Overview

Regent supports automation for selected Florida state scholarship and grant programs. Regent automates four "Bright Futures" roster-based Florida scholarship program types via the Master Eligibility List (MEL). Separately, Regent also supports the Florida Student Assistance Grant (FSAG). Additional Florida roster-based funds have limited support in Regent for Florida state exports only. All Florida state funds are exported in two Florida state reports: the term-based Disbursement Eligibility Report (DER), and the Grade & Hours report (G&H or GHr).

Related Topic

• Data Pipeline Import/Export Processes - Generic description of Data Factory, the underlying technology to import Florida data

Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program

Regent supports automated Eligibility, Awarding, and Disbursement rules for four Bright Futures funds. Bright Futures funds follow the eligibility and awarding rules from the Florida Bright Futures Handbook Chapter 2.

• BFFAS - Bright Futures Florida Academic Scholarship

• BFFMS - Bright Futures Florida Medallion Scholarship

• BFGSC - Bright Futures Gold Seal CAPE Scholarship

• BFGSV - Bright Futures Gold Seal Vocational Scholarship

Bright Futures Eligibility

Regent applies special eligibility checks when Regent packages a fund configured with a known Florida ‘Agency Program ID' code. Regent evaluates the student’s eligibility using the Florida Master Eligibility List (MEL) data. Regent also applies customized, Florida-specific eligibility rules for the fund’s scholarship programs for BFFAS, BFFMS, BFGSC, and BFGSV.

Master Eligibility List (MEL) - Roster Data Checks

The state of Florida determines which students are eligible for the Bright Futures Florida scholarships. Florida sends schools a "Master Eligibility List" (MEL). The MEL data file is a roster of eligible students and their Florida "program" (scholarship/fund type). The MEL roster is updated frequently, as the state agency receives ISIR data and determines whether students meet each award's eligibility requirements. Regent mainly enforces eligibility by applying the state’s MEL data. If a student does not appear on the MEL roster for a scholarship fund for a FAY, Regent considers that student ineligible for that scholarship until MEL data is received. Regent does not estimate Bright Futures awards for future FAYs without roster data.

Regent stores the MEL data on a student using Regent Student Document Requirements. Each supported scholarship type has a different configured Student Document in Document Setup. The Document is configured to link to the Florida Master Eligibility List Smart Form. When an eligible student’s data is imported on the roster, Regent creates or updates a Student Document Requirement on the student. The MEL data is visible in Regent from the student’s Documents tab, on the SmartForm Data sub-tab. The four-digit “academicYear” is the Federal Award Year; for example, Academic Year “2025” is FAY 2024-2025.

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Example MEL data for a 2024-2025 Florida Medallion Scholarship (BFFMS)

Multiple MEL records: The MEL contains one line per student and document per FAY. If a student has more than one scholarship, the MEL data may have multiple records (multiple lines) for that student. Regent creates a separate Student Document requirement for each MEL record: each unique combination of FAY, student SSN, and scholarship program code. MEL files may also contain multiple records from different FAYs. If the MEL data contains multiple records for the same fund, but for different FAYs, Regent stores each FAY’s MEL data on a separate Student Document requirement for the student. Each Document Requirement has a separate FAY.

MEL Related Eligibility Checks

The ruleset applies eligibility additional checks using the Master Eligibility List (MEL) data.

MEL Finished Code: OSFA may send a “Finished Code” to indicate a student has finished their eligibility or is otherwise not eligible.

• If a student has a non-blank Finished Code, the student is ineligible.

Number of Terms/Hours Remaining:

• OSFA sends the number of terms/hours remaining as of the “date posted.” Regent limits the funded hours in the award as of that date. If the student is registered for more units than the student’s remaining units, Regent considers those units ineligible.

Other Bright Futures Eligibility Checks

Florida Residency: A student must be a Florida resident to receive any Bright Futures award.

Regent first checks the ‘residencyStatus' SBL value. A student is considered a Florida resident if this value is InState, InDistrict, or OutOfDistrict. A student is considered a non-resident if this value is OutOfState or Unknown.

If a ‘residencyStatus’ value is not provided on the SBL, Regent will check ISIR data. For Independent students, a student is considered a Florida resident if the State of Legal Residence is FL and the Legal Residence Date is July of the year prior to the first year of the federal award year (e.g. July 2023 for federal award year 2024-2025) or before. For Dependent students, a student is considered a Florida resident if the Parent State of Legal Residence is FL and the Parent Legal Residence Date is July of the year prior to the first year of the federal award year (e.g. July 2023 for federal award year 2024-2025) or before.

Minimum 6 Units of Enrollment: Regent checks each payment period for the minimum 6 units of enrollment. The type of units included in the check is dependent on the ‘AllowableUnitType’ parameter selected by the school. Schools can choose either ‘ProgramApplicableUnitsOnly,' which is the default, or ‘TotalRegisteredUnits.' When a school chooses the ‘ProgramApplicableUnitsOnly' option, the eligibility check only includes units marked program applicable in the total. When a school chooses the ‘TotalRegisteredUnits’ option, the eligibility check includes both program applicable and non-program applicable units in the total. Units marked transfer, remedial, or disqualified repeat are excluded from the total for both settings as they are not eligible for Bright Futures funding. Clients must work with their Account Managers to change the AllowableUnitType setting.

• Exception: If a student is in their final term of study before completing their program, and the student has fewer than 6 units remaining, then all of the remaining units of the allowable type are funded. For example, if a student only has 4 units remaining in their program at the start of the Fall 2024 payment period, then the student is still eligible for funding for all 4 units in that payment period . End Revised

UDF: Schools may also optionally send a User-Defined Field (UDF) of “Highest_Education” to exclude students who have already completed graduate degrees. If a student has a “Highest_Education” UDF with values of “MS” or “PHD” then Regent will consider the student ineligible. The UDF and values are not case sensitive.

Bright Futures Awarding

Bright Futures funds are awarded using the configured “Amount Per Unit” in Fund Setup, “Amount Per Payment Period.” If different programs of study have different amounts per unit, an institution can configure multiple funds in Fund Setup. Each fund must be configured with the ‘Agency Program ID’ such as BFFAS, BFFMS, BFGSC, and BFGSV.

The type of units included in the award calculation is dependent on the ‘Allowable Unit Type’ value chosen by the school and communicated to their Account Manager. Schools can choose to have Regent check Program Applicable Units only (Regent’s default value), or Total Registered Units. When a school chooses the ‘Program Applicable Units Only' option, Regent only includes units marked program applicable in the calculation. When a school chooses the ‘Total Registered Units’ option, Regent includes both program applicable and non-program applicable units in the calculation. Units marked transfer, remedial, or disqualified repeat are excluded from the total for both settings as they are not eligible for Bright Futures funding.

Students typically receive up to two terms of Bright Futures funding per year. Most students receive awards for the Fall and Spring terms. Summer payment periods are awarded for BFFAS and BFFMS only. BFFAS and BFFMS students must have a conditional code value in the MEL data that allows Summer awarding (values 002, 012, 023, or 123). The BFGSC and BFGSV funds do not allow Summer awarding.

Bright Futures Disbursement

Bright Futures scholarships use standard Regent disbursement schedules for scheduling disbursements. Each configured fund in Fund Setup must be linked to a Disbursement Schedule.

A school might optionally want to restrict disbursing until the school has sent the Disbursement Eligibility Report (DER) to Florida. The school could apply a Blocking Document to restrict the Export Student Transactions (EST) process to prevent paying the students until the state has approved the funding.

Bright Futures Fund-Specific Rules

A student may receive either a Bright Futures Florida Academic Scholars (BFFAS) or a Bright Futures Florida Medallion Scholars (BFFMS) award in the same FAY. If the MEL roster has eligibility data for both awards in the same FAY, Regent uses the award with the later MEL posted date. If both posted dates are the same for the same FAY, Regent awards the BFFAS and does not award BFFMS.

BFFAS and BFFMS are limited to a maximum of 120 total hours of funding (or the student’s remaining hours in the MEL data, whichever is less). A Bright Futures BFFAS and BFFMS student who enrolls in an eligible graduate program may receive up to one semester of graduate funding. The graduate hours are included in the eligible hours.

The Florida Gold Seal CAPE (BFGSC) scholarship is limited to 60 hours while in an Associate Degree program. If a BFGSC-eligble student enrolls in a Bachelor’s program, the student may be awarded for an additional 60 units. The 60-unit limit for the Bachelor’s Programs does not count any hours the GSC student earned while in terms in an Associate Degree program.

The Florida Gold Seal Vocational (BFGSV) scholarship is limited to 60 hours.

Florida Student Assistance Grant (FSAG)

Regent supports automated eligibility determination, awarding, and disbursement of the Florida Student Assistance Grant (FSAG). FSAG is a decentralized, need-based grant program available to Florida residents for undergraduate programs. FSAG funds need a Fund Setup, 'Agency Program ID' configured with a value of “FSAG.”

FSAG Eligibility

Unlike Bright Futures, FSAG does not use the Master Eligibility List. Instead, eligible universities and colleges will award FSAG to Florida residents with need.

Specialized FSAG Eligibility Rules

Florida Residency: A student must be a Florida resident to receive an FSAG award.

Regent first checks the ‘residencyStatus' SBL value. A student is considered a Florida resident if this value is InState, InDistrict, or OutOfDistrict. A student is considered a non-resident if this value is OutOfState or Unknown.

If a ‘residencyStatus’ value is not provided on the SBL, Regent will check ISIR data. For Independent students, a student is considered a Florida resident if the State of Legal Residence is FL and the Legal Residence Date is July of the year prior to the first year of the federal award year (e.g. July 2023 for federal award year 2024-2025) or before. For Dependent students, a student is considered a Florida resident if the Parent State of Legal Residence is FL and the Parent Legal Residence Date is July of the year prior to the first year of the federal award year (e.g. July 2023 for federal award year 2024-2025) or before.

Citizenship: Student must be either a US Citizen or Eligible Noncitizen. A student is assumed to meet the citizenship requirement if the school provides a ‘residencyStatus’ value of InState, InDistrict, or OutOfDistrict.

Need: Regent calculates the student’s remaining Need for FSAG, after packaging other funding higher in the Packaging Philosophy. Need uses the student’s Student Aid Index (SAI). Eligible students can receive FSAG along with Bright Futures and other Florida funds, if the students have sufficient remaining Need. For more information about packaging and calculating need-based funds, see Awarding And Packaging.

Undergraduate only: FSAG is only available for students in Undergraduate programs. Students who have already completed a Bachelor’s degree are not eligible.

Regent enforces FSAG undergraduate-only in two ways:

• ISIR field: The response to the question “First Bachelor’s Degree Before” the FAY school year, must be either No or blank.

• UDF: A school may optionally send a User-Defined Field (UDF) on the SBL to indicate the student has completed a degree. A “Highest_Education” UDF with a value of “BS” “MS” or “PHD” are not eligible. The UDF and Values are not case sensitive.

Fund Setup Eligibility Rules

FSAG applies the standard configurations from Fund Setup. For more details on those settings, see Fund Setup Data Elements

• ISIR Required: The student must have an ISIR for FSAG funding in a FAY. If the ISIR is Selected for Verification, the ISIR must be Verified.

• SAP Required: The student must have a Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) status that permits awarding.

• SAI Min/Max: The student’s ISIR Student Aid Index (SAI) value must be within the fund’s configured Minimum and Maximum SAI range, inclusive.

• Require At Least Half-Time Enrollment Level in All Paid Terms:

  • No (Default): Regent does not consider the enrollment level and disbursement paid status for renewing the award in future FAYs.

  • Yes: If any term or payment period had a positive paid disbursement from the FSAG fund, but that term’s enrollment level changed to be Less Than Half Time or was fully withdrawn after payment, then the setting will disqualify all eligibility from this fund for future award years. For example, if a term-based student was awarded FSAG for the 2024-2025 FAY, but they dropped to below half-time in the Fall 2024 term after being paid, the student would not be eligible for the award in later FAYs (2025-2026 and later). The student could still receive FSAG funding in the Spring 2025 term, because that Spring term is within the 2024-2025 FAY. If that student reenrolled at half-time or greater in the paid Fall term, the student would again be eligible for future award years.

FSAG Awarding

FSAG awarding follows the Fund Setup configured Awarding rules.

Regent awards a ‘Flat Amount Per Payment Period’ depending on the term’s enrolment level. Per Florida state policy, only Florida public institutions may award FSAG for below full-time enrollment. Other post-secondary institutions may award FSAG to full-time students, as agreed upon with the school and OSFA.

The type of units included in the award calculation is dependent on the ‘Allowable Unit Type’ value chosen by the school and communicated to their Account Manager. Schools can choose to have Regent check Program Applicable Units only (Regent’s default value), or Total Registered Units. When a school chooses the ‘Program Applicable Units Only' option, Regent only includes units marked program applicable in the calculation. When a school chooses the ‘Total Registered Units’ option, Regent includes both program applicable and non-program applicable units in the calculation. Units marked transfer, remedial, or disqualified repeat are excluded from the total for both settings as they are not eligible for Bright Futures funding.

Schools generally have a fixed annual allocation. The allocation amount is configured using the Budget sub-tab in Fund Setup. If the FSAG fund is configured with a Budget, Regent will create awards linked to that budget. If the budget’s funding is exhausted, Regent will create remaining awards in “Unfunded” status.

FSAG Disbursement

FSAG disbursement uses the standard Regent Disbursement Schedule functionality. The FSAG fund must be linked to the Disbursement Schedule.

Like Bright Futures, a school might optionally want to restrict disbursing FSAG until the school has sent the Disbursement Eligibility Report (DER) to Florida. The school could apply a Blocking Document to restrict the Export Student Transactions (EST) process to prevent paying the students until the state has approved the funding.

FSAG Disbursements also honor the Fund Setup configuration for Disbursement Rules for student breaks.

Additional Florida State Scholarship Programs with Limited Support - Non-Automated Funds

Last updated for FAY 2024-2025, August 2024

Some additional Florida funds do not have full automation support in Regent. Schools may still award these funds to students, but Regent will not automatically manage those awards nor enforce eligibility in packaging. Schools may create those awards manually using Add Award Wizard (AAW), or use other tools such as the Regent Import Awards and Disbursement (IAD) process or the Regent Fund Awarding Tool. 

Regent's support for the following known Florida funds is limited to including data from awards and students in the Florida export reports. Regent will only include those other funds if the school correctly configures the values in the Data Pipeline, Fund Setup, Document Setup, and the award’s supporting MEL roster data is packaged on the student (if needed). When the data is available and funds are configured, Regent will include the student and their award information along with data for the automated funds. The configured Florida funds will appear in the Florida state export reports: the annual Grade & Hours report, and the term-based Florida Disbursement Eligibility Report (DER).

Florida Data Exports

Regent populates awards with additional information, or “metadata.” The additional information is needed for exporting awards to the state of Florida.

The following data fields apply to Bright Futures, FSAG, and other supported Florida awards.

CIP Code

Regent reports the configured ‘CIP Code 2020’ from Program Setup.

Degree Type Code

Regent sets the Degree Type Code value using the Program Setup credential type:

• If Associate’s Degree, set as capital letter A

• If Bachelor’s degree, set as capital letter B

• If Undergraduate certificate or diploma, or Graduate/Professional certificate, set as capital letter C

• If Doctoral Degree, set as capital letter D

• If Master’s degree, set as capital letter M

• If Non-credential program, set as capital letter O

• If no match above, set value = O

Disbursement Type

Regent sets the disbursement code to “D00” by default. If all disbursements in the payment period have a status of “Cancelled,” or if the amount is $0 due to a reason other than budget limits, Regent sets the Disbursement Code to “C97” (Cancelled).

For “Otherwise Eligible” students who have $0 Unfunded awards due to budget limits, Regent sets the Florida Disbursement Code to “C99” (Otherwise Eligible).

Ethnicity

1. If the award had an “ethnicity' value in the Master Eligibility List (MEL) data, Regent uses that Ethnicity value.

2. If the MEL Ethnicity was blank or does not exist (such as FSAG), Regent determines the ethnicity value using the SBL data for ethnicity and race:

   1. If ethnicity is Hispanic or Latino (i.e. ethnicity = HispanicOrLatino), set as capital letter H.

   2. If ethnicity <> Hispanic or Latino, look at race:

      1. If Asian, set as capital letter A

      2. If BlackOrAfricanAmerican, set as capital letter B

      3. If AmericanIndianOrAlaskaNative, set as capital letter I

      4. If TwoOrMoreRaces, set as capital letter M

      5. If NativeHawaiianOrOtherPacificIslander, set as capital letter N

      6. If Other, set as capital letter O

      7. If White, set as capital letter W

      8. If blank, set as capital letter U

Gender

Values are M (Male), F (Female), or U (Unknown). If the MEL data had a Gender value, Regent reports that value. If the value was blank or MEL data is not available, Regent infers a gender using the SBL data. If gender is “NotReported” or blank, Regent reports a value of “U” (Unknown).

Number of Hours Enrolled

Regent uses the total registered program applicable units for the payment period. Regent allows decimal units, but Florida requires integer hours. If the total registered units in Regent would be a decimal number, Regent rounds the total value down to a whole number for export.

“P” Social Security Number

Regent reports the value of the Social Security Number (SSN) from the MEL data, if that value was non-numeric and started with a letter “P” on the MEL data. Otherwise, the “P” SSN is blank.

Program Code

For Florida export, the “Program” is the Florida scholarship type/program. For example, “BFFMS” for the Bright Futures Florida Medallion Scholarship. Regent reports the fund’s configured ‘Agency Program ID’ value from Fund Setup. For MEL-based awards, the value matches the incoming Florida program code on the MEL data.

Previous Summer Hours Earned

• Not yet supported. Regent currently leaves blank/null for all students.

Report Previous Summer Hours Indicator

• Not yet supported. Regent currently reports a “N” for all students.

Term Identifier

Florida divides the calendar year into different ranges, largely based on the standard Academic Year calendar. Regent populates the Term Identifier values depending on the program’s Academic Calendar type and payment period start dates. For Scheduled Academic Year (SAY) calendars, Regent also considers whether the SAY has an optional Summer Header term.

• Fall, Term ID 1

  • SAY, no header: First term in the AY

  • SAY, has a header: Second term in the AY

  • Non-SAY term-based: First term in the AY with a term start date on or after July 1.

  • Nonterm: Payment Period start date is August 1 through November 30, inclusive

• Spring, Term ID 2

  • SAY, no header: Second term in the AY

  • SAY, has a header: Third term in the AY

  • Non-SAY term-based: Second term in the AY

  • Nonterm: Payment Period start date is December 1 through April 30, inclusive

• Summer, Term ID 6

  • SAY, no header: Third term in the AY

  • SAY, has a header: First term in the AY

  • Non-SAY term-based: Second term in the AY

  • Nonterm: Payment Period start date is May 1 through July 31, inclusive

Some additional term ID values can apply for Trimester, Quarter, and Quarter 4 term-based programs.

• Term ID 3:

  • If a student has an Academic Period Type = Standard Term Quarter or Standard Term Trimester:

    • Determine the third term configured for the student’s program (not the student’s Academic Plan) with a term start date > the end date of the term with term identifier 2, but the term starts before July 1. That term is term identifier 3.

• Term ID 4:

  • If a student has an Academic Period Type = Standard Term Quarter 4:

    • Determine the fourth term configured for the student’s program (not the student’s Academic Plan) with a start date > end date of term identifier 3 AND the term’s start date is before July 1. That term is term identifier 4.

In the future, Regent may add support for Term ID 0 (Summer Header). Some Bright Futures students may optionally have Bright Futures funding for a summer term in a FAY before their regular Fall term. Regent does not currently identify those students for exporting Term ID 0 or the Previous Summer Hours Earned or Previous Summer Hours Indicator. For the initial 6.8.0.0 release, all Summer terms are marked as Term ID 6.

Term # Number of Hours Earned

On the Grade & Hours export, several terms are reported as “Term 1 Hours Earned,” “Term 2 Hours Earned,” etc. For those values, Regent uses the total progression program applicable units earned for the corresponding term ID. For example, the “Term 1 Hours Earned” is the Fall term’s total progression program applicable units, value rounded down to whole number.

Total Disbursed Amount

For Florida reporting purposes, the Total Disbursed Amount is the current amount on each payment period (the Regent “AwardDisbursement” amount). The paid status in Regent is ignored for setting the exported value.

Transaction Number

Regent reports the ISIR transaction number (01, 02, etc.) linked to the award for that FAY. If the student does not have an ISIR for the FAY, the value is blank.

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