S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5358
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             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:
 
   Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 669-h of  the  education  law,  as
 amended  by  section  1  of part G of chapter 56 of the laws of 2022, is
 amended to read as follows:
   2. Amount. Within amounts appropriated therefor and  based  on  avail-
 ability  of  funds, awards shall be granted beginning with the two thou-
 sand seventeen--two thousand eighteen academic year  and  thereafter  to
 applicants  that  the corporation has determined are eligible to receive
 such awards. The corporation shall grant such awards in an amount up  to
 five thousand five hundred dollars or actual tuition, whichever is less;
 provided, however[, (a) a student who receives educational grants and/or
 scholarships]  that  [cover  the student's full cost of attendance shall
 not be eligible for an award under this program; and (b)] an award under
 this program shall be  applied  to  tuition  after  the  application  of
 payments  received  under  the  tuition  assistance  program pursuant to
 section six hundred sixty-seven of this subpart, tuition credits  pursu-
 ant  to  section six hundred eighty-nine-a of this article, federal Pell
 grant pursuant to section one thousand seventy of title  twenty  of  the
 United  States code, et seq., and any other program that covers the cost
 of attendance unless  exclusively  for  non-tuition  expenses,  and  the
 REMAINING  AMOUNT  OF  THE award under this program shall be [reduced in
 the amount equal to such payments] APPLIED TOWARD ANY NON-TUITION  COSTS
 OF  ATTENDANCE,  provided  that the combined benefits do not exceed five
 thousand five hundred dollars. Upon notification of an award under  this
 program,  the  institution  shall  defer the amount of tuition. Notwith-
 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
 
 five  and paragraph (a) of subdivision seven of section six thousand two
 hundred six of this chapter, and any other law, rule  or  regulation  to
 the  contrary,  the  undergraduate tuition charged by the institution to
 recipients  of an award shall not exceed the tuition rate established by
 the institution for the two  thousand  sixteen--two  thousand  seventeen
 academic  year  provided, however, that in the two thousand twenty-two--
 two thousand twenty-three academic year and every year  thereafter,  the
 undergraduate  tuition  charged  by  the institution to recipients of an
 award shall be reset to equal the tuition rate established by the insti-
 tution for the forthcoming academic  year,  provided  further  that  the
 tuition  credit calculated pursuant to section six hundred eighty-nine-a
 of this article shall be applied toward the  tuition  rate  charged  for
 recipients  of  an  award under this program.  Provided further that the
 state university of New York and the city university of New  York  shall
 provide  an  additional tuition credit to students receiving an award to
 cover the remaining cost of tuition.
   § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
 repeal  of  any  rule  or regulation necessary for the implementation of
 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made  and  completed
 on or before such effective date.