Federal regulations require that students demonstrate they are moving through their academic program at a reasonable rate, or are "making progress" toward their degree.

A Standard of Academic Progress (SAP) policy must contain a qualitative measure of progress (minimum GPA requirement), a time frame for completing degree objectives and a measurement of progress toward a degree. A student must meet all three parts of the standard to maintain eligibility. All three parts are cumulative in their measurement.

Students in programs of study of one year or less will be reviewed each term. SAP for students in two-year degree or four-year programs will be reviewed annually after the end of summer term. All students are evaluated regardless if they received financial aid in prior terms or not.

Transfer students will be evaluated at the time of awarding financial assistance. The College Registrar will review transfer transcripts and determine courses which apply to the current degree program of the student. If transfer hours exist on the academic transcript, they will be evaluated to determine a student’s eligibility for financial assistance.  If the transcript is provided after the student’s financial assistance award, the transfer students' satisfactory progress will be reviewed at the end of the currently enrolled term, if pursing a program of study of one year or less, and at the end of the summer term, if pursuing a degree program greater than one year

Minimum GPA Requirements: Measurement used is the Cumulative Academic Grade Point Average (GPA)

Students in programs of study of one year or less are required to maintain a 2.00 or greater cumulative GPA at all times.

Students in all other programs are required to achieve a minimum cumulative GPA based on total credit hours earned.

-Credit hours earned include all transfer credit hours and credit hours earned at SPC included in Academic GPA.

-Grades used in the computation of the GPA are A, B, C, D, F, and WF.

-Grades of W, I, P, and N count as hours attempted but do not affect the GPA computation.

-Financial assistance does not pay for courses which are audited and the 'X' grade associated with that course does not count as an attempted course for either the completion ratio or the GPA.

-Remedial and ESL courses attempted are counted as credit hours attempted but are not counted in the academic GPA. Two exceptions are: EAP 1500, Advanced Listening/Speaking and EAP 1695, Advanced English as a Second Language II courses are counted as courses attempted and in the GPA.

-Non-Credit Continuing Education and Non-Credit Corporate Training Classes are not eligible for financial assistance funding and are not counted as attempted hours.

-If a course is repeated more than once, only the grade on the last attempt will be used in computing the GPA however the hours for all attempts will be counted as hours attempted.

-Some funds awarded through the State of Florida have program specific GPA eligibility requirements that are higher than the minimum SAP requirements:

Maximum Time Frame for Maintaining Aid Eligibility:

Generally, students must complete their degree before attempting more than 150% of the total credit hours required for the program to maintain aid eligibility. For example, a student in an AA program that required 60 hours for completion must complete the program by the time he/she has attempted 90 hours.

All attempted hours are counted to determine academic progress. This includes transfer hours, hours attempted for which the student did not receive financial aid, repeated courses, incomplete courses, withdrawals, and coursework that may have been exempted from calculation of the academic GPA under the Academic Grade Forgiveness Policy.  

If a student exceeds the maximum time frame due to a change in majors, an appeal must be filed to request that only credits attempted that count toward the new major are used in the SAP calculations.

A student wishing to pursue a second degree who has exceeded the maximum time frame for maintaining aid eligibility must file an appeal to determine the number of credits for which financial aid will be awarded. Appeals for pursuit of a second degree will only be approved after all coursework for the first degree has been completed.

Progress toward degree:

Students must complete 67% of all hours attempted to maintain eligibility. This is a cumulative review of all hours attempted. Courses in which a grade of A, B, C, D, P are counted as complete.

The completion rate percentage is rounded to a whole number.

Students in programs of study of one year or less will be evaluated at the end of each term.

Some funds awarded through the State of Florida have program specific completion renewal requirement that are different than the minimum SAP completion rate requirements.

State of Florida Programs Renewal Criteria:

The Appeals Process:

Students who think extenuating or mitigating circumstances beyond their control have contributed to their failure to maintain SAP may petition their status. All appeals must be typewritten and have the appropriate SAP appeal cover sheet.

An appeal may be submitted to the Financial Assistance Services office using the Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form. A verbal appeal will not be accepted. SAP Appeals forms may be obtained from the MySPC Answer Place, the FAS office or through the FAS website.

Extenuating and mitigating circumstances beyond a student's control include but are not limited to:

Serious illness;
Documented medical condition preventing completion;
Death of an immediate family member;
Involuntary call to active military duty;
Documented learning disability;
Documented change in conditions of employment; or
Other emergency circumstances of extraordinary situations such as natural disasters.

An appropriate third party such as a guidance counselor, teacher, therapist, licensed counselor, doctor, lawyer, minister, etc. must document the extenuating circumstance on official letterhead and the documentation much be included with the appeal. The documentation must relate to the term(s) for which the appeal is addressing. Legal/official records are acceptable, i.e., death certificate, hospital record. Appeals submitted without the documentation will automatically be denied.

The Campus Appeal Committee, consisting of the Assistant Director and two counselors, will automatically review the appeal. The appeal will be reviewed as expeditiously as possible, but within 10 business days of receipt within the FAS office.

If the student does not accept the decision of the Campus Appeals Committee, the student may request a further review through the College-wide Standard of Progress Committee. A student's request for an additional review must be a separate typewritten request and include a copy of the original SAP appeal form and documentation as an attachment. The request for a college-wide review should be sent to the collegwide Director of Financial Assistance Services. The College-wide Standard of Progress Committee will respond to the student within 14 business days of receipt of the appeal.

Students will have their financial aid eligibility reinstated when a student achieves the minimum GPA and Completion Rate requirements and is not exceeding the maximum time frame of 150%

The "Process for a Waiver of Satisfactory Academic Progress" document and the "Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form" can be found under Forms 2007-08 or under Forms 2008-2009 depending on which term you are attempting to appeal for.