Satisfactory Progress Policy Student Financial Aid - Policy and Procedures

  1. Back to Policies and Procedures Page
  1. Purpose
    1. As part of the federal administrative capability requirements, the College has developed the following standards to measure student progress towards their technical training.
    2. Progress standards for students enrolled in an eligible program who receive Title IV Aid, are the same as or stricter than the institutional standards for a student enrolled in the same program who is not receiving Title IV Aid.
  2. References
    1. Federal Student Aid Handbook Volume 1, Chapter 1
    2. Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 668.16(e); 668.32(f); 668.34
    3. Higher Education Act Sec 484(c)
    4. Utah Code 53B
    5. Davis Technical College Student Financial Aid Professional Judgment Policy
    6. Davis Technical College Student Financial Aid Attendance Policy
    7. Davis Technical College Student Financial Aid Offers and Packaging Policy
    8. Davis Technical College Grading and Performance Policy
    9. Davis Technical College Schedule Development Policy
    10. Davis Technical College Student Financial Aid Disbursement Policy
  3. Definitions
    1. Completed Hours: Also referred to as “Standard Hours” or “Progress Hours.” Refers to work completed by the student that counts towards student progress.
    2. Enrolled Hours: Hours a student is scheduled to be in class.
    3. Attended Hours: Hours a student physically attends class.
    4. Payment Period: The number of hours a student must attend and the number of hours of work a student must complete in 150% of the scheduled hours for that payment period. For example, if a payment period is 300 hours, the student must attend 300 hours and complete 300 hours’ worth of work by scheduled hour 450.
    5. Progress: A ratio of hours of coursework completed compared to hours of enrollment.
    6. Financial Aid: Includes all federal grants, state grants, scholarships, tuition waivers, and Federal Work Study processed through the Office of Financial Aid.
  4. Policy
    1. Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP): To be eligible for and maintain eligibility for Title IV funds, a student must meet their program’s minimum satisfactory academic progress standards or 67%, whichever is higher, while enrolled in their certificate seeking program, as found in each program’s orientation syllabus.
    2. Frequency: Student progress is evaluated at the end of each payment period for all students in all Pell eligible programs.
    3. Prior Enrollment: A student’s prior enrollment for any certificate program at Davis Tech will be considered when determining eligibility for financial aid. This will include any hours enrolled as a high school student at Davis Tech. This will be based on enrollment in the Northstar system.
    4. Withdrawals: If a student withdraws from Davis Tech before completing an entire payment period and they were not meeting SAP at the time of their withdrawal, they will be placed on Warning status upon returning to Davis Tech and will need to be meeting or exceeding SAP standards at the end of the payment period to maintain financial aid eligibility. This applies if a student returns to Davis Tech more than 180 days since the date of withdrawal.
      1. If a student returns to school within 180 days of a withdrawal, their SAP status will be what it was at the time of withdrawal.
    5. Incomplete and Repeat Coursework: Hours enrolled in courses that are not completed or that are taken more than 1 time will be counted in the qualitative measure and towards maximum timeframe and could lead to a loss of eligibility.
      1. Students in the final module of a class, may be granted an extension of 5 business days to be given the opportunity to finish any incomplete coursework. If a student fails to finish the incomplete coursework, the course will not be signed off and student will need to repeat the course. Hours enrolled during course extension will be counted towards attempted hours towards progress.
    6. Transfer Credits: The college accepts transfer credits also known as alternate documentation or “Alt Doc”. Any courses which are approved for “Alt Doc” will be included in the calculation for completed and attempted hours.
    7. Qualitative Measurement: The qualitative measure is determined through a student’s ability to complete coursework for enrolled hours. A student must maintain a minimum cumulative progress of 67%. A measurement of progress is used in lieu of GPA. Progress is calculated by dividing the completed hours by enrolled hours.
      1. If a program has a stricter requirement for the qualitative measurement, then that must be used when determining a student’s eligibility for aid.
    8. Quantitative Measurement: The quantitative measure is determined through a student’s ability to be on pace for completing the program in no more than 150% of the hours in the program. Progress is monitored at the end of each payment period.
    9. Loss of Eligibility: Students are paid their first payment of aid upon enrollment (see disbursement policy). No subsequent disbursement of aid will be paid until the student completes the work and attends the hours in the payment period for which they have been paid. If the student fails to complete the payment period (both attended and progress hours) before 150% of the hours in the payment period, he/she is considered to have lost financial aid eligibility. The College does not accept appeals for termination of federal aid due to not meeting satisfactory academic progress.
    10. Reinstatement of Eligibility: A student’s eligibility can only be evaluated at the end of each payment period; therefore, a student cannot regain eligibility during a payment period in which they were terminated from federal aid. If at the end of the terminated payment period a student is meeting SAP, their eligibility can be re- instated. A student must request that the financial aid office reevaluate their eligibility for federal aid.
    11. Student Categories: students are divided into separate categories for SAP purposes:
      • Adult Certificate
      • Secondary
      • Personal Interest
      • Occupational Upgrade
      1. Adult students enrolled in Title IV certificate programs are not required to meet standards that may be for students of another category. I.E. secondary students in certain programs have different minimum standards for progress then adult students.
  5. Procedures
    1. Recorded Progress: A student’s progress must be recorded in the student information system (Northstar) for completed hours to be used for determining financial aid eligibility.
    2. Warning: if a student’s cumulative progress is less than 67%, or the minimum requirement for the program, at the end of any official review period, their financial aid will be placed in a warning status. A student is only allowed one (1) warning period for not meeting progress.
    3. Termination: A student’s whose cumulative progress is less than 67%, or the minimum requirement for the program, at the end of their warning period will be terminated from financial aid eligibility. A student who fails to complete the hours in the payment period within 150% of the hours that were paid, will lose eligibility for the subsequent disbursement.
    4. Notification: Students that are placed on a Warning or Terminated status, will be notified through email.
Policy migration in progress

Davis Tech is in the process of migrating our policies from PDF to HTML format to conform to Title II (ADA) requirements. During this transition period, the latest approved version of the policy is available (below) in pdf format, but may contain ADA Compliance errors.

Printable PDF

Effective Date: 01 July 2024

  • Approvals and Notes
  • Effective Date: 1 July 2024
  • Expanded President’s Council Approval: 10 June 2024
  • Revision Date: 24 May 2024
  • Revision Date: 12 December 2022
  • Revision Date: 17 May 2021
  • Revision Date: 20 April 2019
  • Revision Date: 14 September 2018
  • Reviewed: 17 July 2018
  • Reviewed: 14 February 2014
  • Effective Date: 1 July 2011
  • President’s Council Approval: 2 April 2011