If you’re not enrolled at least half time for any term, you must request a leave of absence from the Cal Grant program. You are allotted a maximum of 4 semesters/6 quarters (200%) of leave of absence throughout the lifetime of your Cal Grant award. Extensions may be granted for extenuating circumstances for students that submit a Cal Grant Appeal.

You can view your leave of absence remaining balance and request leave of absences by logging into your WebGrants for Students account. In addition, you may ask your school to report a leave of absence on your behalf. Keep in mind that it’s your responsibility to make sure that the Commission has been informed of your leave.  Reporting a leave of absence on your account may not guarantee your award.  

To request a leave of absence:

• Go online to WebGrants for Students (WG4S), located at https://mygrantinfo.csac.ca.gov.  If you have not already done so, we suggest that you create a WG4S account.
• Once you have signed in, you may scroll down until you have found the “Cal Grant” section with four panels displayed.  The final panel will be your “Est. Remaining Eligibility.” On this panel you will find a “Place Hold” button.
• Once you have clicked on the “Place Hold” button, you should see a pop-up window that has a brief form to complete.  Here you will need to select which terms you want to place the hold for by checking the boxes for each term.
• Once you have selected the terms you wish to place the hold for, you will read the statements below, and then checkmark the box stating, “I have read and understand the above statement….”
• After selecting this box, you will then click the “Place Hold” button that should now be highlighted at the bottom of this section.
• After the hold has been placed, you should see a green success message at the bottom of the screen.  You are now free to close this window.
• Your transaction will show on your account as a pending transaction and will automatically update during our weekly system update cycle, which usually runs every Friday evening. 

If you’re on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or Coast Guard, you may have your Cal Grant deferred for up to three years. Simply fill out a Military Deferment Request.