Awarding Implementation Rules

1. Institution Setup's "Enable Year Round Pell Awarding" option enables APGA awarding.

2. Payment of YRP (APGA) to an eligible student is not optional, but schools determine the FAY for crossover terms.

3. YRP is effective starting FAY 2017-2018 and forward. Note: FAY 2017-2018 is the default value for Institution Setup's "Starting FAY" option. Institution Setup's "Ending FAY" option is blank.

4. First, Regent calculates the student’s total Pell Grant Scheduled Award (PGSA) or “regular” annual scheduled Pell award amount.

5. Regent Award next calculates the maximum amount of Pell eligibility for each term or payment period, using the Pell Formula (i.e., Pell Formula 1, 3, or 4) configured for the program. 

   1. The calculated amount will serve as the maximum amount for the total for all Pell disbursements (PGSA + YRP) in the term,

6. Regent Award must award 100% PSGA before awarding the additional 50% (APGA or YRP).

7. Pell awarding of YRP can be conditional on a term's units or enrollment level, depending on the FAY.

   1. For FAY 2024-2025 and later, the total Pell amounts in a term use the Enrollment Intensity Percentage (EIP). The student's EIP can be any positive value. For 2024-2025 and later FAYs, the student does not need half-time enrollment level to have YRP awarded in a term.

   2. For FAY 2023-2024 and earlier, the student must be enrolled at least Half Time (HT) for the payment period(s) in which YRP is being awarded.

      1. Attended census enrollment must be at least half-time. If the enrollment status drops below half-time after census, the student can still get YRP. (pending R2T4)

      2. If the student's attended census enrollment status is less than half-time, they are not eligible for YRP.

      3. Nonterm is assumed to be full-time.

      4. If a school has no census date and keeps recalculating the enrollment status throughout the term, then the enrollment status at the end of the term is the one that would ultimately determine the Pell enrollment status for the term.

8. The total Pell awarded (PGSA + YRP) cannot exceed 150% of the full Scheduled Pell Award for the FAY.

9. A payment period may include disbursements from both the initial PGSA and from YRP (but all Pell awarding for the payment period must be from the same FAY).

10. PGSA and YRP amounts must be combined and submitted as one amount for reporting to COD.  Regent Award accomplishes this by awarding YRP as a separate disbursement of the student's single Pell award for the FAY.

    1. Regent Award sets the new "Year Round Pell" flag to "true" to identify the disbursement as being awarded for YRP.

11. If the Pell Recalculation brings the student's enrollment status to LTHT for 2023-2024 and earlier FAYs, all YRP for the payment period must be canceled/returned during packaging before any PSGA is canceled/returned. The reduction does not apply to 2024-2025 and later.

12. If there is any reduction in Pell for a payment period and Regent Award awarded from 100% (PGSA) and 50% (YRP), then Regent Award must refund from the YRP amount first, and then if needed, refund from the PGSA amount.

13. Regent Award will re-calculate every PP/term in the FAY for Pell eligibility in the event of an ISIR providing a new EFC (2023-2024 and earlier), or a new SAI and/or Max or Min Pell Indicators (2024-2025 and later):

    1. Any PP/term that has an unpaid disbursement (DRI=false), should be re-calculated and adjusted per the new ISIR information (new EFC or SAI value).

    2. Any PP/term that has a paid (DRI=true) disbursement AND has the "Attempt To Keep Paid Disbursements Unchanged" turned on AND there is a DECREASE to the EFC or SAI value, Regent Award will re-calculate the PP/term for the Pell eligibility using the new EFC. Regent Award will add an additional disbursement for the increased Pell eligibility for the PP/term.

       • Note: COD rules require that if you are increasing the amount of a previously paid disbursement, you have to add an additional, new disbursement for the difference (applies to both PGSA and YRP).

    3. Any PP/term that has a reduction in Pell eligibility for a paid (DRI=true) disbursement AND has the "Attempt To Keep Paid Disbursements Unchanged" turned on AND there is an INCREASE to EFC or SAI value, Regent Award will re-calculate the PP/term for the Pell eligibility using the new EFC or SAI value. A recalculated lower amount will occur as a negative adjustment (reduction) to the original, existing, paid disbursement.

    4. If a PP/term has more than one disbursement in a term where one is paid and one is unpaid, any possible adjustments should first be made to the unpaid amount (due to "Attempt To Keep Paid Disbursements Unchanged" being turned on).

14. Regent Award still counts the YRP amount towards the LEU for Pell awarding.  For example, if a student received 100% PGSA over a period of six years, they would reach the max 600% LEU.  But if a student is awarded 100% PGSA and 50% YRP each year for four years, the student would reach the max 600% LEU.

15. In cases where all PGSA is paid, all/partial YRP is paid, and a PGSA disbursement is reduced or cancelled, Regent Award does not reattribute paid amounts between PGSA and YRP. The amount of the reduction becomes available for awarding as PGSA for future, unpaid payment periods. The only way for the paid PGSA to be reduced is if the Fund Setup option to "Allow Reduction of Paid Disbursements" is set to a value of "Yes."  Otherwise, reducing a paid disbursement via MAW would set the entire Pell award to Manual and RNA would not make the adjustments described here.

16. When refunding Pell for R2T4 purposes, R2T4 must refund the YRP amount for the term first, before refunding the PGSA amounts. The following must be true for this action:

    1. R2T4 is complete with the results of "Refund" and

    2. R2T4 calculation results in some amount of Pell Award being refunded and

    3. Pell has been paid from both PGSA and YRP for the payment period.

17. When both PGSA and YRP disbursements are included in the R2T4 calculation, RNA should treat these combined amounts as one lump sum for the total amount of Pell that the student was eligible for in PP.

Disbursement Rules

The school's disbursement schedule will be respected when awarding YRP - which may mean that Regent Award cannot just award the full YRP amount for the PP as one lump disbursement.

Example 1:

• The Pell award for the PP is entirely from YRP in the amount of $1000.

• The disbursement schedule calls for two equal disbursements of 50% each, so $500 each.
  Expected Result

  • Disbursement for $500 YRP on first disbursement date

  • Disbursement for $500 YRP on second disbursement date.

Example 2:

• The Pell award for the PP might be, for example, $500 PGSA and $1000 YRP for a total Pell award of $1500 for the PP.

• The disbursement schedule calls for two equal disbursements of 50% each, so $750 each.
  Expected Result

  • Disbursement for $500 PGSA on first disbursement date

  • Disbursement for $250 YRP on first disbursement date

  • Disbursement for $750 YRP on second disbursement date.

Pell Awards at Other Schools 

Students can receive Pell funding at more than one school during the same FAY.  However, a student's total Pell in the FAY cannot exceed 150% across all institutions. If a student was already paid Pell at other schools, Regent Award reduces their remaining Pell eligibility at the Regent school. The reduced Pell amount prevents overawards (exceeding 150% in PGSA + YRP) for all schools in the FAY.

When a student is packaged, Regent Award calculates the preexisting total FAY percentage and Lifetime Eligibility Usage (LEU) before awarding Pell. The totals are based on either COD response data, NSLDS transaction data, or the current active ISIR's NSLDS Pell information.  

• COD Data - When a student is packaged, Regent Award applies the latest available Pell usage and Pell Lifetime Eligibility Used from COD response data.

• NSLDS Transaction Data - When a student is packaged, Regent Award sums the student's previously paid Pell percentages of eligibility used. The FAY total also includes Pell payments in the same FAY that are in the NSLDS FAH data, from different (non-Regent) schools. A non-Regent school is identified by the student's Pell having a different OPEID value in the 'Attended School Code' Financial Aid History (FAH) data. Regent Award displays the NSLDS Transactions on the History tab under NSLDS Award History - Grants. More details are at History Screen Requirements.

• ISIR Data -  The ISIR information also has Pell Grant NSLDS amounts from the time the ISIR was processed. Regent Award totals the three fields for NSLDS Pell Percent Scheduled Award Used by Award Year.

If a student has Pell NSLDS data from all three sources, Regent Award compares the dates and uses the most recent data source. The ISIR date comparison uses the latest ISIR by transaction processing date with an NSLDS database result of 1, 2, 3, or 4. The NSLDS FAH data uses the NSLDS Transaction's "Alert or FAH" date. If multiple NSLDS FAH transactions have the same date, the system uses the data from the latest sequence number. The COD data uses the latest COD response by COD Processed Date with the latest COD Document ID timestamp. If all three data sources have the same date value, Regent uses the COD data.

The already-used NSLDS FAY total percentage is applied to the available PGSA percentage. The system then awards the remaining Pell eligibility for the FAY at the Regent school.

Regent Award also uses NSLDS data for setting the Pell Additional Eligibility Indicator (AEI) flag. The AEI is based on the total usage across all schools, including Regent and non-Regent schools, for the FAY.  Regent Award sets the Pell AEI flag to true if the total Pell awarded in the FAY is greater than 100% of PGSA. 

COD Implementation Rules

A student’s eligibility for Pell in excess of PGSA is sent to COD through the submission of the <AdditionalEligibilityIndicator> (AEI) field.

Open

The AEI is updated whenever Pell is awarded above 100% (the PGSA amount) for the FAY. Note, this is not just when APGA is awarded for attendance at a Regent school, but in any case where total Pell for the year exceeds 100% of the PGSA amount.  PGSA could be manually awarded above 100% using the Override Eligibility flag in MAW; any additional disbursements created by this increase would not be designated as APGA in Regent Award, but the AEI flag will be exported to COD as "true."

• When originating or updating a Pell award that is less than or equal to 100% of the PGSA, Regent will export AEI = “false” in the Pell Award Block.

• When originating or updating a Pell award that is greater than 100% of the PGSA, Regent will export AEI = “true” in the Pell Award Block.

• If an award amount was originally not greater than 100% of PGSA and increases at a later date to exceed 100% of PGSA, the AEI will update to “true."

• If an award amount has been reported as greater than 100% of PGSA (AEI = “true”) and subsequently is reduced to at or below 100% of PGSA, the AEI will be updated to “false."

• If PGSA is paid in full (100%) and some YRP is also paid (for example, 15%), and then there is a subsequent reduction to the PGSA amount (for example, -20%) that brings the total award to or below 100% of the PGSA amount (95%), the AEI is changed to "false" even though Regent Award displays some YRP as paid because the total Pell award for the year is less than 100%.

• If the amount awarded at the Regent school is less than 100% of PGSA, but when added to the amount previously awarded for the FAY at another school now makes the amount exceed 100% of the PGSA amount, the AEI is exported to COD as "true."

Change Log