TAP Credits Earned Reporting Requirement

New York State law requires the president of the NYS Higher Education Services Corp. (HESC) to prepare and submit an annual report on the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to the governor and Legislature by February 2008.

The annual report will include statistics regarding TAP recipients, including the number of:
  • students receiving TAP in each term
  • students who were granted waivers by their institution
  • students decertified for not meeting good academic standards
  • credits earned by TAP recipients

HESC has access to most of the information needed for the annual report except the number of credits earned by TAP recipients. HESC must collect this data from each school.

Data Collection

To facilitate the data collection process, on December 17, 2007, HESC will provide each school with a file containing a listing of their undergraduate students certified for each term of the prior year -- HE8501 Listing of Students who Receive TAP at a Specific School—Credits Earned Reporting (Outgoing).

This file will be available electronically as a flat file or as an Excel spreadsheet. Schools may select either format.

Once downloaded, schools should compare the listing from HESC with their own data, add the credits earned by TAP recipients, and create a return file or produce a summary listing.

For schools using a flat file, information must be returned to HESC using one of the following three file format options:
  • HE8502 Credits Earned Reporting for Students Receiving TAP--Detail Reporting (Incoming) This file format will be used to report the number of credits earned for each student by term and academic year.
  • HE8503 Credits Earned Reporting for All Students at a Specific School --School-Provided Listing (Incoming) This file format is for schools that wish to provide all students to HESC and HESC will perform the data matching.
  • HE8504 Credits Earned Reporting For Students Receiving TAP-- Summary Reporting (Incoming) This file format will be used to report the total number of students who received a certain number of credits by term and academic year.

Schools choosing the Excel spreadsheet version of HE8501 should complete the earned credits field and return the edited file to HESC. To expedite processing, schools should not alter the spreadsheet by adding or deleting columns or rows, or by modifying the header and trailer.

The City University of New York (CUNY) central administration will submit the number of TAP credits earned by recipients for all students at CUNY schools.

HESC Webinar on TAP Earned Credits

HESC will host a Webinar on December 17, 2007 from 3:30-4:30pm to discuss the TAP Earned Credits reporting requirement for the 2006-07 academic year. The Webinar will explain the reporting process and due dates. Click here to register.

Direct questions about the TAP Earned Credits reporting requirement to HESC Operational Services at 1-518-474-3552 or at operations@hesc.org.