Maintained for Historical Purposes

This resource is being maintained for historical purposes only and is not currently applicable.

Federal Pell Grant Program - Introduction

AwardYear: 1995-1996
EnterChapterNo: 4
EnterChapterTitle: Federal Pell Grant Program
SectionNumber:
SectionTitle: Introduction
PageNumbers: 1-2


This chapter of the Federal Student Financial Aid Handbook
describes how a school calculates and pays Federal Pell Grant
(Pell) awards to eligible students and how it reports those
payments to the U.S. Department of Education.

The discussion covers what the school must do to process an
eligible student's Pell award after the school has received
documentation of the student's eligibility. This chapter covers
the basic steps in the Pell award process at the school:
confirming student eligibility, calculating the award, making a
disbursement, recalculating the award (if necessary), collecting
overpayments, and reporting expenditures to the Department.

UPDATES

[[Final Rule 11-1-94]]
On November 1, 1994, the Department amended the Federal Pell
Grant Program regulations. These changes become effective on July
1, 1995. Some of the major changes in the regulations are--

- The methods for calculating Pell payments for a payment period
are revised. The regulations now provide separate calculations for
programs with standard terms (semesters, trimesters, and
quarters) and programs with nonstandard terms.

- The term "Institutional Student Information Record" (ISIR) is
defined, and includes the document previously called an
Electronic Student Aid Report (ESAR). The requirement that an
ISIR be signed to be valid has been removed.

- Students can not be required to submit a Student Aid Report
(SAR) if the school participates in the electronic or magnetic
disbursement systems (Electronic Data Exchange [EDE],
Recipient Data Exchange [RDE], or the Floppy Disk Data
Exchange) and receives the student's ISIR.

- Schools must pay a student based on a valid ISIR, as well as a
valid SAR.

- The term "Payment Voucher" is redefined to include electronic
and magnetic payment records. 1995-96 is the last year that the
Department will provide paper Payment Vouchers.

- The term "annual award" is defined.

- Schools can no longer make a first disbursement without a valid
SAR or ISIR.

Other changes affecting the Federal Pell Grant Program are--

- Students incarcerated in federal or state institutions are not
eligible for Pell.

[[Final Rule 11-29-94]]
- The General Provisions regulations now provide procedures for
schools to request a waiver of the requirement that an academic
year be at least 30 weeks. The revised Pell calculations explain
how schools that have received a waiver should calculate awards.

- Only students being verified are required to sign a Statement of
Updated Information; Pell recipients who are not being verified
are not required to sign this statement.

[[Final Rule 12-1-94]]
- The General Provisions regulations now include cash
management provisions that apply to all programs; these
provisions replace some of the Pell-specific disbursement and
accounting requirements.

- Students cannot receive more than one Scheduled Award for the
1995-96 award year. The regulations allow students to receive two
Scheduled Awards in an award year only if the Department
determines that sufficient funds are available from the
appropriations for that award year. No funds are available for this
purpose for 1995-96.