Understanding Passive/Active Mode in Multiple Award Period Processing

Packaging is able to treat awards made during an initial award period as passive awards when you are processing a subsequent award period for a student. Two factors determine whether an award is processed in active or passive mode. First is the award period attribute associated with the packaging plan you are currently using to package the student. If the award period attribute is B − Both, Packaging considers all awards made in either award period as active awards (active for evaluation or reevaluation). As a result, in the "Both" award period model, if you want to prevent any existing awards that you have disbursed from being reduced, you must employ disbursement protection (with the exception of Direct Loan awards, because the system's Direct Loan processing rules function like disbursement protection). If the award period attribute associated with the packaging plan is A − Academic or N − Non-Standard, and existing awards made in a previous award period contain a disbursement plan/split code pattern that does not equal the packaging plan's award period, then those awards are considered as passive awards by Packaging. Conversely, if existing awards made in a previous award period contain a disbursement plan/split code pattern that either agree with the designated award period of the packaging plan or span both award periods, then those awards are considered to be active awards, and, therefore, are reevaluated by Packaging. Only the disbursements in the active award period portion of the award are reevaluated. Reevaluation may cause the existing awards to be reduced based on the revised need situation as well as revised eligibility criteria. An award cannot be reduced below the total of the disbursements in the passive award period portion of the award.

Note:

Because the packaging plan's Award Period attribute triggers the use of passive/active mode, you must use an additional field to use passive/active mode processing in Manual Packaging.

WARNING:

You must not activate disbursement protection for Direct Loan Financial Aid Item Types. If you activate disbursement protection for a Direct Loan, Packaging does not follow the processing rules established for Direct Loans and instead treats the Direct Loan award as it would any other disbursement-protected award.

The award period for an individual award is determined based on the disbursement plan/split code pattern of the award. If the disbursement plan/split code pattern spans only the AAP then the award is designated as "Academic." If the disbursement plan/split code pattern spans only the NSAP, then the award is designated as "Non-Standard." Finally, if the disbursement plan/split code pattern spans both the AAP and NSAP, then the award is designated as "Both." For all awards of a Financial Aid Item Type that you use in more than one award period, the disbursement plan must span both the AAP and NSAP. In other words, all AAP and NSAP terms must be defined. The split code can have scheduled disbursements in the AAP, the NSAP, or both award periods. For awards with a disbursement plan that includes both award periods, the split code determines the award period for that award. So if the split code indicates that all disbursements are scheduled for the AAP, the award is considered to have an award period of Academic even though the disbursement plan includes the AAP and NSAP.

Note:

If you have more than one disbursement plan for a Financial Aid Item Type—because you assigned different disbursement plans to each instance of that Financial Aid Item Type—Packaging displays an error message indicating that different disbursement plans were found.

Awards within a packaging plan must contain disbursement plan/split code patterns that are compatible with the packaging plan's award period attribute. For example, an award can have a disbursement plan/split code pattern that is designated only for the AAP despite the award period attribute on the packaging plan designating an award period of B − Both. However, if the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern is designated for the AAP only, and the packaging plan's award period attribute is N − Non-Standard, then you receive error message 9580 after validation indicating that you must change either the award's disbursement plan/split code pattern or the packaging plan's award period attribute so that they are compatible.

If the disbursement plan/split code pattern of an award does not match the award period attribute of the packaging plan, Packaging treats that award as a passive award. For example, you are packaging a student for a trailing summer term using a packaging plan with an award period attribute of N − Non-Standard, and the student already has an existing departmental scholarship whose disbursement plan/split code pattern designates the award for the AAP. When you repackage the student for the NSAP, Packaging treats the departmental scholarship as a passive award because the packaging plan's award period attribute and the disbursement plan/split code pattern for the existing award do not match. If the existing award has a disbursement plan/split code pattern that spans both award periods, Packaging evaluates only the disbursements of the award in the award period that matches the packaging plan's award period attribute as active; the disbursements designated in the other award period are processed as passive and remain untouched.

There are two different business processes involving multiple award period processing. One involves sequential award period processing, the other simultaneous award period processing. Sequential award period processing involves packaging the student for an initial award period (AAP) and then packaging the student for a second, subsequent award period (NSAP). Simultaneous award period processing involves packaging the student for both award periods at the same time. An example of sequential award period processing is when a student enrolls at a community college for only one term—summer only or spring only—in one award period and then decides to return in a subsequent term resulting in a different award period. You use simultaneous award period processing for students that attend the institution for both award periods. If you have an academic program longer than 9 months, you might be packaging your students using simultaneous award period processing. However, setting up one award period that covers the entire academic program is the recommended business process.