TABLE OF CONTENTS


What Is Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)?


To be eligible for FSA funds, a student must make satisfactory academic progress, and every school must have a reasonable policy for monitoring that progress. The U.S. Department of Education considers a satisfactory academic progress policy to be reasonable if it meets both the qualitative and quantitative criteria explained in the Federal Student Aid Handbook.


SAP in GEGI is implemented in the form of rules (e.g., 30 Days SAP rule, 451 Clock Hours SAP rule, 10 Credit Hours SAP rule) that each student has to meet to become eligible for Federal Student Aid. The rules are configured with the minimum allowed grades and the minimum absence percent for the rule to be met.


SAP Rules Configuration


SAP rules are configured for each program individually. You need to select a program and get to the Satisfactory Academic Progress tab on the Program "Name" page:



If the rules are configured, you will see them in the SAP Rules panel.


Switch to the Edit tab to create new or edit the existing rules:



The number of rules for the program is unlimited. The calculations include all student’s courses in all groups of a single program that the student was transferred between. Only Didactic and Clinical courses are counted in. The Prereq courses are omitted. If a student has multiple Clinical Rotations assigned, one of them must be set as Main CR. Otherwise, they will not be included in the calculations.


You cannot configure rules with both Clock Hours and Credit Hours in one program.

You cannot delete a SAP rule if it is met by at least one student.



Configure the rule by setting the required values for the following fields: When Attendance, And Minimum Grade, And % of Absent, And Include Hours from Courses Without Final Grade, Notification Rules:



Choose Clock Hours, Credit Hours, or Days for the When Attendance field.

  • Clock Hours — the rule uses hours, the course hours are counted in if the course is complete. Positive integer and decimal values are allowed.
  • Credit Hours — the rule uses hours as a sum of Credit Hours of the completed courses. Positive integer and decimal values are allowed. 
  • Days — the rule uses days, becomes met at the moment the student spends N days from the date the student has started the program. Only positive integer values are allowed. Multiple groups can be defined for the period:



Next, select the minimum course grade in And Minimum Grade. The rule will be considered met if a student gets a grade not lower than the field value.


Notes on course grade calculation:
  • Clock Hours rules and Days rules work the following way:
    • The courses are taken into account according to the values of the And Include Hours from Courses
      Without Final Grade  field. The final grade should not be lower than the one set in the rule.
    • If Grade Components are not configured, the course will be included in calculations without regard to Is Final Grade and Min Grade. This may happen if the course is a lecture without grades but with attendance.
  • Credit Hours work the other way: the hours of each course are counted in if Final Grade for that course is not lower than the Min Grade:


Set the allowed percent of absence in the And % of Absent field. The rule is met when the absence percent satisfies the defined condition of the rule. If the absence is not relevant to the rule, select the Any option, and the absence will be ignored during that SAP rule calculation.

Notes on absence calculation: the absence percent is calculated for all courses in the rule at once.


The And Include Hours from Courses Without Final Grade setting allows you to define whether the hours in courses should be used if they do not have Is Final Grade:

  • Yes means the hours are taken from all courses without regard to the courses being finalized or not (Is Final Grade is set).
  • No means the hours are taken only from the courses with Is Final Grade.


Note: The And Include Hours from Courses Without Final Grade value can not be set for Days rules. Only No is available for Credit Hours. By default, the value is set to Yes for Clock Hours, No - for Credit Hours:



The Pay Period # field contains information about which payment period in the Financial Aid Plan this rule will be related to. Multiple rules can be related to a single period.


The Notifications Rules field contains comma-separated numbers each representing the number of days before the rule is expected to be met and when the notification is to be sent.


If a student gets the "I" grade (the student is allowed to complete the course in the next two quarters) in clinical courses, the hours in SAP rules are counted as follows:

  • When attendance: All scheduled hours of the extended course are included disregarding the actually attended classes.
  • And Minimum Grade: The "I" grade is considered positive and not affecting the rule condition result.
  • And % of Absence: The course attendance is not counted which means that it does not affect the resulting ratio.
  • And Include Hours From Courses Without Final Grade: Until Is Final Grade is set, the hours in this course will be counted by general rules. The rules defined for extended clinical courses will be applied only after the final grade is "I".


If the student does not complete the clinical course in the end and gets an "F" grade, the SAP rules that are already met (even including this course) will remain met but all future rules will be affected by that grade. If the student completes the course with a positive final grade but takes less hours than expected, the rules that are already met (even including this course) will also remain met but all future rules will be affected by that grade.


Note: The rules for "I" grade courses described above can be enabled using the Enable SAP for Extended Clinical Courses setting.


Email Notifications About SAP Rules


There are two email notification types for SAP rules. 

  1. SAP rules will be met soon — the notifications will contain the list of all groups and courses with the SAP rules expected to be met soon, but the rules may fail to be met for some reason, e.g., if no attendance is logged:



  2. SAP Notification in "Name" Campus, Program "Name" — the notification is set if the SAP rule: is met earlier than expected; is met but the date it is met on changes; the rule status is changed. Such notifications are sent as a report for programs of each campus:


Satisfactory Academic Progress Report


You can open the Satisfactory Academic Progress report using the Education item of the main menu. The report displays all rules grouped by students.


The Search & Order panel filters help to search the students by a program, a group, a SAP rule, a SAP rule status, etc.:


The rules may have the following statuses:

  • In Progress — the rule is active. Is common for ACTIVE students.
  • Met — the rule is met.
  • Not Available — not enough data to estimate the dates when the rule is met or is expected to be met.
  • Not Met — some condition of the rule is not satisfied:


SAP Pace


SAP Pace — this value is calculated as the ratio of the total attempted hours to the total completed hours in courses during the current payment period.

SAP Pace is calculated only for the rules with the Met status and is displayed in the Satisfactory Academic Progress Report: 


Extended clinical courses (courses with "I" for final grade) are included in the SAP Pace calculation as follows:

  • all course hours are included in the total attempted hours but excluded from the total completed hours in periods while the final student’s grade is "I";
  • the course hours will be included in both the total attempted hours and the total completed hours in the period when the course is completed and the rule is met.

If all courses in the period are credit granted for the student, SAP Pace is 100%.
The SAP rules measured in days, SAP Pace is not calculated and will be shown as "N/A".


SAP Details for Clock Hours and Credit Hours


The Student "Name": Satisfactory Academic Progress Details can be opened by clicking the View Details item in the Actions drop-down menu on the Satisfactory Academic Progress page:



The report for the Days rules and the Clock Hours rules is based on the schedule and the attended classes of the student. The report includes particular classes for each of the courses assigned to a student.


Each line of the report contains the class start date, the group/CR, the course, the class duration, the attendance, and the total hours including that class.


The classes that have not been taken into account due to low grade/no grade/no Is Final Grade (if it is required)/without Main CR (with multiple other CRs in the course) will not be displayed on the Student "Name": Satisfactory Academic Progress Details (Clock Hours) page:


The report for the Credit Hours rules is based on the courses, not the schedule or particular classes attendance in the course. The report includes all courses assigned to a student.


Each course has the Credit Hours Total field with the expected credit hours. If the course gets to SAP, the Credit Hours field will show the total hours at the course end:



How SAP Rules Affect Charges Dates


GEGI allows configuring programs so that the date when FA charges get to the AR Card depends on the date when SAP rules are met. More information about it can be found in the following article: FA Charges dates dependent on SAP rules.