December 2020

Table of Contents

• Medicaid
• Financial
• Applications
• General Information
• Upcoming Deadlines

Medicaid

Annual Reminder: Double-Check Billing of Dates of Service for late December 2020 and January 2021

It is important to double-check that dates of service being billed are definitely dates when school was in session.  For example, there should be no billing during holiday breaks, or when school was cancelled due to weather or other reasons.  If billing for services provided by another district who is serving your student, make sure to check the school calendar of the other district.

If you have further questions, please contact Jim Donoghue at jim.donoghue@iowa.gov or 515-281-8505.

Financial

Message from the Department of Management

The December 2020 income surtax payment represents three-quarters of the amount of income surtaxes collected for your district from January 1, 2020, through October 21, 2020.  The rest of the payment, plus or minus any adjustments made by the Iowa Department of Revenue due to their audits of income tax returns, will be paid around February 1, 2021. 

This payment is based upon the income surtax rates established for your 2019-2020 budget.  If you didn’t have a surtax for the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) Fund, the entire payment should be credited to your General Fund. On the other hand, if you had both General Fund and PPEL surtax, then split the income surtax in accordance with the rates.  The PPEL Income Surtax rate can be found on line 19.4 of the FY 2020 Aid and Levy Worksheet.  The General Fund Income Surtax rates can be found on lines 10.15 and 11.4 of the FY 2020 Aid and Levy Worksheet.

The Department of Education has posted the payment amount, rates for each fund, and dollar amount for each fund on the State Payment Information FY21 webpage.

If you have any questions, please contact John Parker at john.parker@iowa.gov, Department of Management or 515-281-8485.

State Allocations and Selected Federal Allocations

A comprehensive listing of state, federal, and local dollars for each school district has been compiled. Please refer to the 2020-2021 Allocation Summaries page of the Department's website.

State Payment Tracking

The Department of Education (Department) payments information on the Iowa Education Portal was updated to include the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number and the Grant Number for federal funds, and should be available in early to mid-January.  Go to EdInfo, Finance Applications, Department Warrants to see the revised report.  Our goal is to have a source code assigned to all payments to districts or area education agencies (AEAs).  If you notice a payment without the source code, please contact Janice Evans at janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740 so this can be included on the listing.  If you have other questions about the payments, please contact Angie James at angela.james2@iowa.gov or 515-281-3646.

Payments may come from other state agencies as well.  If the payment in question is not on the Department’s page, it likely came from a different government agency.  For all state payments, you may visit the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Vendor Payment Portal.  You will also find this link at the bottom of the State Payment Information FY21 page of the Department’s website.

SAVE distribution questions can be directed to Jon Wolfe at jon.wolfe@iowa.gov or 515-661-7709, or Adam Floyd at adam.floyd@iowa.gov or 515-601-4229, at the Department of Revenue.

Transportation Equity Payments

The transportation aid allocation for fiscal year 2021 exceeded the amount necessary to “buy down” districts to the state average.  All 327 districts received a transportation base funding payment in fiscal year 2021 equal to $1 per student included in its transportation equity aid base year enrollment.  The base funding payment and method of distribution is stipulated in Iowa Code sections 257.16C(3)“b” and 257.16C(4).

Per Iowa Code section 257.16C(6), transportation aid payments received by school districts are miscellaneous income and deposited to the General Fund.  Districts will code this payment to Source/Project 3119 Transportation Equity Aid.  Expenditures do not need to be tracked by project number and there is no restricted balance for these funds.  The payment schedule for FY21 Transportation Equity is found on the State Payment Information FY21 webpage.

If you have further questions, please contact Denise Ragias at denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515- 281-4741.

Applications

Juvenile Home Budget

The juvenile home non-fiscal budget data collection for AEAs is now available.  The due date is Jan. 1. Instructions are available at this link.

Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children – New Districts

School districts not currently participating in the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program (SWVPP) may apply to become part of the program.  The application to begin a new preschool program in 2021-2022 is now available on the Department’s website. This non-competitive application, which is due April 6, 2021, will require districts to fund the preschool program using other funding sources in 2021-2022.  In the second year of SWVPP implementation, districts will receive state aid based on the number of eligible children served in year one.  Additional details are included in the December School Leader Update.

For more information about the SWVPP, contact Jennifer Adkins at jennifer.adkins@iowa.gov or 515-954-5652, or Mary Breyfogle at mary.breyfogle@iowa.gov or 515-326-1030.

At-Risk/Dropout MSA Application – Due Jan. 15

The Department of Education's (Department) revised SBRC application for At-Risk/Dropout modified supplement amount (MSA) is now available via the Iowa Education Portal.  Only those districts wishing to request SBRC-granted MSA (Project 1119) will need to complete a submission.

The purpose of the requested MSA is to provide additional resources for the 2021-2022 school year that are necessary to implement the at-risk, dropout prevention, and returning dropout services for identified students that are included in the local school board’s adopted plan. The purpose is not for increasing regular program spending authority.

As in the past year, the Department has maintained the general structure of the pre-2020 application for MSA as a tool for developing/housing the local program plan for those districts desiring to use it.  This includes planning components, including budget forms, which districts have reported as being useful in developing the program plans for the local school board’s approval.  Use of the planning components is not required; they are not connected to the form used to request the MSA.

If you have questions regarding at-risk/dropout prevention programming, please contact Steve Crew at steve.crew@iowa.gov or 515-326-1029. If you have budget questions, please contact Rob Olsen at rob.olsen@iowa.gov or 515-281-4743, or Tom Cooley at tom.cooley@iowa.gov or 515-725-1120.

General Information

Summer Food Service Program Coding for School Year 2020-2021

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) was activated to provide meals to children during the emergency schools closures starting back in March.  USDA then issued nationwide waivers on August 31 and October 9 to allow the SFSP to continue to operate through School Year 2020-2021.

During the emergency school closures, additional funding was provided by the USDA CARES grant pursuant to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.  All Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and SFSP claims for reimbursement were paid through the USDA CARES Grant (Source/Project 4056) from March until the funding ran out in September.  When the CARES funding ran out, reimbursement reverted back to regular program funding.  Districts will have a combination of funding streams in FY21.  If coding expenses to a federal project code, ensure the project code follows the funding stream.

Facility: It is appropriate to code all USDA SFSP expenditures to a district level facility code.  It is also appropriate to code expenditures related to the SFSP to a school level or school instructional level facility code as the district has the flexibility to code Fund 61 expenditures to a facility code that makes sense locally.

Source/Project (Revenue): Districts are now directed to code reimbursement to the SFSP, Source/Project 4556 Summer Food Service Program for Children (CFDA 10.559).  Previous CARES grant funds were to be coded to Source/Project 4056 USDA Child Nutrition Program CARES grants to States (COVID-19 SFSP) (CFDA 10.555).  Districts should check the Department Warrants application on the Portal for funding source.

Additional program revenues are to be coded to Source/Project 1656 for Adult SFSP Lunch Sales and Source/Project 1655 for SFSP Ala Carte sales.

Project (Expenses): Districts may use the federal project code for expenses (never to exceed the revenue) but for simplicity may code all Covid-related expenses to Project 0019 during the operation of the SFSP during School Year 2020-2021.

Function: Districts should use Function 3140 for those expenses incurred as part of the operation of the SFSP during School Year 2020-2021.  This includes payroll for those who have been working in the operation of the SFSP as well as other food service expenses such as food, chemicals, and non-food supplies.

Object: Object codes remain the same.

Program Coding Comparison Chart based on current funding streams – see Department Warrant application to confirm federal funding source and project.

For accounting and coding questions, please contact Janice Evans at janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-28-4740, or Denise Ragias at denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741.

For nutrition program questions, please contact Stephanie Dross at stephanie.dross@iowa.gov or 515-281-4760, or your regional school nutrition program consultant.

2021 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP)

Iowa’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEMD) has announced the application period is now open for the fiscal year 2021 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) sub-grants.  The deadline for submission of a Notice of Interest (NOI) is Friday, January 22, 2021 with an application deadline of Friday, February 19, 2021.

Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) provides funding to Iowa through the State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSP) to implement investments that address high-priority preparedness gaps across all core capabilities where a nexus to terrorism exists.  Supported investments are based on capability targets and gaps identified during Iowa’s Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment process and assessed in the State Preparedness Report.

HSGP/SHSP eligible applicants include local units of government, combinations of local units, tribal governments, or other specific groups or organizations.  This includes county, city, and municipal governments; school districts; councils of government and tribal councils; institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations including hospitals.  Interested applicants will need to apply through HSEMD’s electronic grant management system.  This system is referred to as EMGrants.  Access the system through the website https://my.iowahomelandsecurity.org. 

Instructions and other necessary documents regarding the application process are located at the documents tab of the 2021 grant page in EMGrants.  Technical assistance videos are also available online on HSEMD's YouTube channel.

Questions related to the HSGP application process can be directed to Tara Dowd at tara.dowd@iowa.gov or 515-725-3220.

Upcoming Deadlines

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It is the policy of the Iowa Department of Education not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, sex, disability, religion, age, political party affiliation, or actual or potential parental, family or marital status in its programs, activities, or employment practices as required by the Iowa Code sections 216.9 and 256.10(2), Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000d and 2000e), the Equal Pay Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. § 206, et seq.), Title IX (Educational Amendments, 20 U.S.C.§§ 1681 – 1688), Section 504 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq.). If you have questions or complaints related to compliance with this policy by the Iowa Department of Education, please contact the legal counsel for the Iowa Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building, 400 E. 14^th Street, Des Moines, IA 50319-0146, telephone number: 515-281-5295, or the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Citigroup Center, 500 W. Madison Street, Suite 1475, Chicago, IL 60661-4544, telephone number: 312-730-1560, FAX number: 312-730-1576, TDD number: 877-521-2172, email: OCR.Chicago@ed.gov.