Gift Certificate / Coupon Accounting Hybrid

I'm setting up an online bookstore for my independent high school where the families will purchase their textbooks. There are a number of kids who receive various financial aid awards towards their textbook purchases. I can't figure out a solution to our problem because we need what amounts almost to hybrid of the Coupon and Gift Certificate functions.

Since the Financial Aid award is just for that particular student. There shouldn't be the ability to transfer those "credits" to another student/family which appears to be hooked in to the GiftCert. functionality.

Also, I can't figure out how to restrict the GiftCert just towards the Textbooks Category like the Coupon Admin allows one to do.

Finally, it is really important that the school's Comptroller be able to track how much each family has used of their Financial Aid. Unused funds by one family could/should be used elsewhere in the school. Does Zen Cart have a method for the Admin to view a report of which customers have used GiftCerts and how much of these GiftCerts they have used or have remaining? Ideally, it would appear in the data presented in the Admin's GIFT VOUCHER'S SENT screen along with the GiftCert Amount and the Redemption Code.

If this functionality hasn't been implemented elsewhere, can someone please direct me to the appropriate database tables where I could find the amount of GiftCert Balance remaining for each customer?

Should I be trying to come at this through GiftCerts that I issue to myself? Or should I be looking at creating unique Gift Certificates as Products in the store for each of the families receiving Aid?

Asking a lot. Grateful a lot.

BTW: running 1.3.9d. Have read the threads about sending GiftCerts to my email account and then copying/pasting those GiftCert Redemption Codes to the parents receiving Aid.

-Doug