Introduction

This Business Process Analysis (BPA) and System Configuration document describes the functionality and configuration settings related to Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) in Regent Award. 

 This page defines the following associated with SAP:

• SAP Status, Frequency, Policies, and Calculations

• Specific configuration of the following:

  • Data requirements

  • Communications

  • User roles

  • Documents

  • Tasks

  • Additional configuration 

Process Overview

This section describes the default behavior of the Regent Award processes associated with SAP.

Regent Award provides the ability to manage SAP status for students. The configured SAP Policy governs how Regent Award handles SAP and can be applied to specific programs independently. Multiple SAP policies can be defined for each institution; however, the SAP policies cannot overlap by program and/ or effective date range. SAP policy types available are:

• Student Information System (SIS) provided

• Calculated by Regent Award

• Manually updated by the user in Regent Award

SAP Status

Regardless of the SAP Policy selected by a school, Regent Award will utilize the following SAP statuses to determine student eligibility for awarding and disbursement. 

If multiple SAP statuses are provided for the same SAP review period, Regent Award will always use the SAP status with the latest SAP date.  If there are multiple SAP statues on the latest SAP date, Regent Award will use the most restrictive status.

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SAP Frequency

Regent Award is configured with SAP frequency which determines when a school wishes to run the SAP Policy calculation. This is required all calculated SAP policies.  The frequencies are outlined as:

• Academic Year (AY) 2-Step

  • Not Calculated or Satisfactory -- > Suspension per AY

• Payment Period (PP) 2-Step

  • Not Calculated or Satisfactory -- > Suspension per PP

• Payment Period (PP) 3-Step

  • Not Calculated or Satisfactory -- > Warning-- > Suspension per PP

SIS Provided Policy

The SBL is required to include the SAP status for the student at the end of every payment period/term or academic year depending on the configured policy.  As soon as an updated SAP status is available, the SBL should include the SAP node for the student and associate it to the most recently completed payment period/ term or academic year. This data only needs to be sent one time per change. If the SAP status changes after it has been posted initially, the new data should be sent again with the SAP review period end date and a new SAP date.

Regent Award creates a new SAP record every time the SAP status is sent on the SBL with a new SAP date. The most recent SAP status provided by the SBL becomes the SAP record used by Regent Award in determining student eligibility and triggering dependent system actions.

Once created, the SAP record details are visible in the Regent Award UI via the SAP Wizard. The SBL may send optional SAP data via the SAP node to be available in the UI. For example, cumulative GPA, maximum time frame, and cumulative pace appears in the SAP record if the data is provided on the SBL.  This may be useful when talking to students.

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When Batch Packaging process is either auto scheduled or manually completed, Regent Award can be configured to run the SAP process.

Calculated Policy by Regent Award

Regent Award can be configured to automatically calculate SAP for schools in the UI. When SAP is calculated by Regent both the quantitative (pace/ completion ratio) and qualitative (grade point average or GPA) standards are reviewed at each review period governed by the configured frequency.  Regent Award can also provide a “forecasted” Maximum Time Frame (MTF.)

Quantitative Measures Pace/ Completion Ratio

Regent Award consists of several components that can be considered for quantitative measures when using a calculated policy.

SAP Review Period for Attempted Units:

• Counts all units, as configured by the school, during the SAP Review Period for which attendance was recorded for an attendance taking school.

  • Cumulative Attempted Units:

• Counts all units, as configured by the school, for which attendance was recorded in an attendance taking school. 

  • SAP Review Period Earned Units:

• Counts only units, as configured by the school, that count towards progression in the SAP review period.

  • Cumulative Earned Units:

• Counts only units, as configured by the school, that count towards progression in the entire review period.

The quantitative measures above can be configured in Regent Award to include or exclude
Remedial, dropped, and non-program applicable units.

• SAP Review Period Pace:

  • Counts earned units divided by attempted units for courses taken during the review period.

• Cumulative Pace:

  • Counts earned units divided by attempted units for student’s entire history at the school.

Maximum Time Frame (MTF)

Regent Award’s MTF calculation as well as forecasted MTF, as configured by the school, are as follows:

• The MTF is calculated using the formula:

• Forecasted MTF is calculated using the formula:

Regent Award provides the option to calculate the student as ‘MTF Suspended’ when the forecasted MTF calculation reaches 150%.  This option enables the school to work with the student to ensure that he/she has an academic plan to complete the program prior to hitting the MTF benchmark. 

Qualitative Measures (Grade Point Average or GPA)

Regent Award consists of the SAP Review Period GPA and Cumulative GPA components that can be considered for qualitative measures.  The GPA must be provided on the SBL when utilizing the calculated policy.

Qualitative Assessment for CBE

A qualitative assessment for CBE provides a qualitative measure for the student.  CBE schools use a basic concept of "pass" or "fail" for the qualitative portion of the SAP calculation (instead of providing a GPA as other schools do.) In other words, the student either meets the requirements for passing the qualitative portion of the SAP calculation, or the student does not meet the requirements for passing the qualitative portion of the SAP calculation.

To indicate that the student has “passed” the qualitative portion of the SAP calculation, a school may enter any value in this field (a word, number, phrase, etc.) Regent Award will interpret the value as indicating that the student has passed the qualitative portion of the SAP calculation.

To indicate that the student has “failed” qualitative SAP, a school should not send this field to Regent Award at all. Regent Award will interpret the NULL value of this field as an indication that the student has failed the qualitative portion of the SAP calculation."

Delaying SAP for Missing Grades

Regent Award can be configured to delay a student's SAP calculation if the student is missing grades on any of the courses within the SAP Review Period. When the "Delay SAP Calculation Due to Missing Grades" is configured, Regent Award will check that all courses within the SAP Review Period are graded before calculating SAP for the student. If one or more grades are missing, the student's SAP status will be reported as "Not Calculated" with a reason of "Missing Grades." The SAP calculation and future disbursements will be blocked for the student until all grades are received for the SAP Review Period.

This only applies when a school or program has a configured a Calculated SAP policy and are either term-based or non-standard term programs.

Calculated SAP on GPA

Regent Award's SAP Calculations can automatically evaluate SAP based on the student-level GPA, without requiring separate SAP information in the SBL data. When configured to "Auto-Generate SAP Node from Student GPA," Regent Award will automatically calculate SAP using the student's GPA provided in the Student node of the SBL.

• Term-based programs: SAP can be calculated before the end of the term, using the Term Setup configuration for “SAP Evaluation Period Start Date.” This date is expected to be after the last date a student could be expected to add a new course for the term. The related SAP Evaluation Period End Date (expected to be before the first date GPAs will start being calculated for the next term) must also be configured to support this option. Once the ‘SAP Evaluation Period Start Date’ arrives, the Regent Award Batch Processing process will start trying to calculate student SAP for students in the specific term using the most recently provided GPA or SBL SAP node for those students.

  • Regent suggests that schools also implement the preexisting Institution Setup option to delay a student’s SAP calculation if there are still missing grades for the term(s) in the SAP review period.

• Nonterm programs: As before, Regent Award does not recognize a nonterm SAP review period as completed until the SIS provides course completion data for all units needed to complete the payment period(s) in the SAP Review Period. Nonterm programs will now have a new, optional, configured ‘Offset Days for Calculating SAP for Nonterm Review Period.’ With the new option, automatic SAP calculations for nonterm programs will begin once the final payment period of the SAP review period is complete, and the calculations will use the most recently provided GPA from the student node of the SBL for each student. Because there may be an administrative delay between the time successful course completion information is provided in the SBL and when the GPA including that course is calculated and provide to Regent, schools may configure the number of SAP calculation offset days that should pass after the end of the SAP review period end before attempting the SAP calculation. Once a nonterm SAP calculation has been completed, Regent will cease attempting to calculate SAP for that review period unless the school sends a new SBL SAP node for the SAP review period.

Schools may still send SAP data on the SBL in the <studentSAP> node. The system will use the data (GPA or SAP node) with the most recent date. In the rare case of a conflict when both sets of data have the same date, the system will use the SAP node. Schools may also add Manual SAP records. Either case will still trigger a SAP recalculation, even if the SAP Evaluation Period End Date is in the past. As a reminder, the system still will not update awarding based on any updates to SAP status for an in-progress SAP review period before the review period's end date is reached.

Manual Policy and Overrides

Regent Award provides the SAP Wizard for manually adding and overriding SAP records for a payment period/term. When a school or certain program are configured with a manual policy, Regent Award cannot be updated by another source such as the SBL. 

When a school or certain program are configured with a SIS provided policy, a manually added SAP record overrides any SIS-provided SAP record attached to the override period unless a new SAP record is sent on the SBL with a more recent SAP date. For example, if it is discovered that the SBL sent an incorrect SAP status for a student, a user with SAP override permissions may add a manual SAP record with the correct SAP status. That SAP status will remain effective until a new SAP status for the same SAP period (determined by SAP date) is received from the SBL.

When a school or certain program are configured with a calculated policy and the SAP status is calculated more than once for a student for a given period, Regent Award will use the SAP status with the latest SAP date however a manually added SAP status would override the calculated SAP status with the same SAP Date. 

FA Probation Check

Schools using an AY SAP frequency policy may elect to review students after a single payment period of ‘FA Probation’ status.  Regent Award provides an opportunity to assess progress with SAP Probation Academic Plans or to make other adjustments before the end of the full academic year.  Regent Award supports this by allowing a PP level SAP status to be provided for a student, mid-AY, after a prior AY-Based SAP Review Period SAP status of ‘FA Probation’ or ‘FA Suspended.’

The PP level SAP statuses can only be updated manually via the SAP Wizard.  The SBL will not update the PP level SAP status if the school or certain programs have a configured an AY-based SAP frequency policy.

Awarding with SAP

Regent Award considers SAP status when packaging a student.  The SAP status must be attached to an existing SAP review that is based on a period payment period or academic year. Students without prior coursework at the school do not have a prior payment period/term to which a SAP record can be attached. These students have a status of ‘Not Calculated’ until completion of the first payment period/term, which allows awarding and disbursement. After completion of the first payment period/term, the SAP status is included in the SBL (for SIS provided) and the SAP record is attached to the payment period/term just completed.

Regent Award provides the option to cancel all future aid automatically when a student’s SAP status is ‘FA Suspended’ or ‘MTF Suspended’. When this option is selected, Regent Award cancels all awards configured to require SAP in future payment periods/terms. The student will not be packaged for future aid until the student has regained eligibility or has successfully appealed, and the SAP status has been updated. If the student successfully appeals and is placed in a probationary status, Regent Award reinstates awards cancelled due to SAP status. 

Manually awarded funds are not cancelled automatically and must be manually reinstated should the student regain eligibility, e.g. successfully appeal and go to FA Probation status. Once the student regains eligibility, the fund that was manually awarded can be configured to trigger the ‘Review Eligibility’ task to notify staff to re-instate the award. Note: This task triggers on several other changes to manual awards as well. Manual awards that have been manually cancelled must be manually re-instated.

Disbursements

Regent Award will not disburse a student with a ‘FA Suspended’ or ‘MTF Suspended’ SAP status. All other SAP statuses qualify for disbursement to include the student’s first payment period when SAP status is ‘Not Calculated’. Regent Award holds disbursement for the current payment period until the most recent completed payment period has been updated with a SAP status. For term-based programs, if the student’s enrollment status for the term is equal to ‘Auto-withdrawn’ or ‘Actual-None’ for the last scheduled term and there is no SAP record for that term and the configuration is set to ‘Inherit SAP Status’, Regent Award uses the SAP record from the most recently attended term to determine disbursement eligibility.

 Regent Award provides the option to perpetuate the SAP status to future payment periods/terms. When this option is selected, Regent Award applies the most recent SAP record to all future payment periods/terms, until the next SAP record is received by the SBL. This configuration setting only pertains to a SAP Frequency of Payment Period.  Because there may be a delay in the SAP calculation, a scheduled disbursement may be made prior to receiving an ineligible SAP status. 

Program Changes

Regent Award provides the option to apply the student’s current SAP status to the student’s next program when a student changes a program. When this option is selected, the student’s SAP status from the student’s most recent completed payment period/term in the previous program becomes the SAP status used to determine eligibility in the first payment period/term in the current (new) program. This option is set at the institution level but may be overridden in the Program Management Wizard when processing the program change.  

Inheriting SAP Prior Term

Regent Award provides a configurable option for term and non-standard term programs, that will allow for a prior term’s SAP status to be inherited to a term that would not otherwise have SAP calculated.  The option, “Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods,” is available for payment period-based SAP policies only. When this option is enabled, Regent Award will inherit the SAP status from a prior term if the current term meets the following criteria:

• The term has not received a SAP status (Manually, SIS Provided, or Calculated) and

  • A SAP node containing a Cumulative GPA has NOT been provided via the SBL, for the term.

• The term has no attempted units and

• The term is marked with an enrollment status of "Autowithdrawn" or "Actual – None” 

When a term has inherited the SAP status from a previous term, visual indicators are provided on the Regent Award UI on both the SAP Wizard and the Awards screen.

Historical SAP Status

At the time of launch, Regent Award will need to have the current SAP status of all students. The SBL needs to include the SAP node for students at the time of a SAP Review Period End Date corresponding to the most recently completed payment period/term for the student. If the student has an award imported into Regent Award from a COD rebuild file, and the SAP status has not been provided, Regent Award assumes a SAP status of ‘Satisfactory’.

For conversion schools, if a student is in the first payment period/term at the time of conversion, no SAP node is needed for the student.

Note:  A historical SAP status cannot be modified in Regent Award.       

Configuration

Key Decisions

School has decided to send the ‘SAP Excluded’ attribute with a value of ‘Yes’ in the SBL for Incomplete courses (grade = I).  This will allow the school to exclude courses with an Incomplete grade from both the Quantitative and MTF measurements.

Configuration Template

Data Requirements

SBL SAP Node

Refer to the SBL Data Dictionary for configuration details related to SAP.

SAP Mapping

Schools utilize SAP statuses that differ from those used by Regent Award.  Therefore, the SBL must map the student’s SAP status from school’s SIS to the corresponding Regent Award SAP status for historical purposes.  Below is the SAP status mapping table.

 Conversion Re-entry Students

Any student that is not included in the initial conversion SBL, e.g. a re-entry student, will also need to have the SBL provide the SAP node with an SAP Review Period End Date corresponding to the most recently completed payment period/ term for the student in the school’s SIS.  

Communications Template

Refer to the school’s Communication_Setup_Template for configuration details related to SAP.

Users & Roles Template

Refer to the school’s UserRoles_Setup_Template for configuration details related to SAP.

Documents Template

Refer to the school’s Document_Setup_Template for configuration details related to SAP.

Tasks Template

There are no related tasks with regard to SAP.

Additional Configuration

Institutional Configuration

The institution setup in Regent Award is configured with default setting for SAP by primary type (most frequent) offered by the institution. Refer to the [Client]_EnterpriseSetup_Template for default setting selected by the school.

SAP Policy Configuration

Refer to the school’s SAP_Setup_Template for configuration details related to SAP.