SAP Setup

See SAP Setup Data Elements for an explanation of each of the items in SAP Setup. 

What is it?

This is the process by which you setup Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) rules in the system.

Here's how it works:

1. From the Administration bar, navigate down to the appropriate Campus. Expand the tree for the campus by clicking on the arrow to the left of the campus name, click on SAP Setup, and then click on Add SAP Policy. 
2. Enter all the SAP Policy related information and then click on the Save button.

Inherit SAP Status for terms marked as Autowithdrawn or Actual-None 

Regent Award (formerly Regent 8) has 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 configurable option, “Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods,” is on the SAP Setup screen, and 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"

For example, in the following scenario, the student has an enrollment status of Autowithdrawn in the Summer term. A SAP status has not been provided or calculated for the term, nor has a SAP node has not been provided via the SBL. The student has zero attempted units in the term.

When "Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods" is in use, the Summer term will “Inherit” the SAP status from the Spring term after the Summer SAP Date (from Term Setup) has elapsed, and the SAP process has been run. The Summer SAP status will then be “FA Warning (Inherited)." The SAP Date on the Inherited SAP status will be the date that the SAP process was run.

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.

In the case of a program change, the “Use Prior Program SAP Status when Program is Changed” selection made by the school overrides the "Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods" configuration setting in all cases. If a student falls under two SAP policies over the course of their Academic Plan in Regent Award, and those two policies have the “Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods” configuration option set differently, as long as the student is currently governed by a SAP policy that is using this new feature (Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods = Yes) then SAP statuses are valid to be inherited, even if those SAP statuses are on terms that are governed by a policy that has Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods = No.

For example:

• SAP Policy 1 has "Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods" = No
• SAP Policy 2 has "Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods" = Yes

Since the student is currently governed by a policy where “Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods” = Yes, then SAP statuses on terms that fall within the prior policy should be used to inherit SAP statuses on terms that fall within the current SAP policy.

Note:  The SAP status in Regent Award is cumulative. If a student sits out for a period of time and then returns, the student will return at the same SAP status that was in place at the time enrollment ceased.  Therefore, the FA Probation status is eligible to be inherited with this functionality.  Furthermore, It is not recommended that a school set both "Perpetuate PP-level SAP Status" and "Inherit SAP for Unattempted Periods" to a value of "Yes," but instead, should set only one of these two settings to a value of "Yes."

Excluding Courses withdrawn during Drop/Add period for Modules.

A school that is using Module Setup may elect to exclude courses withdrawn during Drop/Add periods from SAP, even if those courses were attended. To use this functionality, the value must be provided for the "Last Day for Drop/Add" field on the Modules tab of the Term Setup (see Term Setup Data Elements). 

If the Last Day for Drop/Add is configured on Module Setup in Regent Award and the course withdrawal date (provided via the SBL or Course Overrides) is on or before the Module's "Last Day for Drop/Add" date, then that course will be excluded from both the earned and attempted units count of the SAP calculations. The Course Details screen (Student's Courses Tab) will provide a visual indication that Regent Award excluded the course from SAP via the "Calculated Exclude Course from SAP" and "Exclude Course from SAP" fields.

Delaying the SAP Calculation Due to Missing Grades 

If the Institution Setup option "Delay SAP Calculation Due to Missing Grades" is set to "Yes," SAP will not be calculated for a student for a given SAP Review Period until all grades have been received for the SAP Review Period. The calculation will be delayed pending the missing grades even if the student would otherwise meet SAP standards without the missing grades.  The SAP calculation and future disbursements must be blocked for a student until all grades are received for the SAP Review Period.  This feature applies to all term-based programs, including non-standard term, but only to Calculated SAP policies (this does not apply to Manual or SIS Provided SAP policies).

Course Criteria 

This feature will look for a value in the course-level "Letter Grade" field for courses meeting the following criteria:

• Course is Program Applicable (including Qualified Repeats)
• Course was attended at least one day 
  
• Course does not have a Withdrawal Date 
• Course "Exclude Course from SAP" field is false

Delaying the SAP Calculation

For students for whom the SAP Review Period has ended (and therefore, SAP calculations are due):

• For Payment Period based SAP, all courses in the PP-based SAP Review Period (whether PP-2-step or PP-3-step), that meet the course criteria outlined above, must have a non-null value in the course-level "grade" field in order for SAP to be calculated for the PP.
• For Academic Year based SAP, all courses in the AY-based SAP Review Period (since the SAP Review Period does not always equal the Academic Year), that meet the course criteria outlined above, must have a non-null value in the course-level "grade" field in order for SAP to be calculated for the AY-based SAP Review Period.

Delay (or block) the SAP Calculation for missing grades when any payment period within the SAP Review Period is missing grades:

• Students missing one or more grades for the SAP Review Period will be reported with a "Not Calculated" SAP status until SAP can be run; Disbursements will be blocked indefinitely until a valid SAP status is provided, even if that time frame extends into a future SAP period.
• A new column was added to the "Student - SAP" report to identify a "Not Calculated Reason" of "Missing Grades" to help schools identify these students.
• The student's SAP record (shown in the detailed portion of the SAP wizard) for the SAP Review Period will reflect "Not Calculated" for the resulting SAP status.  A new field of "Reason" was added to the screen to display the "Not Calculated Reason" of "Missing Grades."
• An Activity Log Entry will reflect that SAP could not be calculated for the student due to missing grades.

When grades are complete and the SAP Process is executed (or the student is packaged), SAP will calculate and the SAP record for the SAP Review Period will update to reflect the new SAP status.

Exceptions

• If a SAP status has already been calculated, or provided manually, for the Review Period:
  1. Regent Award will not remove the SAP status or revert it to "Not Calculated" if it already exists even if the student is missing grades for the SAP Review Period.
  2. If Regent Award Calculated SAP for a prior (closed) SAP Review Period, and later, the course data in the closed period was changed such that courses within the SAP Review Period are now missing grades, Regent Award will not alter the student's SAP status.
• A SAP Review Period that is missing grades should never receive an Inherited or Perpetuated SAP status.

Do Not Calculate SAP for Students with 'SAP-Not Required' UDF 

Regent Award provides the ability to configure a 'SAP-Not Required' UDF that will disregard the SAP checks in the EST validation for the specified External Term ID sent as the UDF value. The External Term ID (UDF value) must be the term in which the SAP status will not be required.  The 'SAP-Not Required' UDF usage is limited to only term-based programs with a SAP Status Source = SIS and Frequency = PP .

The school is required to identify the term for each student that will not require a SAP status calculated for the term and provide the 'SAP-Not Required' UDF with the External Term ID (UDF value).  The school has the option to add the UDF and the UDF value manually or via the SBL.  If the school provides the 'SAP-Not Required UDF' for a subsequent term, the value will be updated with the new External Term ID value and the previous UDF value will be overridden with the new UDF value.  Schools are responsible to update the UDF value or complete the disbursement override process if scheduled disbursements are present in more than one term at the same time, where neither term requires SAP to be calculated.  Schools are also responsible for updating or deleting any SAP-Not Required UDF that is invalid or no longer needed via the UI.

Regent Award reviews the SAP status for each term during the disbursement process (i.e. Estimated EST, Actual EST and DRI True).  If the 'SAP-Not Required' UDF is present for a defined term (school determined the term does not require the SAP status for disbursement) on a student, the disbursement process will disregard the SAP validation for that term when determining disbursement eligibility for a subsequent term.

• For example, if a SAP status has not been sent for the Spring 2020 (External ID = 1203) term and the school populates the 'SAP-Not Required' UDF with a value = 1203 (Spring 2020 term), then any SAP validations that use the Spring 2020 SAP status will be disregarded. In this example, the following Summer 2020 term (External Term ID = 1205) would normally check for a passing SAP status for Spring 2020. However, with the UDF value set to the Spring 2020 term's ID (1203), the Summer 2020 term's disbursements can still be disbursed, assuming no other EST validation blockers are present.

The following SAP EST Validations are disregarded (EST Validation Error Codes Guide) during the disbursement process if the 'SAP-Not Required' UDF is present for a defined term when determining disbursement eligibility for a subsequent term: 

1. EST-0056 (SAP status has not been calculated, which prevents release.)
2. EST-0057 (SAP status prevents release.)

If the school provides a SAP status for the term  OR if a SAP status is manually added by a user for the term and the UDF is also present for the term, the SAP-Not Required UDF will take precedence when determining the inclusion of the SAP validations for the disbursement process.

Note:  The SAP status will not be updated in the User Interface Awards tab or in the SAP wizard and will continue to reflect the default 'Not Calculated' status (or other status provided) for the term.