JB Pritzker, Governor, State of Illinois

Payment Offset and Reconciliation

These Payment Offset and Reconciliation procedures apply to the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) Scholarship Program, Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois Program, Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Program, Monetary Award Program (MAP), Nursing Education Scholarships (NES), and Post-Master of Social Work School Social Work Professional Educator License Scholarship Program.

Institutions are required to reconcile payments and submit all necessary corrections to student records on a timely basis. Any funds determined to be owed to ISAC as a result, are to be held until the end of the regular school year.

Payment is made to colleges through an offset process. As part of this process, new payment requests are compared to outstanding amounts owed to ISAC, and payment is made accordingly. This system was developed to accommodate the many changes in student eligibility that can occur during the awarding and disbursement of financial aid (including decreases, increases to awards, initial requests, and full refunds). Therefore, as noted above, funds should be returned to ISAC only after a final reconciliation has been completed at the end of the regular school year. All schools with an outstanding amount owed to ISAC at the end of the school year will receive a notice indicating the total amount to be returned.

Reminders:

  • After receiving funds for a term, colleges are required to reconcile the payment for accuracy. Award amounts may only be applied to the students for whom ISAC made payment.
  • Award payments made in the name of one recipient cannot be applied to another recipient at the same school. A refund of the payment made must be submitted to ISAC and a payment request must be processed for the proper recipient.
  • Cancellations of prior payments will be deducted from any future payments until the end of the academic year, when refunds must be identified and returned to ISAC no later than 60 days after the term ends. When the college receives payment after the end of the term, the college has 60 days following the receipt of the funds to identify and return any refunds.