Bill Text: NY A05358 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Allows a certain portion of excelsior scholarship awards to be used for room and board expenses.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-13 - referred to higher education [A05358 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A05358-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          5358

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 13, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. RAGA -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Higher Education

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in  relation  to  allowing  excelsior
          scholarship awards to be used for tuition and non-tuition expenses

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 669-h of  the  education  law,  as
     2  amended  by  section  1  of part G of chapter 56 of the laws of 2022, is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    2. Amount. Within amounts appropriated therefor and  based  on  avail-
     5  ability  of  funds, awards shall be granted beginning with the two thou-
     6  sand seventeen--two thousand eighteen academic year  and  thereafter  to
     7  applicants  that  the corporation has determined are eligible to receive
     8  such awards. The corporation shall grant such awards in an amount up  to
     9  five thousand five hundred dollars or actual tuition, whichever is less;
    10  provided, however[, (a) a student who receives educational grants and/or
    11  scholarships]  that  [cover  the student's full cost of attendance shall
    12  not be eligible for an award under this program; and (b)] an award under
    13  this program shall be  applied  to  tuition  after  the  application  of
    14  payments  received  under  the  tuition  assistance  program pursuant to
    15  section six hundred sixty-seven of this subpart, tuition credits  pursu-
    16  ant  to  section six hundred eighty-nine-a of this article, federal Pell
    17  grant pursuant to section one thousand seventy of title  twenty  of  the
    18  United  States code, et seq., and any other program that covers the cost
    19  of attendance unless  exclusively  for  non-tuition  expenses,  and  the
    20  remaining  amount  of  the award under this program shall be [reduced in
    21  the amount equal to such payments] applied toward any non-tuition  costs
    22  of  attendance,  provided  that the combined benefits do not exceed five
    23  thousand five hundred dollars. Upon notification of an award under  this
    24  program,  the  institution  shall  defer the amount of tuition. Notwith-
    25  standing paragraph h of subdivision two of section three hundred  fifty-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05443-01-5
        A. 5358                             2

     1  five  and paragraph (a) of subdivision seven of section six thousand two
     2  hundred six of this chapter, and any other law, rule  or  regulation  to
     3  the  contrary,  the  undergraduate tuition charged by the institution to
     4  recipients  of an award shall not exceed the tuition rate established by
     5  the institution for the two  thousand  sixteen--two  thousand  seventeen
     6  academic  year  provided, however, that in the two thousand twenty-two--
     7  two thousand twenty-three academic year and every year  thereafter,  the
     8  undergraduate  tuition  charged  by  the institution to recipients of an
     9  award shall be reset to equal the tuition rate established by the insti-
    10  tution for the forthcoming academic  year,  provided  further  that  the
    11  tuition  credit calculated pursuant to section six hundred eighty-nine-a
    12  of this article shall be applied toward the  tuition  rate  charged  for
    13  recipients  of  an  award under this program.  Provided further that the
    14  state university of New York and the city university of New  York  shall
    15  provide  an  additional tuition credit to students receiving an award to
    16  cover the remaining cost of tuition.
    17    § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
    18  have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
    19  repeal  of  any  rule  or regulation necessary for the implementation of
    20  this act on its effective date are authorized to be made  and  completed
    21  on or before such effective date.