Analysis Ticket for #1749 - Handling of full time federal life time maximum restrictions.

[JasonCTang]

This is an ANALYSIS ticket only. The purpose of this ticket is to perform analysis for #1749. Expectation is to solidfy the approach, have a better understanding of the requirements and see clarification from the business where needed.

Primary Goals

• Determine the best database approach to record restriction information associated with changes to the disbursement.
• Determine logical steps for applying the award deduction based on the restriction and raise questions to business area.
• Determine how we know which restriction to apply and the order that we through all restrictions and raise questions to business area.

Description copied from #1749 Federal Government is in charge of tracking a student against their fulltime federal lifetime maximums and they will notify us when to apply a restriction or not. In other words, there is no need to perform any calculation to reduce an award at time of ECERT generation. If funding is restricted, the award amount will just become zero.

Additional context

When a student has Full Time Federal Lifetime Maximums has been reached restriction, it stops funding to both federal and provincial funding. Essentially, all disbursements are stopped. (This action is already set in the restrictions table). These restrictions only apply to Fulltime Application Disbursements. Depending on the program, credential and PD status, it is possible to have a lifetime max restriction in one scenario but still be allowed funding in a different scenario. Rules are as follows: If the application is for an Aviation program, then the AV restriction supercedes all other restrictions. If the student has PD status and the application is NOT for an Aviation program, then the restriction 5, B7, supercedes the doctorate and non-doctorate restrictions. If the student does NOT have PD status and the application is not for an Aviation program, then applicable restriction depends on whether the application is for a doctorate or non-doctorate credentials. According to the Restrictions Analysis file, the restriction code B5 is no longer needed when we switch to SIMS. Logic for when and how to apply federal restriction codes At time of ECERT generation: if (Application = Aviation Program & Restriction AV= True) {stop disbursements & record reason} else if (PD Status = True ) {
if (Restriction 5 = True or Restriction B7 = True) {stop disbursements & record reason} } else if (Application = Non-Doctorate Credential & Restriction 7 = True) {stop disbursements & record reason} else If (Application = Doctorate Credential & Restriction 9 = True) {stop disbursements & record reason}

[andrewsignori-aot]

Analisys - Life-time maximums - Full-time/Federal (#1749)

• Managed only through restrictions
• Effective date
  • Business believes that there is an effective date, but apparently, the documentation does not show it.
  • Is the goal just to avoid maximum restrictions to stop funding for in-progress disbursements? Should it be case by case?
  • Should we add “effective start” and “effective end” dates as a feature for every restriction?
• Once the restriction is in place it should stop any fed/provincial full-time disbursement (it should not impact part-time).
• Aviation, PD, non-doc, doc specific conditions must be checked for the different restrictions.
• Does it make sense to capture any sort of reason why the money was not disbursed? We do not have anything like this right now since that entire disbursement is stopped and the DB record will not even be selected for an e-Cert generation.

Final business decisions

• Ignore restrictions at the application level. New reassessments will also ignore the same restrictions over and over again.
• Maximums to impact only full-time (need to remove the part-time related actions from the DB). Question: should ignore a specific restriction code or the restriction associated with the student account?

Analisys - Life-time maximums - Full-time/Provincial (#1761)

• Only BC Student Loan (BCSL) is affected
• Effective date
  • Is the goal just to avoid maximum restrictions to stop funding for in-progress disbursements? Should it be case by case?
  • Should we add “effective start” and “effective end” dates as a feature for every restriction?
• Once the restriction is in place all BC funding stops.
• Add columns to sims.disbursement_values to record the “reason”.
  • restriction_amount_subtracted
  • restriction_id_subtracted
• Save lifetime maximums per program year and also for PD, non-doc, and doc.
  • From business: even though the public Ministry website shows the possible different values for PD, non-doc, and doc, the system can consider that they will be always the same. It can be configured using a DMN on Camunda but it must also be available on DB for estimations, for instance, during NOA the system may need to display to the Student if he is close to the maximum.
• Should we create one restriction for each PD, non-doc, and doc? If not, I do not see how it would work properly since they are potentially based on different max values and therefore should be handled separately.
  • From business: even though the public Ministry website shows the possible different values for PD, non-doc, and doc, the system can consider that they will be always the same, which means that one restriction would be enough.

To cover some of the above scenarios some new actions can be created.

Restrictions Actions

• Existing ones
  • No effect
  • Stop full-time BC funding
  • Stop part-time apply
  • Stop full-time apply
  • Stop part-time disbursement
  • Stop full-time disbursement
• New ones
  • Conditionally stop full-time disbursement
  • Conditionally stop part-time disbursement
  • Stop not-in-progress full-time disbursement
  • Stop not-in-progress part-time disbursement

General questions

• Is there a moment that we should stop selecting a disbursement that is not generating an e-Cert due to some block? For instance, can we add to the select the condition to not consider "archived applications" (42 days after the offering end)?

Ignore restrictions for specific applications

• Allow an application to be associated with restrictions that should be ignored. It would allow the business, on a case per case, to have money disbursed for a particular application and still block any other. As per the business, it can be always at the application level.
  • Even not at the disbursement level, it should at least be for a particular assessment, right? In this way, if the application is reassessed, it can generate different scenarios which would be good for a second Ministry evaluation of the restrictions. Does it make sense from the Ministry perspective?
• Do we have an understanding that, if this feature is included, we no longer need to think about restrictions and effective dates, right?

Order to check restrictions

• Check for any “Stop full-time disbursement” actions;
• Check for “Conditionally stop full-time disbursement”;
• Check for “Stop full-time BC funding” action;
• Check for BCSL maximum limits and apply restriction, if needed.

[andrewsignori-aot]

Proposed reviewed ticket for lifetime maximums - full-time/Federal (#1749)

Federal Government is in charge of tracking a student against their full-time federal lifetime maximums and they will notify us when to apply a restriction or not. In other words, there is no need to perform any calculation to reduce an award at the time of ECERT generation. If funding is restricted, the award amount will just become zero.

Additional Context

Restrictions related to the Federal full-time maximums

• Restriction code AV (Aviation): Student has reached 17 week maximum for aviation program.
• Restriction code 5 (PD/PPD): Student has been funded for 520 weeks and has reached the lifetime maximum.
• Restriction code 7 (non-doctorate): Student has been funded for 340 weeks and has reached the lifetime maximum.
• Restriction code 9 (doctorate): Student has been funded for 400 weeks and has reached the lifetime maximum. According to the restrictions analysis file, the restriction code B5 is no longer needed when we switch to SIMS.

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] When a student gets a Full-Time Federal Lifetime Maximum restriction, it stops funding to both federal and provincial funding. Essentially, all disbursements are stopped. (this action is already set in the restrictions table as Stop full time disbursement.
• [ ] These restrictions are applied only to Full-time application disbursements. The related restrictions codes must remove the Stop part time disbursement action: 5, 7, 9, AV.
• [ ] Depending on the program, credential, and PD status, it is possible to have a lifetime max restriction in one scenario but still be allowed funding in a different scenario. If one of the below rules is present, the disbursement will fall under the Stop full time disbursement, no disbursement/e-Cert will be generated. Rules are as follows:
  • If the application is for an Aviation program, the AV restriction supersedes all other conditions.
  • If the student has PD/PDD status and the application is NOT for an Aviation program, then restriction 5, supersedes all other conditions.
  • If the student does NOT have PD/PDD status and the application is not for an Aviation program, then the applicable restriction depends on whether the application is for a doctorate or non-doctorate credentials.
• [ ] Create a new restriction action type Conditionally stop full-time disbursement to allow the disbursement to be selected to have the above conditions/rules checked.
• [ ] Check the restriction following the below order:
  • Check for any “Stop full-time disbursement” actions;
  • Check for “Conditionally stop full-time disbursement”;
  • Check for “Stop full-time BC funding” action;

[andrewsignori-aot]

Proposed reviewed ticket for lifetime maximums - full-time/Provincial (#1761)

The student's cumulative full-time BCSL awards received over a lifetime need to be tracked by SIMS and identify when the student has hit the full-time BCSL Lifetime Maximum.

This will require some calculations at the time of e-Cert generation to determine if the current disbursement will cause the student to hit the maximum. If it will, then it will be necessary to reduce the award amount accordingly so that the final total exactly equals the full-time BCSL lifetime maximum that is in effect for that program year.

Once the maximum is hit, a restriction will be applied to the student. All subsequent disbursements will effectively zero out the full-time BCSL award amounts (and all BC funding) at the time of e-Cert generation.

Restriction applies only to full-time BCSL as part-time maximums follow completely different rules.

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] Ensure that the restriction (to be created) has only Stop full time BC funding action.
• [ ] Consider only full-time BCSL for the maximum calculation but once the restriction is in place, all BC Funding is blocked. This is because the grants can only be awarded to students who are eligible for Loans.
  • When there are two disbursements, the BCSL is part of the second one. The system should determine the total BCSL for the current and past applications, even if the current disbursement is for the first disbursement of an application with two disbursements.
• [ ] The amounts used for maximums can change and need to be stored within a program year. If a reassessment of a past application occurs, the maximum values that were in effect for the program year of the application are still in effect. The values will never change in the middle of a program year.
  • There are three different categories for maximum (PD/non-doctorate/doctorate) but the system should consider all as always the same, hence just one maximum configuration is needed and only one provincial restriction is needed.
  • Create a new column max_lifetime_bc_loan_amount on sims.program_years table to store the BCSL max lifetime amount.
• [ ] Check the restriction following the below order:
  • Check for any “Stop full-time disbursement” actions;
  • Check for “Conditionally stop full-time disbursement”;
  • Check for “Stop full-time BC funding” action;
  • Check for BCSL maximum limits and apply restriction, if needed.

When a disbursement causes the student to hit the lifetime maximum:

• [ ] The award is reduced so the student hits the maximum value exactly.
  • New columns must be added to sims.disbursement_values to record the “reason” and the amount reduced for BCSL and BC grants.
    • restriction_amount_subtracted
    • restriction_id_subtracted
• [ ] Update all BC funding values on the current disbursement populating the newly added columns restriction_amount_subtracted and restriction_id_subtracted.
  • Add the restriction to the sims.student_restrictions table.

When a disbursement happens and the Stop full time BC funding is already in place:

• [ ] Update all BC-related funding awards (BCSL and grants) to have the restriction_amount_subtracted to make the effective value of the award to be defined as 0 (zero). For instance, current award effective value calculation is at $500, make the restriction_amount_subtracted as -$500 to make the effective value as 0.
• [ ] Update the restriction_id_subtracted with the restriction id that has the Stop full time BC funding associated with it. Any restriction can have the action Stop full time BC funding associated with it, not only the one related to BCSL.

Possible new feature

There are times when Ministry staff allow the student to continue receiving BCSL funding beyond the lifetime maximum; they will require the ability to IGNORE the restriction temporarily, allowing all remaining disbursements for the current application, after which, the restriction would become EFFECTIVE again.

Proposed solution - Ignore restrictions for specific applications

• Allow an application to be associated with restrictions that should be ignored. It would allow the business, on a case per case, to have money disbursed for a particular application and still block any other. As per the business, it can be always at the application level.
  • Should it at least be for a particular assessment (not at the application level), right? In this way, if the application is reassessed, it can generate different scenarios which would be good for a second Ministry evaluation of the restrictions. Does it make sense from the Ministry perspective?