State Grant and Special Programs Update

Presented by Christine A. Zuzack2012 PASFAA Annual Conference

2012-13 Appropriations

Program Dollars Change

State Grant $344.888 -9.4%

IAG $ 24.389 0%

Matching Funds $ 12.496 -5.0%

Bond-Hill $ .534 0%

Cheyney Keystone Academy $ 1.525 0%

Act 101 $ 2.246 -4.9%

Blind or Deaf Beneficiary Grant $ .047 -4.0%

2012-13 State Grant

• The annual administrative costs of $13 million for the State Grant and Special Programs are paid with PHEAA business earnings so that all appropriated dollars go to awards.

• PHEAA supplemented the State Grant program with $75 million from their business earnings.

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2012-13 State Grant Program

• For 2012-13 award adjustment factor is .9250 resulting in the following maximum awards:

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Cost Tier Min/Max Award

$ 0 to $11,000 $500/$2,313

$11,001 to $21,000 $500/$3,700

$21,001 to $30,000 $500/$3,978

$30,001 to $32,000 $500/$4,348

2012-13 State Grant - New

• New for 2012-13 is the Educational Expense Allowance (EEC) of $4,000 for all schools which replaces actual room and board and the commuter expense allowance.– Eliminates the need to confirm housing status– Actual room and board still collected for statistical

purposes on annual cost form.– Resultant changes to Gift Aid calculations

• May use actual room and board for on-campus students

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2012-13 State Grant - New

• Emailed on July 3, 2012

• Located in the Document Library

Main Menu/State Grant Program/Memoranda

2012-13 State Grant - New

Distance Education Changes

• Definitions of in-classroom instruction have been broadened

– Synchronous learning may now be counted as in-classroom instruction

– Hybrid classes that are at least 50% in-classroom can be counted as in-classroom

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2012-13 State Grant -New

Monitoring of Distance Education Enrollment•By overall program, academic year, or term permitted through 2012-13•Beginning in 2013-14 must be monitored and reported by term•Credits coming in from another institution do not have to be evaluated as DE or not since only current term enrollments are being monitored

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SG Distance Education Pilot Study

• PHEAA is exploring a distance education pilot program to assess the cost of expanding the number of State Grant eligible programs of study.

• This is a regulatory requirement that necessitates legislation being passed to conduct this pilot.

• Stay tuned!

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2012-13 State Grant - New

Due to the volatility of the Commonwealth budget for 2012-13, many public institutions were not able to establish their tuition rates before State Grant awards were calculated.

2011-12 tuition and fees were used to process 2012-13 State Grant awards for all institutions.

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Federal Pell Grant Awards

Federal Pell Grant eligibility is calculated for all students based on the EFC used for the SG award. Does not take into account:•Title IV eligibility of the school•Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU)•Maximum award per year•Title IV verification•Title IV academic progress

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State Grant Program

DOES YOUR INSTITUTION SPEND A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME MANUALLY REVIEWING AND UPDATING STATE GRANT INFORMATION?

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS AN EASIER WAY?

•Automate State Grant processing by participating in the electronic data transmissions offered by PHEAA for the Pennsylvania State Grant Program. This allows you to:

Input data into your Financial Aid Management System (FAMS) for your analyses

Extract data from your FAMS and make automated State Grant updates

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State Grant Program

State Grant Transmissions:

•Are easy and secure •Allow you to control the same data offered within the reports that you are already accustomed to using •Allow you to choose your data management tool(s) •Save resource time by eliminating the need for manual update requests •Expedite processing

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State Grant - New

• Coming in 2013 is a web-based tool that will make your State Grant reporting easier!

• Web portal will replace FG11, FG5Y, FG5T and offer a number of enhancements for reporting student changes.

• Look for announcements in the upcoming months on the School Interface Project.

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2013-14 State Grant Program

• For 2013-14 the interface with the FOTW and the SGF will be operational on January 1, 2013.

• Students are only offered the opportunity to use this function on the first attempt at completing the FOTW.

• An email will be sent to those who do not use this function to complete the needed data in Account Access.

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2013-14 Appropriations

• PHEAA Board of Directors requested a 5% increase for the SGP.

• Governor Corbett will announce his 2013-14 appropriation recommendations on February 5, 2013.

• 2013-14 State Grant formula set by Board of Directors in April 2013.

• Awards finalized once budget signed into law.

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2013-14 State Grant Program

• A State Grant Early Estimator will be available in December to assist with freshmen award packaging.

• These are typically low estimates when compared to the final award values

• Updated as financial resources change

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PA-TIP

• New initiative for short term programs in three high priority occupation areas:– Energy– Advanced Materials and Diversified Manufacturing – Agriculture and Food Production

• Programs must be TIV eligible and at least ten weeks but less than two academic years in length

• Max. award is $4,348

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PA-TIP

• Students must be enrolled full-time • Max. EFC for eligibility is 9800• Award Estimator available to assist with

award determinations• December 31, 2012 is deadline for school

applications for 2012-13.• April 1, 2013 application deadline for students

Blind or Deaf Beneficiary Grant

Schools can help to identify eligible students:•Maximum award of $500 per year.•Application available online at pheaa.org•Student must have eligibility determined by a health professional or OVR

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SWSP

Agency effort to reach out to schools and employers to promote utilization of SWSP.

For more complete information, check out the website:

http://www.pheaa.org/partner-access/work-study-employers/index.shtml

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SWSP

• The Budget Control Act of 2011 eliminated the interest subsidy on graduate student Direct Loans effective July 1, 2012. Definition of need for graduate students will be

defined as having unmet need after the EFC and all grants, scholarships, and waivers have been applied to costs.

Lists on PageCenter for schools of grad students. Email SP staff with eligible students.

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Other Special Programs

• Chafee: Annual award amount for 2012-13 is $3,000, an increase of $500 from 2011-12

• EAP: Maximum award for 2012-13 is $6,428• PATH: Maximum award continues to be

$2,500• Institutional Assistance Grant Per Capita

estimated at $504 for 2012-13.

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Program Close-Outs

Programs that are being eliminated: For the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship

Program 2011-12 was last year for limited awards 2013-14 will be last year for Pennsylvania GEAR-

UP awards for a limited number of current recipients. The 2011-12 freshmen cohort was the last to enter the program.

NETS awards will continue until graduation for students who received an award in 2010-11.

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Program Participation Agreements

New Program Participation Agreements are being developed for all PHEAA administered programs consisting of the following:•A Master Agreement for overall participation•Individual Schedules for each program

FWSP-ON and FWSP-CS are the first to be distributed.

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Other Initiatives

• Governor’s Advisory Commission on Postsecondary Education– Panel examining current status of

postsecondary education in PA and future needs– Report due November 15, 2012

• PENNWatch– Legislation that requires all state disbursements

to be posted online as of January 1, 2013

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Webinar Training

• To supplement our training and outreach activities, a series of webinars are being developed to address your educational needs.

• After the initial live offering, these webinars are archived for easy access.

• Look for future sessions!

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Webinar Training

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Webinar Training

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Communications

• Mailboxes: sghelp@pheaa.org ■ paetg@pheaa.org act101@pheaa.org ■ pegp@pheaa.org bdbg@pheaa.org ■ patip@pheaa.org iag@pheaa.org ■ path@pheaa.org eap@pheaa.org nets@pheaa.org gearup@pheaa.org matchingfunds@pheaa.org

Questions or Comments?

Christine A. Zuzack

1200 North Seventh Street

Harrisburg, PA 17102-1444

717.720.2368

czuzack@pheaa.org

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