SAP in the Time of COVID-19

The CARES Act, passed by Congress back in March, besides providing emergency funding for students, also provides additional flexibilities to institutions regarding the calculation of Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP).  “An institution of higher education may, as a result of a qualifying emergency, exclude from the quantitative component of the calculation any attempted credits that were not completed by such student without requiring an appeal by such student.” What is SAP usually? OSFA is required to evaluate three components at the end of each academic year for a student to maintain eligibility for most types of financial aid:

• Undergraduate and Special students must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0.
• All students must successfully complete a cumulative 2/3 (67%) of all credits for which they attempt.
  • “Attempted” coursework includes all classes that appear on their official transcript, including those with a DR (dropped) or W (withdrew) grade notation.
  • “Completed” coursework includes all classes with a passing grade (D or above). Credits that are dropped, failed, or incomplete will negatively impact completion rate.
• All students may not enroll for more than 150% of the number of credits needed to complete their degree. Transfer credits and prior degree credits are included in this evaluation.

If a student fails any component of SAP, they’re given the opportunity to appeal the loss of financial aid by addressing the cause and issues with their academic progress as well as communicating with an academic advisor to work on an academic plan to make sure the issues can be resolved moving forward.  Our team ends up approving most appeals, so we STRONGLY recommend students go through the process. What will SAP look like now? That’s a GREAT question and we’re still working it out! As what happens often with quick changes to regulations, our guidance keeps changing just a bit, the most recent of which came out on Friday 5/15. We do know that the SD/UD grades will not be included in the calculation of a student’s GPA.  What we don’t know is how our appeal process will change (i.e. do students need to appeal at all if it’s COVID-19-related?) or based on this most recent guidance how our team will “have reasonably determined that the student’s failure to complete those credits was the result of a COVID-19 related circumstance.” We hope to keep our timeline for notifying students of SAP failures only slightly delayed from the usual first week of June.  But quick, knock on some nearby wood as you read this that no further guidance or complications delay us further! Our team will provide more solidified details in the June edition of DEM Updates.