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General Policy Requirements

Maintaining satisfactory academic progress in an eligible SFCC degree or certificate is one of the basic eligibility requirements the student must meet to be eligible for financial aid at SFCC.

  1. Complete the minimum number of required credits based on enrollment level per quarter.

  2. Earn a 2.00 cumulative level GPA, evaluated quarterly.
  3. Earn a 2.00 cumulative GPA at the end of the sixth quarter of attendance.

  4. Complete the degree or certificate within the maximum time frame.

  5. Maintain a pace of progression toward the maximum time frame by completing 67% of all attempted credits.

Satisfactory academic progress policy CCS 43-152

The policy applies to ALL periods of enrollment at SFCC whether or not the student previously received financial aid awards. Transfer credits will be used.

Maximum Time Frame

The Financial Aid Office is required to track your progress toward degree completion. If your financial aid is in good standing, you will be eligible for financial aid funds until you have attempted 150% of the published credits required for your stated certificate or degree, the Maximum Timeframe. All attempted courses count for this calculation including those with "I", "W" or "Z", 0.0 grades, repeated classes and transfer credits. You are limited to 45 attempted remedial (under 100 level) credits.

Students who have attempted the maximum number of credits for their current degree or certificate will be placed on Too Many Credits Hold and will not be eligible for any grants, loans or work study funding.

Financial Aid Refunds

Community Colleges of Spokane deliver your refund with BankMobile Disbursements, a technology solution, powered by BMTX, Inc. For more information about BankMobile Disbursements, visit their How it Works page.

To view our third-party servicer contract for refund management, visit Community Colleges of Spokane Client Contracts & Profile page (vibeaccount.com).

Petition for Reinstatement of Financial Aid Eligibility

Students who feel extenuating circumstances prevented them from successfully completing the quarter and/or completing the degree/certificate within the maximum time frame, may request reinstatement of their financial aid eligibility.

SFCC Title IV Code of Conduct

  • The financial aid office at SFCC will process loans in a timely manner. SFCC will not refuse to certify or delay certification based on choice of lender

  • The financial aid office does not contract with any lender and does not receive any staffing assistance from lenders.

  • Students are advised to borrow loans through the federal student loan programs. Private loans will not be packaged or offered from any specific lender.

  • Employees in the financial aid office are prohibited from receiving gifts from lenders, guaranty agencies or loan servicers.

Spokane Falls Community College does not have revenue sharing arrangements with any lender. Advisory boards will not receive compensation from any lender. SFCC prohibits the offer of funds for private loans.

Taking Courses Outside of Your Academic Requirements

Dropping a class or Withdrawing from a Quarter

SFCC’s Important Dates Calendar has important dates and deadlines for dropping and withdrawing from classes and any associated refund periods. Classes can be dropped by completing the online Add/Drop form or by logging into your Student Homepage. Dropping a class or withdrawing may affect your financial aid. See repayment information below.

Repayment of student aid funds

  • We are required to calculate a repayment of student aid funds if you completely stop attending all your classes for any reason prior 60% point of the quarter for federal student aid. This repayment is prorated based on the amount of aid you received and the number of days you attended. You can avoid this repayment by attending at least 60% of the quarter for federal student aid.
  • We are required to calculate a repayment of federal and state student aid funds for any classes you fail to begin attending if  that changes your enrollment intensity level. This is reflected by an Instructor Initiated Withdrawal and is issued by the instructor of the class you did not attend. It can also occur if you drop a late start class, such as a math course, or if it is confirmed by instructors directly that you did not attend class(s) through the unofficial or official withdraw process. This repayment is the difference in award amounts based on your former and current enrollment intensity level. Double-check your registration the first two weeks of each quarter to be sure you are attending all your classes, particularly if you are on the waitlist for classes. You can avoid this repayment by attending all your classes for the first 10 days of the quarter and completing all enrolled courses.
  • We are required to calculate a repayment of federal student aid if you drop one or more classes on or before the 10th day of the quarter (census day) for Fall, Winter, and Spring quarter and the 8th class day for summer and it changes your enrollment intensity level. This repayment is the difference in award amounts based on your former and current enrollment intensity level. You can avoid this repayment by not dropping any classes the first 10 days of the quarter. State funds may also be recalculated if courses are dropped after disbursement but before census day. If you did not commence in your enrollment intensity level you were disbursed at, a state repayment may occur.

If you owe a repayment of student aid funds, the Financial Aid Office will apply all credits on your account, such as tuition refunds to reduce the amount you must repay. Repayments can never be waived by the college for any reason.

Withdrawal Disclosure

How Withdrawing From a Quarter Affects Financial Aid

Students who received (or who are eligible to receive) federal financial aid and who withdraw from all classes for the quarter are subject to a return of funds recalculation (called R2T4) of their awards based on the amount of aid earned. The R2T4 calculation is required to be performed within 30 days of the date the school determines a student has withdrawn. A separate calculation will be performed for state grant aid to determine if the student owes a repayment of state grants and is based on if you commenced in your enrollment level for state funding.

Unearned aid is calculated by dividing the number of days the student was enrolled by the number of days in the quarter. Any unearned funds will be returned by SFCC to the appropriate federal aid program(s). This may result in the student owing a balance due to SFCC.

The Financial Aid Office will email the student the R2T4 calculation results, showing what the school and the student are required to return to the federal program(s). A separate email will notify the student of a change in eligibility. The R2T4 and return of state aid calculations are required based on federal and state regulations and are not subject to appeal.

Post Withdrawal Disbursements

Occasionally, a student may have undisbursed aid they have earned. In these situations, the student will be notified within 30 days from withdraw
if the student is eligible for a potential post withdraw disbursement. If eligible for a loan post withdraw disbursement, acceptance of that post withdraw disbursement must be received by SFCC to authorize disbursement of funds after withdrawing. Eligible grant post withdraw disbursements will automatically be released to the student account.
If the student has current outstanding charges, the school may automatically apply the post withdrawal disbursement to unpaid charges per the student’s authorization granted on the Terms and Conditions form.

Where is My Refund?

Refunds for students who do not have financial aid will be issued according to SFCC’s refund policy as stated on CCS’s refund page.

Students with federal aid might not receive a refund. Financial Aid will calculate unearned financial aid using federal formulas. Unearned financial aid will be returned to the federal program(s). Any tuition refund may be used to offset the amount the student owes to the school or to the federal or state program(s). If the refund exceeds what must be returned to the federal or state program(s), the remaining balance is refunded to the student.

When a student fails all classes (unofficial withdrawal)

If a student remains enrolled to the end of the quarter but ceases attending or fails to earn grades in any classes, the R2T4 calculation will be performed according to the instructors’ reported last dates of attendance to determine unearned aid that must be returned to the federal programs. Separate state return of funds calculations will be performed at this time to determine if the student owes a repayment of state grants due to non commenced coursework.

Withdrawal Process

A student has multiple options to complete the withdraw process.

  • Request an official withdrawal form from Admission in Building 17 and return the completed form to Admission staff
  • Complete the online version.
  • Email the pdf version to SFCC.Admissions@sfcc.spokane.edu
  • Withdraw through the ctcLink Student Center through the published last day to withdraw.

Sample Withdrawal

Sandy Smith received Title IV aid for the Summer Quarter. The following aid was disbursed to her prior to her withdrawal from all classes:

$1850 Pell Grant
$1075 Unsubsidized Loan
$1609 Subsidized Loan 
Total: $4534

There are 46 days in the quarter. Sandy withdrew on the second day of the quarter. 
2 / 46 = 4.3% is the percentage of financial aid she earned by attending 2 days.

Aid received:    $4534 
Percent earned:    4.3%
$4534 x 4.3% = $194.96 (amount of financial aid Sandy earned for two days of attendance)

We are required to return the lesser of unearned tuition or unearned federal financial aid:

Unearned financial aid
Sandy was eligible to receive $194.96
$4534 (total aid received) – 194.96 (aid earned) = $4339.04 (amount of unearned aid)

Unearned tuition
Sandy’s tuition was $1151.48. She earned 4.3% of that, leaving 95.7% unearned. 
$1151.48 (tuition) x 95.7% (percentage unearned) = 1101.97 (amount of unearned tuition)

The amount of unearned tuition is less than the amount of unearned aid, so the school returned $1102 (rounded up from $1101.97) to Sandy’s Unsubsidized student loan (Unsubsidized is always returned first)

We are required to determine the amount of unearned aid that must be returned by Sandy.

$4339.04 (unearned aid) - $1101.97 (unearned tuition) = 3237.07 (unearned aid not yet returned)

Loans
$2684 (disbursed from loans to Sandy) – 1101.97 (amount the school is returning) = $1582.03 (amount of loans Sandy must repay when student loans go into repayment)
$3237.07 (unearned aid) – 1582.03 (loan amount Sandy is responsible for) = $1655.04 (unearned aid remaining)

Federal Grants
$1850 Pell Grant received x 50% grant protection = $925
$1655.04 (unearned aid remaining) - $925 (grant protection) = 730.04 (amount of Pell Grant for Sandy to return, rounded down to $730)