Cal Grant GPA Verification Form (G-4): Filing, Deadlines, and Tracking

The Cal Grant GPA Verification Form, known as the G-4, is the paper form you use to report your grade point average to the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) so you can be considered for a Cal Grant A or Cal Grant B award. You only need to file it if your high school or college has not already submitted your GPA electronically. The form must reach CSAC by March 2, or by September 2 if you attend a California community college.¹

Check First Whether You Actually Need to File It

Most students never touch this form. California public high schools, community colleges, and universities submit GPA data to CSAC electronically, and that electronic submission satisfies the verification requirement.² California Education Code requires public schools, including charter schools, to submit GPAs electronically for all 12th-grade students by October 1 of each academic year, unless a student opts out.³ If your school already handled it, filing a paper G-4 is unnecessary and may slow things down.

The paper form is for students whose schools cannot or will not submit the GPA electronically. That typically means private high schools, out-of-state schools, or schools without the technical setup for CSAC’s electronic system.² Call your counselor or financial aid office before you download anything.

Two situations to flag before you start. Renewal Cal Grant recipients do not file a G-4 at all; you just submit your FAFSA or California Dream Act Application and your school certifies renewal eligibility directly. On the other end, if you graduated high school a year or more ago and never received a Cal Grant, you cannot rely on any GPA your high school submitted during your senior year. You are responsible for submitting your GPA again before the deadline.²

Filling Out the Student Section

The G-4 is a two-part form. You complete the student section on the first page, then hand the entire form to your school so a campus official fills out the GPA section.⁴ The nine fields you are responsible for:

Field 1, high school graduation date: enter the month and year (MM/YYYY). Current seniors use the anticipated graduation date.
Field 2, date of birth: MM/DD/YYYY format.
Field 3, full legal name: last name, first name, middle initial, exactly as they appear on your Social Security card or birth certificate and on your financial aid application. Mismatched names are one of the most common reasons submissions get kicked back.
Field 4, email address: use one you check regularly, since CSAC may contact you there.
Field 5, permanent mailing address: street, city, state, zip.
Field 6, phone number.
Field 7, test score checkbox: check only if you are submitting SAT, ACT, GED, TASC, or HiSET scores instead of a GPA.
Field 8, late appeal reason: leave blank unless you are filing after the deadline and appealing. If you are, explain the circumstances that prevented an on-time submission.
Field 9, student certification and signature: read the certification carefully, sign, and date. You are declaring under penalty of perjury that everything on the form is true.

The form does not ask for a Social Security Number. California Education Code prohibits including SSNs in the GPA information submitted to CSAC, though schools may request permission to submit an SSN separately if needed to complete a financial aid application.³ CSAC matches your G-4 to your FAFSA or CADAA using your name, date of birth, and other identifiers, so accuracy on those fields matters.

What the School Fills Out

After you finish your section, hand the entire form to your high school counselor or college financial aid office. A school official calculates your cumulative GPA following California Code of Regulations standards and completes the “School Use Only” section on the second page.⁵ For community college students, only “Associate Degree Credit Courses” as defined by Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations count toward the GPA calculation; nontransferable units are excluded.⁶

The school official also signs a certification, under penalty of perjury, that the reported GPA is accurate, and that certification is subject to review by CSAC.³ This is where delays sometimes happen outside your control. Follow up with your school to confirm they completed their section and returned the form to you (or submitted it) well before the deadline.

Using Test Scores Instead of a GPA

Some students can submit SAT, ACT, GED, TASC, or HiSET scores in place of a GPA. You qualify for this option if:⁴

You were home-schooled.
You attended a high school that is not regionally accredited.
You attended a high school or college outside the United States and cannot have your grades converted to a 4.0 scale, or your school used a grading system such as pass/fail that does not convert readily.
You have been out of school for five years or longer, in which case you can choose either test scores or your GPA.

If you go this route, check box 7 on the G-4 and attach a copy of your official test score report. CSAC will not accept transcripts, proficiency certificates, or diplomas as substitutes. For the SAT, only reasoning test scores count; subject test scores will not be processed.⁴

One exception worth knowing: scores from the California High School Proficiency Examination (CHSPE) cannot replace a high school GPA. Passing the CHSPE satisfies the high school graduation requirement for the Entitlement Cal Grant, but it does not meet the GPA verification requirement.⁴

Deadlines

The G-4 must be postmarked or emailed by the same deadlines that govern the rest of the Cal Grant application:

March 2, 2026, the priority deadline for high school seniors and students entering four-year universities. This is the cutoff for the first round of entitlement awards and competitive Cal Grant consideration.¹
September 2, 2026, the extended deadline for students attending or planning to attend a California community college.⁷

Missing these deadlines usually means losing eligibility for the entire award year. The commission does not make exceptions on the basis of strong grades alone. The G-4 also does not stand on its own; you must submit either the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application by the same deadline for CSAC to consider you.⁷

How to Submit the Completed Form

Once the school official has completed their section, the finished G-4 needs to reach CSAC. It can be mailed or emailed, but if you email it, do not also mail a paper copy.⁴ If mailing, send it to:

California Student Aid Commission
Attn: Program Administration and Services Division
P.O. Box 419027
Rancho Cordova, CA 95741-9027⁸

For overnight delivery via UPS or similar carriers that cannot deliver to a P.O. Box, use the physical address: 11120 International Drive, Suite 100, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.⁸

If you mail the form, consider requesting a Certificate of Mailing from the post office. The receipt costs only a couple of dollars and proves the date you sent it, which is useful if CSAC ever questions whether you met the postmark deadline. Keep a copy of the completed form for your records before mailing the original.

Tracking Your Submission

About a week after submitting your FAFSA or CADAA, create a WebGrants for Students account at mygrantinfo.csac.ca.gov. The portal lets you view updates on your Cal Grant status, confirm whether your GPA has been received and matched to your file, make school or address changes, and check preliminary award amounts.⁹ Paper forms may take four to six weeks to process, so don’t panic if your GPA doesn’t appear in the portal right away.¹⁰

If You Miss the Deadline

If circumstances beyond your control prevented you from submitting a verified GPA by March 2, you can file an appeal using field 8 on the G-4 itself. Explain the reason for the late submission and attach additional pages if needed.⁴ The late appeal deadlines for the 2026–27 award year are tight:¹¹

Competitive Cal Grant (C1): late GPA appeal deadline is March 23, 2026.
High School Entitlement Cal Grant (E1): late GPA appeal deadline is May 18, 2026.

Schools can also file appeals on behalf of students, or for groups of students, when the school itself caused the delay. In those cases, the school submits a letter on institutional letterhead to schoolsupport@csac.ca.gov explaining why the submission was late.¹¹ If your school missed an electronic submission and you lost the deadline through no fault of your own, ask your financial aid office to file on your behalf. That is the fastest path to resolving it.

1
California Student Aid Commission. How to Apply for Financial Aid
2
California Student Aid Commission. Cal Grant GPA Verification Form
3
California Legislative Information. California Code, Education Code EDC 69432.9
4
California Student Aid Commission. Cal Grant GPA Verification Form (G-4)
5
California Student Aid Commission. College GPA Calculation
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California Student Aid Commission. Cal Grant GPA Calculation Instructions
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California Student Aid Commission. Cal Grant Programs
8
California Student Aid Commission. Contact Us
9
California Student Aid Commission. WebGrants 4 Students
10
California Student Aid Commission. Student Forms
11
California Student Aid Commission. Cal Grant Late GPA Appeal Process for Colleges