HB0745eng 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB0745 Engrossed LRB101 03379 AXK 48387 b

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Higher Education Student Assistance Act is amended by changing Section 70 as follows:

(110 ILCS 947/70)

Sec. 70. Administration of scholarship and grant programs.

(a) An applicant to whom the Commission has awarded a scholarship or grant under this Act may apply for enrollment as a student in any qualified institution of higher learning. The institution is not required to accept the applicant for enrollment, but is free to exact compliance with its own admissions requirements, standards, and policies. The institution may receive the payments of tuition and other necessary fees provided by the scholarship or grant, for credit against the student's obligation for such tuition and fees, and for no other purpose, and shall be contractually obligated:

(1) to provide facilities and instruction to the student on the same terms as to other students generally;

(2) to provide the notices and information described in this Act; and to maintain records and documents which demonstrate the eligibility of the students for whom scholarships and grants are claimed.

(b) If, in the course of any academic period, any student enrolled in any institution pursuant to a scholarship or grant awarded under this Act for any reason ceases to be a student in good standing, the institution shall promptly give written notice to the Commission concerning that change of status and the reason therefor. For purposes of this Section, a student does not cease to be a student in good standing merely because he or she is not classified as a full-time student.

(c) A student to whom a renewal scholarship or grant has been awarded may either re-enroll in the institution which he or she attended during the preceding year, or enroll in any other qualified institution of higher learning; and in either event, the institution accepting the student for enrollment or re-enrollment shall notify the Commission of that acceptance and may receive payments and shall be contractually obligated as provided with respect to a first-year scholarship or grant.

(d) The Commission shall administer the scholarship and grant accounts and related records of each student who is attending an institution of higher learning under financial assistance awarded pursuant to this Act, and at each proper time shall certify to the State Comptroller, in the manner prescribed by law, the current payment to be made to the institution on account of such financial assistance, in accordance with an appropriate certificate from the institution. The Commission may require the participating institution of higher learning to perform specific eligibility evaluation procedures as a condition of participation.

(e) The Commission shall conduct on-site audits of educational institutions participating in Commission administered programs. When institutions have claimed and received funds on behalf of ineligible recipients, the Commission may adjust subsequent institutional payments to recover those funds.

(f) The Commission may, upon the request of any institution which received payment for scholarship and grant awards for each of the last 5 years, certify to the Comptroller an advance payment for the current term to be made to the institution on account of such financial assistance in an amount not to exceed 75% of announced awards for the institution for such financial assistance for the current term, adjusted for attrition over the last 5 years. For the purposes of this Section, "attrition" is the number of announced award winners enrolled on the 10th class day as a percentage of the total announced awards. The request for an advance payment for the current term shall not be submitted until 10 class days after the last day for registration for that term. Upon appropriate certification from the institution presented for each payment period, after the standard tuition and mandatory fees have been established for all students for the term of payment and the award recipient has enrolled, the Commission shall certify to the State Comptroller the balance of the current payment to be made to the institution on account of such financial assistance. If an advance payment received by an institution exceeds the payment to which that institution is entitled, the Commission shall reduce subsequent payments to that institution for later terms within the same academic year as the overpayment by an amount equal to the overpayment; if the reduction cannot be made, the institution shall refund the overpayment to the Commission. The Commission may deny or reduce the advance payment provided to any institution under this Section if it has reason to believe that the advance payment for the current term may exceed the full payment the institution is entitled to receive for such assistance for that term.

(g) The personal identity and address of a scholarship, grant, or other financial assistance applicant or recipient under a non-discretionary program administered by the Commission, including, but not limited to, the Monetary Award Program under Section 35 of this Act, where eligibility data is obtained from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid authorized by 20 U.S.C. 1090 or is protected from disclosure under federal or State law or under rules and regulations implementing federal or State law, is information that is intended to remain private and shall be exempt from inspection and copying under the Freedom of Information Act. This subsection does not apply to the publication of the names of State Scholars designated pursuant to Section 25 of this Act or information disclosed in the aggregate in which a person's identity cannot be determined.

(Source: P.A. 100-887, eff. 8-14-18.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.