but no tuition code exists for one of the terms based on the enrollment level, that term will result in a $0 disbursement but the overall award for the other two terms will use the 3-semester tuition code and receive 1/3 of the calculated amount for each of the two terms.
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In a scenario where the roster shows the student as eligible, but Regent Award determines the student to be ineligible (the award is below minimum, etc.), the award of $0 is created in a "Cancelled" status with the explanatory award message "Student is eneligible for Fund "Wisconsin Grant" in Award Period "YYYY-YYYY" (7/1/YYYY-6/30/YYYY)." in the Activity Log Entries.
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Regent Award will identify any supplemental awards from the roster field, STSUPAWRD. Regent Award will treat all supplemental awards as a one-time award per FAY. The award will use the date of the initial notification roster for which the supplemental award was listed to determine which term the award should be scheduled for.
Packaging up to Cost of Attendance (COA)
If the Wisconsin Grant award amount would exceed the student's cost of attendance, Regent Award will reduce awards in accordance with the Packaging Philosophy and if applicable, will reduce the Wisconsin Grant award amount to cover up to the remaining cost of attendance. If the student's COA is less than a minimum award amount for WG-PNP ($1,000), the student is not eligible to recieve the award.
Recalculation
Upon Upon re-packaging, Regent Award checks for a a valid Active ISIR (non-blank EFC) and and open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for the Wisconsin Grant. If the student does not have a valid (non-blank EFC) Active ISIR or has open documents and/or tasks configured to block packaging for Wisconsin Grant, the Wisconsin Grant will be blocked from re-packaging.
Upon re-packaging, Regent Award checks for a valid Active ISIR (non-blank EFC) and for Active ISIR being paid on "verification completed". If either of these conditions is not met, the Wisconsin Grant is blocked from re-packaging (existing award is frozen) and disbursement.
Regent Award recalculates enrollment status when the SBL file is imported and recalculates award amounts for the Wisconsin Grant during the packaging process. The enrollment status used in the calculated award amount fluctuates based on current and future courses (similar to Pell). For example, if a student withdraws from a course(s) prior to the end of the term, the award will be updated based on the new tuition code, as applicable.
Wisconsin State requires upward and downward award adjustments due to eligibility changes (e.g. Primary EFC changes, retroactive enrollment level changes, COA changes) or unpaid disbursements to be made for past, current and future terms with the following exceptions:
Exception 1
Downward adjustments are not made if the disbursement is paid AND the term is closed AND the student is moving from a 3-semester award to a 2-semester award OR a 2-semester award to a 3-semester award. But such a change will impact subsequent term eligibility.
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When the disbursement amount for Wisconsin Grant is recalculated for a term, an Activity Log Entry, "The disbursement amount for [fund] changed from [amount X] to [amount Y] for [Term/Payment Period]." is created in Regent Award.
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Withdrawals/Refund Policy
Withdrawals and refunds are not automated in Regent Award.
Because we do not support any automated functionality around withdrawals / refunds, I recommend removing all of this.
Federal methodology will be used to determine the amount of funds to be returned to HEAB. State aid programs will have priority for any credit balance remaining from an institutional refund after the federal R2T4 requirements are satisfied.
When a tuition refund is issued and there is a balance remaining after federal funds have been returned to the appropriate federal programs, WG-PNP is next in line to receive a refund. The amount of state grants refunded shall not exceed the “unearned” percentage of grant, consistent with the “unearned” percentage of federal funds. Note: should a student at any point in the term receive a 100% refund of tuition, the entire WG-PNP award for the term shall be returned to HEAB regardless of the calculated federal unearned percentage.
Note: When a full withdrawal occurs, it is possible for the previously closed term to be adjusted upward. For example,
Fall 2017 - $1,050 (paid)Spring 2018 - $1,050 (unpaid)Summer 2018 - $1,050 (unpaid)
Student withdraws from the Spring and Summer terms during the Spring term timeframe.
Fall 2017 - $1,050 (paid) is adjusted to $1,575 ↑575 ↑Spring 2018 - $1,050 (unpaid) - remains unchanged due to full withdrawalSummer 2018 - $1,050 (unpaid) - adjusted to $0 (loss of eligibility due to withdrawal prior to the term's start date)MA
Since a full withdrawal would require a R2T4, this award will need to be reviewed for the entire FAY and possibly adjusted manually.
Program Changes
The school will be responsible for updating the program change tuition code information with the state.
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The school staff can also manually add or adjust WI State Grant awards using Add / Modify Award Wizards. Those staff-adjusted awards will be marked Manual manual (not managed by Regent Award). The auto-packaging logic will not make any changes to Manual manual awards.
Disbursements
Regent Award determines that the student is eligible for a disbursement using the following criteria:
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Once the student is successfully packaged, the Wisconsin Grant award information can be viewed on the student’s State tab. Clicking on the record in the State Awards grid displays the details in the State Data Records.
Reporting
In addition to the standard fields on the Process Log Details screen, a button to access Import Wisconsin State Grant Process Results Report is provided. This report allows the user to view the imported WI HEAB Roster file in the tabular format.
To support Wisconsin Grant (WG-PNP) award processing, WI State Grant Report was created. Access to the report is controlled by the “View Students” and “View Students SSN” permissions.
