BULLETIN #132 (TAP Eligibility)
TO: Chief Executive Officers
FROM: Robert J. Maurer, President
SUBJECT: Part-Time TAP Eligibility for Students with Disabilities
DATE: August 4, 1998
CC: Financial Aid Administrators, Certifying Officers, Bursars, Registrars, Campus Coordinators of Disabled Student Services
On July 14, Governor Pataki signed Senate Bill 7072 into law as Chapter 332 of the Laws of 1998. This new law provides that students who are disabled, as defined by the 1990 Federal Americans with Disabilities Act, do not have to be in full-time attendance to be eligible for Tuition Assistance Program payments. These students are now eligible for TAP if they are attending part-time, as defined by the Commissioner of Education. This new law is effective immediately.
Under prior law, regulation and policy, students with disabilities who attended school part-time because of their disability were eligible for a TAP award payment only after the number of credits they took equaled the number necessary to be considered a full-time student. This was usually after two or more semesters. Chapter 332 provides these students are eligible for a partial TAP award payment in the first term in which they attend on a part-time basis. The law does not require students with disabilities to attend part-time; students with disabilities who attend full-time continue to be eligible, as any other student, for a full TAP award.
For the purposes of application processing, students with disabilities should follow the same procedures as other students. HESC will continue to calculate a full-time TAP award for any eligible student who applies. Schools will be asked to certify the eligibility of students with disabilities who are attending less than full-time for a part-time TAP award. Once the school certifies a student’s eligibility, HESC will calculate the part-time TAP award and post it to the remittance advice. HESC will then notify the student of the award by issuing an award certificate. We will shortly issue a technical bulletin giving full details on the methodology for computing the amount of the TAP award and the impact on TAP point accumulation.
The new law did not change any of the other TAP eligibility requirements, including students be matriculated in a program of study, be in good academic standing, or have achieved a C average at the completion of their second academic year. HESC is working with the State Education Department to further define how these existing TAP requirements will be applied to these students.
It is important that the Financial Aid Office and the TAP Certifying Officer work jointly with the office or staff responsible for administering the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The TAP Certifying Officer must be able to document that the student is ADA eligible. Those records can be obtained from the designated campus ADA representative. Since we do not yet have a list of the campus coordinators for the disabled, we have included two copies of this bulletin in the mailing to the Financial Aid Officers.
If you have any questions or require additional information about the new law, please call the Office of Field Services at (518) 474-3552.