CARES, CRRSAA, and ARP Acts; Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF)

Finger Lakes Community College's Plan for CARES Act HEERF

Distribution Methodology and Timeframes

The college has created the following methodology based on Department of Education and SUNY guidance.

Priority 1

• Students must be Title IV eligible. Students do not have to have filed the FAFSA to be eligible for the monies. We believe the simplest way to determine if they are Title IV eligible is to have a FAFSA on file. The majority of our students do file a FAFSA, therefore we will start the distribution of funding to students who have a 19-20 or a 20-21 FAFSA on file.
• The committee calculated the number the number of students in high, medium, and low need based on EFC ranges, respectively: $0-5,576, $5,577-10,728, $10,730 and above. These EFCs were chosen for the need ranges based on Pell eligible EFCs.
• Using the 2019-20 cost of attendance budget as a guideline, additional expenses have been estimated based on expenses students would have incurred for the rest of the Spring 2020 term had they been allowed to stay and continue their face-to-face instruction. The attached document, "Room, Board and Transportation Expenses for Spring 2020 Semester", outlines the calculation in greater detail.
• Priority for funding will go to the highest need students with the lowest EFC first. Students in all need categories will receive notification of a fixed dollar amount award. The fixed dollar amount methodology is below. Students will receive this notification via e-mail, which will describe their options to accept the fixed amount, accept the fixed amount and request additional funding, or decline any awards from this fund. The e-mail will also detail what the funds are to be used for.
  1. Based on students' EFC ranges, the following amounts will be allocated to full time students. The amounts were derived from a calculation of 82% of the total award allocation, divided by the number of students eligible, with the highest amount given to students who fall into the highest need category, based on EFC.
  • $800.00 high need students
  • $600.00 medium need students
  • $400.00 low need students
• Finger Lakes Suites at Laker Landing residents, or presumed off-campus residents not living in the Suites (based on county of residence), will receive an extra $200.00 to cover travel expenses incurred with travel back and forth to campus as the COVID-19 emergency unfolded.
• Students' need-based awards were multiplied by a factor determined by their face-to-face credits hours, as follows:
  
  • Full-time students: X 1 (12 or more credits)
    
  • Three-quarter time students :X .75 (7 - 11 credits)
    
  • Half-time students : X.5 (6 credits)
• Using this formula, if every student applies for and receives their award, FLCC will spend: $1,091,750.00

Priority 2

• $236, 114 of the allocation of $1,327, 864 will be set aside to allow for funding of additional requests from the Formstack application, students who have not previously filed a FAFSA but may need funding and are willing to file the FAFSA to determine eligibility, and students who are taking less than 6 credits of face-to-face courses in a degree program that is not designated as completely online.
• The cap for students requesting additional funding will be the maximum Pell Grant Award of $6195. This would include their original offered amount.
• Priority 2 amounts will be based on how much money is remaining after distribution of funds to Priority 1 students. The Priority 2 students, who are taking less than 6 credits of face to face courses, or are entirely online but not in a designated online degree program, and file the FAFSA, will be offered awards based on high, medium and low need categories. Award amounts to be determined depending on funds remaining. These awards will be multiplied by the same factors as Priority 1, according to the number of total credits enrolled.
• The method of distribution of monies to students will be a Finger Lakes Community College check sent directly to the student's home address. This will be a weekly process as applications are submitted.
• First round distribution of funds: Weekly beginning May 18, 2020, depending upon approval timeline of SUNY plan.
• The committee will review the Formstack applications requesting additional funding for approval within a week after the 30 day deadline date. Additional funding requests will be reviewed based on the request being an allowable expense, and the student's need category, which was established for Priority 1, based on EFC. High need students will be given preference first. Communication to students will occur within three (3) business days of the date of decision. Decisions will be communicated via e-mail. Students who have requested additional funding will receive their initial offered amount immediately, and if approved, their additional funding at that later date.

CRRSSA Distribution Methodology, Communication, and Timeframe

The State University of New York (SUNY) provided guidelines for distribution of the HEERF II funds (Attachment A). Using these guidelines, the SUNY Base Aid Grant template (Attachment B) was completed to calculate eligible students' base aid for Spring 2021 emergency grants. A total of 1,456 students (986 full time and 470 part time) were eligible to receive the emergency grants, with the following award breakdown:

• Zero EFC students received a base award of $800.00.
• All other Pell-eligible students were divided into two equal groups of approximate equal size, with the lowest EFC group receiving a base award of $600, and the higher EFC group receiving a $400 base award.
• All the base awards were multiplied by a number representing their spring course load:
  • 12 or more credit hours: 1
  • 9-11 credit hours: .75
  • 6-8 credit hours: .50
  • 1-5 credit hours: .25

A total of 153 students eligible for emergency grants who had balances on their accounts from the Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and/or Spring 2021 were identified and received targeted communications regarding their HEERF II grant award and the potential application of the award to resolve their account balance (Attachment D). Of the 153 students, 29 applied all or a portion of their emergency grant to their student account balance.

The following communications were sent to eligible students to inform them of the emergency grant awards:

• April 19, 2021 (Attachment E) – Letter mailed to 153 eligible students' permanent address on file with the College. The letter informed students of the emergency grant award, current balance owed on their account from Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and/or Spring 2021, and option to assign all or a portion of the award to the student's account balance via the Affirmative Consent form.
• April 19, 2021 (Attachment F) – Email message sent to 153 eligible students' FLCC email and personal email accounts on file with the College. The email message informed students of the emergency grant award, current balance owed from Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and/or Spring 2021, and option to assign all or a portion of the award to the student's account balance via the Affirmative Consent form.
• April 28, 2021 (Attachment G) – Email message sent to 153 eligible students' FLCC email and personal email accounts on file with the College. The email message reiterated the message sent on April 19 and informed students of the extension of the Affirmative Consent deadline from April 26 to May 3.
• May 13, 2021 (Attachment H) – Email message to 1,456 eligible students' FLCC email and personal accounts on file with the college. The email message informed students of the emergency grant award, check processing date, and requested students review their WebAdvisor account to ensure the College has an accurate mailing address on file.
• May 20, 2021 (Attachment I) – Letter mailed to 1,456 eligible students' permanent mailing address on file with the College. The letter informed students of the emergency grant award and check processing date of May 24, 2021.

Of the 1,456 checks distributed in May, 54 remain uncashed as of November 1, 2021, and the 90-day expiration time limit has passed.

American Rescue Plan/HEERF III Allocation

Finger Lakes Community College was allocated $10,106,584 total funds with a minimum of $5,141,582 being allocated to direct to student funding. The State University of New York (SUNY) provided guidance to affiliated schools for the distribution of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to students. The guidance required schools to award ARP funds using Block Grant approach and provided spreadsheets to determine the individual awards to students.

Awarding Methodology

Direct to Student Funds- Eligibility Criteria

Campuses were instructed to provide 80% of student funds based on exceptional need, such as students who are Pell Grant eligible or with extraordinary financial circumstances. Calculations from the FAFSA were used to create priority levels for the funding.

A maximum of twenty percent of the funds were reserved for international students, students with an EFC higher than the last banded range, and students who requested a review for additional aid due to special conditions. Awards to these students were not to exceed the minimum award for banded students. SUNY guidance provided a block grant approach for an equitable and simplified distribution method. FLCC chose to disburse the majority of the HEERF III funds in the fall semester.

Fall awards were funded by remaining student funding from HEERF II uncashed checks and the HEERF III/ARP funds.

Two disbursements took place in the spring 2022 semester. Spring awards included the remaining funds and any uncashed checks from fall. At least eighty percent of the funds were to be awarded using the EFC award ranges indicated below:

First Spring 2022 Disbursement Distribution:

Second Spring 2022 Disbursement Distribution:

Method of Outstanding Balance Option

Students were provided the opportunity to request their ARP disbursements be used toward an outstanding balance with FLCC. Students were emailed and asked to complete an online request form. Appendix B. Based on the student request, finance staff applied payments to student accounts to offset outstanding balances.

Method of Disbursement

Direct to student payments were disbursed via paper checks mailed to the students' permanent address on file with FLCC. Uncashed and returned checks were followed up by finance staff to resolve.

Student Communications

Direct to Student

Email and letter communications were sent to students to indicate their funding options and award amounts.

ARP Outreach

SUNY offered the assistance of EdAmerica to centralize student outreach for special conditions requests, FLCC chose to follow this guidance and use EdAmerica services for the student outreach requirement of ARP. Based on the agreement signed with EdAmerica, the director of financial aid identified students to be contacted and uploaded the file through their secure portal. The outreach agreement provided that EdAmerica staff would contact FLCC students via email to notify them of the opportunity to request additional assistance through the special circumstances process already established by FLCC's financial aid office. The cost of the outreach through EdAmerica was $14,637.

Students were directed to a landing page approved by SUNY. We received no requests for special consideration as a result of the outreach efforts.

June 30, 2020
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

September 30, 2020
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

December 31, 2020
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

March 31, 2021
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

June 30, 2021
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

September 30, 2021
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

December 31, 2021
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

March 31, 2022
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

June 30, 2022
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

September 30, 2022
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

December 31, 2022
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

March 31, 2023
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

June 30, 2023
Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Report

CARES Act Required Disclosures

Finger Lakes Community College acknowledges an authorized representative of the institution has signed and returned to the Department the Certification and Agreement and the institution has used, or intends to use, no less than 50 percent of the funds received under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students.

Finger Lakes Community College has received or will receive $1,327,864 from the Department of Education pursuant to the Certification and Agreement [for] Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $549,800.00 to 743 students, under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act as of June 30, 2020.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $910,691 to 1510 students, under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act as of September 30, 2020.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $1,327,864 to 1510 students, under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act as of December 30, 2020.

Finger Lakes Community College has determined approximately 2,291 students at the institution are eligible to participate in programs under Section 484 in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and thus eligible to receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act.

CRSSA Act Required Disclosures

Finger Lakes Community College has received or will receive $1,327,864 from the Department of Education pursuant to the Certification and Agreement [for] Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total $1,000.00 to a total of 21 students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of March 30, 2021.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total $1,288,014.75 to a total of 1532 students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of June 30, 2021.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $1,288,014.75 under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of September 30, 2021.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $1,327,864 to a total of 1532 students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of December 30, 2021.

ARP Act Required Disclosures

Finger Lakes Community College has received or will receive $5,141,582.00 from the Department of Education pursuant to the Certification and Agreement [for] Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $2,021,150.75 to a total of 2869 students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of December 30, 2021.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $2,021,150.75 to a total of 2869 students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of March 30, 2022.

Finger Lakes Community College has distributed a total of $5,141,582.00 to a total of 3440 students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CRSSA Act as of June 30, 2022.