A 5358: Allows a certain portion of excelsior scholarship awards to be used for room and board expenses.

  
  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.