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Year Round Pell Policy
The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 made some changes to the awarding of Pell Grant. HEOA makes it possible for eligible students to receive more than 100% of their Pell Grant eligibility providing they meet certain requirements.
At Gulf Coast State College (GCSC), beginning with the 2009-2010 academic year students may be eligible for up to two scheduled awards (200%) of Pell grants. For the summer of 2010, GCSC will pay Pell grant out of the 2009-2010 award year (as a “trailer”). If students have used or are in the process of using 100% of their first Pell grant award during the academic year, enroll for at least 6 credit hours in the summer, and have made adequate academic progression, they may be eligible for an additional award in the summer. Since GCSC defines its year as 24 credit hours, in order for a student to make adequate academic progress, they must have completed or are in the process of completing (grade of D or better) more than 24 credit hours to be eligible for more than 100% of their Pell award. In short, adding the number of credit hours completed in fall plus the number completed in spring plus the number of hours enrolled in the summer (at least 6) must be at least 25. Pell grants for a payment period may be combined using the first and second scheduled awards if the student is eligible. For the summer 2010 only, no consideration will be given to 2010-2011 student eligibility during the cross-over payment period. Below are some year-round Pell examples.
Example 1
Fall |
Spring |
Summer |
Completed 12 credit Hours |
Completed 12 Credit Hours |
Enrolls in 6 credit hours
ELIGIBLE |
Since 12+12+6 is greater than or equal to 25 and they registered for 6 credits, they are eligible.
Example 2
Fall |
Spring |
Summer |
Completed 9 credit Hours |
Completed 12 Credit Hours |
Enrolls in 6 credit hours
ELIGIBLE |
Even though they did not complete 24 hours in fall and spring, 9+12+6 is greater than or equal to 25 and they are registered for 6 credits, so they are eligible.
Example 3
Fall |
Spring |
Summer |
Completed 9 credit Hours |
Completed 9 Credit Hours |
Enrolls in 6 credit hours
NOT ELIGIBLE |
This student is not eligible for additional Pell because 9+9+6 is less than 25.
For the summer of 2011, GCSC will consider the term to be a cross-over payment period and will pay Pell grant out of the 2010-2011 or 2011-2012 award year, which ever award year is more beneficial to the student. Students must have a valid ISIR on file with all required documents being received and processed to determine Pell grant eligibility. If the summer award is paid out of 2010-2011 as a second award, all requirements listed above must be met.
For the summer terms in all subsequent years after 2011, the rules applied in summer 2011 will be applied using the correct aid years as determined by federal regulations.
Starting the spring 2010 semester, transfer students who may be eligible for a second Pell award will be evaluated using the assumption method as it relates to academic progression. If a student received 100% of the first scheduled Pell award at prior school(s), we will assume the student completed the first academic year (24 credit hours). If the student received less than 100% of the first Pell award, we will assume the same ratio of credit hours were completed as percentage of award received. Here’s an example of how this will be calculated. A student received $2007 of their $5350 award at a previous school. Since GCSC’s academic year is defined as 24 credit hours, we do the following calculation. $2007 X 24/$5350 = 9 credits assumed completed. The student is given 9 credits towards completion of first academic year as explained in the second paragraph.
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