The new formula was just to help in debugging the problem. There is no reason to use it in the Record Selection formula.

Since the Decision field is an empty string the following should work

{reportView_CompletedAll.DateAwarded} in DateSerial({?Academic Year}, 8, 1) to DateSerial({?Academic Year} + 1, 9 ,1) And
{reportView_CompletedAll.Decision} <> ""