Pop Quiz - How Is the Federal Pell Grant Awarded for the Summer Term?

Scenario:

A student was enrolled full time during fall 2021 and spring 2022, receiving 100% of the scheduled award (SA) for the 2021-22 award year. If the student then enrolls in six credits in the summer 2022 term, which is composed of combined modules, should the school pay the additional eligibility from 2021-22? Or, should the school utilize the crossover payment period and start using 2022-2023 Pell Grant funds? 


Answer:

It depends. The school should have a policy for how it handles summer, which may be to treat summer as the end of the award year (a trailer) or the beginning of the award year (a header), or your policy could be to alternate. This also assumes summer is a crossover period, otherwise, the school must attribute the whole summer to the end of the year (if all modules take place before June 30) or the whole summer to the beginning of the year (if all modules take place after July 1).That being said, if the  school's policy is to treat summer as the end of the award year, and the student is enrolled half time for the summer, the student is eligible for year-round Pell. Conversely, if the student only enrolls for three credits and the school’s policy is to treat summer as the end of the award year, the student would have no remaining Pell Grant eligibility. Remember, in order to receive any portion of the second SA during an award year, the student must be enrolled at least half time. However, if your policy is to treat summer as the start of an award year, the student would be eligible for Pell Grant funds as part of the new award year. For example when the school treats summer as the beginning of the new award year, if a student is less than half time (LTHT) in the summer 2022 term, he would receive 12.5% of the SA, then full time in the fall 2022 term (50% of SA), leaving 37.5% of his first SA for spring 2023. If he is full time for spring 2023, the student is eligible to receive 12.5% of a SA from the second SA, , i.e., year-round Pell, in order to receive the full-time Pell Grant amount (50% of SA).

 

Publication Date: 7/19/2022


Lisa S | 7/19/2022 11:45:36 AM

So what if a school has a summer trailer , and summer is modular 1 and modular 2. Mod 1 starts end of May end July 4, Mod 2 start July 4 .. does the same theory apply meaning we can award YRP out of 21/22 or 22/23? OR count halftime enrollment at 3 credits out of Mod 1 and the other three out of Mod 2?

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