3How SFP handles Pell Grants for 2023-2024 and prior aid years

Oracle Student Financial Planning (SFP) checks whether the student meets all general Title IV eligibility requirements. It also reviews the student's program, Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), courses, and financial aid history information to determine eligibility.

Determines Pell Grant elibigility

SFP determines whether the student is enrolled in an undergraduate Pell eligible program and has an eligible enrollment status before it awards Pell. SFP also prevents retroactive Pell awarding if the student doesn't meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) or has unusual enrollment restrictions.

For Pell-eligible students, the application uses the program type, Pell cost of attendance (COA), and Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and incorporates them into the Pell disbursement matrix, based on the student's enrollment status, to determine a Pell scheduled award.

For students enrolled in a program that doesn't align with standard academic year metrics, the application prorates the scheduled award based on the number of credit hours or weeks in the academic year to calculate the student's annual award.

Determines Pell Grant awards

If the student is eligible to receive Pell Grant funds, SFP determines the award amount and includes it in the student's package.

SFP establishes the payment period award year and determines whether the student qualifies for Zero EFC treatment based on the calculated EFC number.

The application uses the COA, nine-month EFC, or Zero EFC, and enrollment status when it calculates the student's scheduled award. For students enrolled in periods longer or shorter than an academic year, SFP uses a prorated COA.

SFP also determines whether the student has exceeded the aggregate (Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU)) or award year (Percent of Eligibility Used (PEU)) limits. It determines the maximum projected award per payment period by selecting the lesser of the Pell scheduled award disbursement amounts or the Pell LEU or award year limit, and it doesn't award less than the regulatory minimum amount for Pell.

The final amount or amounts to be disbursed follow the ground rules for Pell formula fraction calculations and rounding.

Calculates Pell Grant disbursement amounts for nonterm credit-hour institutions

SFP uses Pell Formula 4 to calculate the disbursement amounts per payment period for a nonterm credit-hour institution. Pell Formula 4 prorates the student's scheduled award based on the number of credit hours in the payment period compared with the credit-hours in the defined academic year, or the number of weeks of instructional time in the payment period compared with the weeks of instructional time in the academic year.

Determines Pell Grant awards for a crossover payment period

Institutions can use the Award Year Selection Criteria field in the FAS Fund configuration workbook to select which aid year to use to determine Pell Grant awards for the crossover payment period.

If you don't configure the Award Year Selection Criteria field, SFP defaults to the first award year if there's remaining eligibility. If there's no remaining eligibility in the first award year of a crossover payment period, SFP uses the second award year to award Pell funds.

When Pell Grant eligibility conditions exist for the first and second award year, SFP calculates the maximum projected award for both award years in the crossover payment period and determines whether there are ISIRs selected to be used in packaging ISIR for both award years.

SFP uses the same formula to calculate the payment for a crossover payment period that it uses for any other payment period in the award year.

Updates the Pell Grant award status

SFP updates the fund status from estimated to projected to awarded during the packaging process when the fund meets the configured awarding criteria.

After the status updates to awarded, it doesn't revert to estimated or projected unless the ISIR is updated from valid to invalid. If that happens, the fund status is updated from awarded to projected.

If an award amount increases and the student doesn't pass the award criteria check, SFP doesn't award the increased amount.