Section 2732.40  Institutional Procedures

a)         The institution shall certify the applicant's award amount within the time frame requested by ISAC, which shall be no sooner than 30 days unless a more rapid response is necessary to expend appropriated funds prior to the end of the academic year.

b)         Institutional Packaging of Assistance:

1)         If the recipient receives other assistance targeted specifically for tuition and fees, the combined assistance shall not exceed the total tuition and fee expenses incurred by the student; if it does, the institution shall reduce one of the awards accordingly;

2)         notwithstanding the provisions of other ISAC-administered programs, the total amount of a student's gift assistance may not exceed the student's cost of attendance at that institution.  Any excess gift assistance is considered an overaward and the institution is required to notify ISAC to reduce this grant and/or other gift assistance to prevent such an overaward; and

3)         if the recipient is eligible for assistance under MAP, the  recipient may not be eligible for a full MAP grant because the police or fire officer grant must be factored into the financial aid package prior to receiving MAP gift assistance.  The institution, however, may request a MAP grant to finance tuition and mandatory fee expenses not paid by this program.

c)         Institutional Processing of Payments:

1)         Within 30 days after and including the date of receiving payment, the institution shall credit the award toward the recipient's tuition and mandatory fee charges for the appropriate term.

2)         Institutions are required to reconcile payments, both payment data and actual funds, received through the Grant Program for Dependents of Police or Fire Officers and, as applicable, submit all necessary corrections to student records on a timely basis.

3)         Within 30 days after the end of an academic term during which the Grant for Dependents of Police or Fire Officers funds are credited to recipient's tuition and mandatory fee charges, institutions must reconcile data received from ISAC as a result of payment claim processing against the eligibility status throughout that term for each student for whom payment claims were made. In reconciling the data with student eligibility, an institution must determine whether:

A)        The amount of the claim applied to a student's tuition and mandatory fee charges exceeded the amount that the student was eligible to receive for any reason, including as a result of billing errors or retroactive withdrawals; or

B)        The amount of the claim applied to a student's tuition and mandatory fee charges was less than the amount that the student was eligible to receive for any reason, including as a result of billing errors or retroactive withdrawals; or

C)        The amount of the claim applied to a student's tuition and mandatory fee charges equaled the amount that the student was eligible to receive.

4)         Any institution that determines that the amount of a claim applied to a student's tuition and mandatory fee charges either exceeded the amount that the student was eligible to receive or was less than that amount must submit an accounting of all such adjustments to ISAC within 30 days following the end of the applicable term.

5)         For any claims determined to exceed the amount that the student was eligible to receive, the amount in excess paid for the claims shall be remitted to ISAC within 45 days after the end of the applicable term unless the payment is received after the end of the applicable term. If the payment of claims is made after the end of the applicable term, the institution shall have 60 days following receipt of the payment to complete reconciliation and remit any funds due to ISAC.

6)         Award payments made in the name of one recipient cannot be applied to another recipient at the same institution.  A refund of the payment must be submitted to ISAC and a supplemental request must be made and processed for the proper recipient.

7)         If the institution does not submit refunds as required, ISAC will deduct outstanding refunds from subsequent payments to the institution.

8)         To provide sufficient time for processing and vouchering through the State Comptroller's Office in Springfield, all payment requests except for summer term must be received by ISAC no later than July 1.  Summer term payment requests must be received no later than July 31.

(Source:  Amended at 37 Ill. Reg. 9516, effective July 1, 2013)