July 2021

Table of Contents

• Financial
• Coding
• Applications
• Upcoming Deadlines

Financial

FY21 Year End

The fiscal year end closeout period is here again. Please submit requests for payments as soon as possible. As in prior years, the Department is required to pay FY21 expenses by the end of August. We need your help to accomplish this. Please review all FY21 grants and contracts, complete any final reports, and prepare requests for payment as soon as possible. We will be issuing final payments for Title I, Title II, Title VI, nonpublic transportation, Perkins, and Regional Planning Partnership (RPP) within the month, with your help and cooperation.

If you have further questions, please contact angela.james2@iowa.gov or 515-281-3646.

Local Auditor Access to Prior Year Local Education Agency Financial Information

Local auditors are encouraged to access the “Department Warrants” application within the Iowa Education Portal. Payments for all districts are available to the user from the dropdown list. This application has been expanded to include the grant identifying number and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number.

Nonpublic Transportation Reimbursement - Accounting

Reimbursement requests must be collected twice per year by districts (Iowa Code 285.3). The accounting for the various scenarios that a district could encounter has been added to the UFA Journal Entries document. Keep in mind all revenues will equal all expenditures for this number.

If you have further questions, please contact denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741 or janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740.

July Sales Tax

The July payment districts will receive for Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) Statewide Sales and Services Tax (source/project 3316) is related to June taxes collected. Accordingly, districts should record this receipt as an intergovernmental receivable (Fund 33, account 141) and include this in SAVE revenue reported in the FY21 Certified Annual Report (CAR).

August Property Tax

August property tax receipts are not all related to the prior year. Districts need to evaluate what should be accrued as taxes receivable and as FY21 revenues, and what should be FY22 revenues. Delinquent property taxes received in August are accrued to FY21. Current mobile home (unless noted as delinquent) and ag land taxes received in August are FY22 revenues. If you have further questions, please contact Janice Evans, 515-281-4740.

Financial Reporting for Pensions (GASB 68)

Districts and auditors will soon be working through the GASB 68 entries relating to IPERS. Districts will only include entries in Fund 09 (Governmental Long-term Liabilities/Debt Summary Accounts) and Proprietary Funds (6X, 7X) on the FY21 Certified Annual Report (CAR). Since pension expenses may be positive or negative after GASB 68 entries have been made in the enterprise funds, districts will continue to use object 233, “GASB 68 Pension Expense” for GASB 68 entries related to pension expenses. Negative amounts are allowed in this object.

Fund 09 will report the governmental funds share of the net pension liability and debit account 304, “Amount to be provided for retirement of governmental long-term debt” and credit account 593, “Net Pension Liability.” The FY21 CAR includes an edit in Fund 09 and a warning in Proprietary Funds related to GASB 68 Net Pension Liability reporting.

Refer to the State Auditor’s Office website for information regarding GASB 68.

Financial Reporting for Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) (GASB 75)

Districts and auditors will continue to work through GASB 75 entries relating to OPEB based on valuations received from the actuary. Districts will only include entries in Fund 09 and Proprietary Funds on the FY21 CAR.

A separate object code for the health benefit expense adjustment has not been assigned at this point since we do not know if this adjustment will result in a negative expense after GASB 75 entries have been made in the Enterprise Funds. If districts find this is negative, let Janice Evans know and a separate object code will be assigned. The various deferred inflows of resources (account 64X) and deferred outflows of resources (account 33X) numbers that may be needed have been assigned. See the Iowa Chart of Account Coding document for the specific account numbers.

Fund 09 will report the governmental funds share of the Total OPEB Liability — debit account 304, “Amount to be provided for retirement of governmental long-term debt” and credit account 59X, “Total OPEB Liability.” Districts can continue to use the 59X account they were already using for the net OPEB liability.

If you have further questions, please contact janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740.

Fiduciary Activities - Custodial and Scholarship Funds (GASB 84)

Custodial Funds

GASB 84 changed the name of Agency Funds (fund 9X) to Custodial Funds, which are used when holding funds for others. Custodial Funds also require additional information in financial statements regarding additions and deductions. We’ve suggested using the same account codes as used for other funds for revenues and expenditures/expenses. Although it is not required for the FY21 CAR, we encourage districts to include these additions and deduction accounts in the chart of account upload if used by the district or AEA.

Another change for Custodial Funds is that balances are only reported as a liability if an event has occurred that compels the government to release the funds. This occurs when a demand for the resources has been made or when no further action, approval, or condition is required to be taken. All other balances are reported as net position (account 770 if restricted, or account 780 if unrestricted).

Since all exceptions to edits for the Custodial Funds may not have been considered, please contact denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741 or janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740 if it appears an edit modification is needed.

Scholarship Funds

We've recently received several questions from districts and auditors regarding GASB 84 implementation related to Scholarship Funds. We are currently working through guidance related to GASB 84 with stakeholders to gather additional input prior to release. Once completed, the guidance will be posted on the Uniform Finance Accounting page of the Department's website, with a link also included on the Certified Annual Report webpage. An update will also be included in the August School Business Alert.

Maximum Tuition Rate - 2021-2022 School Year

District cost per pupil amounts (maximum tuition rates) for the new school year are posted on the Tuition and Fees page of the Department’s website.

Coding

Iowa Chart of Account Coding Updates

The Iowa Chart of Account Coding is regularly updated to reflect changes necessary to meet fiscal reporting needs. The most recent update is provided below.

Applications

Tuition-In Billing: Timeline

Throughout the school year, districts enter students into the Tuition-In Billing (TIB) program and submit bills to other districts. Students who are entered by other districts into the TIB as being a resident of your district, where they will be seeking payment for these services, will appear on your district’s Special Education Supplement (SES) Home Page. Districts were asked to verify the accuracy of the Tuition-Out portion of the Home Page between June 15 and June 30. If errors were noted, you were to contact the other district and work out any issue, with the overall goal being to ensure the correct district was billed and no students were overlooked and omitted. All students should now be entered and any necessary corrections and adjustments completed. If you have any remaining students who are not entered into the TIB, please do so immediately.

As you finalize your work in the TIB, have entered all students, verified accuracy of all student information, uploaded your final comma delimited text file, and reviewed Screen 9 ensuring that this information is accurate, click the “certify” button on Screen 9. Then, print or email the final bills.

The Department will begin processing Foster Care claims, Termination of Rights claims (also called District Court Placed), Nonpublic claims, and High Cost claims after August 2. It is critical that all claims be accurately entered prior to this date.

Regular Education Foster Care Claim

The Regular Education Foster Care Claim will be available soon for districts to certify. All individuals with access to the Foster Care Claim application in the Iowa Education Portal will receive an email once the application is available. Claims are generated from the fall 2020 and spring 2021 Student Reporting in Iowa (SRI) submissions. This year’s application includes:

• Regular education students who were in foster care (under the responsibility and care of the Department of Human Services) and living in your district only because of the foster care placement.
• Resident students who were in a psychiatric medical institute for children (PMIC) placement or placed in a juvenile psychiatric unit of a hospital and NOT included in your district’s fall 2020 certified enrollment count, regardless of who placed the student in the facility.

The only tasks required from a district are to verify the students and certify. Certification is required only if your district is eligible to receive a reimbursement. Reimbursements are based on the excess days your district served regular education students in foster care above days funded on regular education foster care students in the fall 2020 certified enrollment count. Calculations are based on the number of days of school during the 2020-2021 school year, as reported in 2021 Spring Student Reporting in Iowa.

You will receive an email once the application is available. The due date for certifying Regular Education Foster Care Claim is Monday, August 2. If you have further questions, please contact tom.cooley@iowa.gov.

AEA Juvenile Home Claims

The new Juvenile Home application is open to AEAs for completion of the claims and certification by August 1. The application can be found on the Iowa Education Portal. The instructions are posted on the Department website at Budgets, Area Education Agencies. Please remember this claim is for regular education students only. Out-of-state students and students served pursuant to an Individualized Education Program (IEP) would be billed to their district of residence. Also, do not include the average daily membership (ADM) of students for whom the AEA is paid tuition.

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

District Contact Information

The Department sends financial communications to the CFO/Business Manager(s) and Additional Financial Officer contacts from information provided in the School Board Officers application. If your district has a change in personnel, be sure to update the information through the Iowa Education Portal.

The Department of Education’s source information that identifies superintendents for school districts is the School Information Update application. If your district has a new superintendent and the School Information Update application in the portal has not been updated to reflect the change, your superintendent will not receive timely notifications.

Please provide updates as needed anytime throughout the year.

Nonprofit School Organization Report

As noted in the recently released 2021 Legislative Session: School Business and Finance Guidance document, the Nonprofit School Organization Report will no longer be included as part of the Certified Annual Report (CAR).

Medicaid

2020-2021 Medicaid Review

During FY21, Iowa’s local education agencies (LEAs) were paid $83,190,857.84 and retained, following payback of the state share, $56,083,359.62, up 7.13 percent from FY20. Iowa’s area education agencies (AEAs) were paid $736,987.10, retaining $494,787.19 for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B services, up 30.4 percent from FY20. Iowa’s Infant Toddler IDEA Part C providers were paid $262,297.61, retaining $177,332.04 down 34.8 percent.

In total, Iowa’s IDEA Medicaid programs retained $56,755,478.85, down 7.1 percent from FY20.

Please note that many FY21 behavior paraprofessional claims are pending but should be paid soon. If you have further questions, please contact jim.donoghue@iowa.gov or 515-281-8505.

Telehealth and HIPPA Compliance

During the public health emergency, Governor Reynolds temporarily suspended "the regulatory provision of Iowa Code chapters § 514C.34 to the extent that it excludes from the definition of telehealth the provision of services through audio-only telephone transmission..." Per the Governor’s June 25, 2021 Proclamation, that suspension expired on June 30, 2021, so audio-only service is no longer permitted.

Medicaid requires that the district or AEA must have and use a platform compliant with the Health Information and Portability Act (HIPAA). One of the most frequent questions asked about services delivered when a student is not in a "brick and mortar" facility, such as those provided through telehealth, is whether the district or AEA is using a platform that is HIPAA compliant. While the Office of Civil Rights announced a temporary waiver from having the requirement enforced, it is still expected and will be enforced after the national public health emergency.

There does not appear to be an accreditation or licensing organization who reviews and confirms that a product is compliant. HIPAA compliance requires a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) between the education agency provider and the platform vendor. Please confirm with your information technology or business office that a BAA is in place. If not, call the vendor and ask for a BAA for your agency.

For questions, please contact jim.donoghue@iowa.gov or 515-281-8505.

Exclusion List Verification Requirement

Iowa Medicaid school-based providers must comply with provisions under 42 CFR § 455.436 (Federal database checks) and confirm individuals whose services are billed to Medicaid are not excluded. In order to enroll in the Iowa Medicaid program, and as a condition of re-enrollment, a provider must sign the Iowa Medicaid Provider Agreement (470-2965), which contains this requirement.

The requirement includes checking of two sources to capture exclusions and reinstatements: the federal list provided on the HHS-OIG website and the state’s list, which linked from the Iowa Medicaid Program Integrity website. Search of these sources is to occur monthly in order to capture exclusions and reinstatements that have occurred since the last search. A provider must report to the Iowa Medicaid Enterprise (IME) any exclusion information discovered through such searches.

There are individuals who have been excluded by the federal government from participation in the Medicaid program. An exclusion might be temporary, as when it is related to license expiration, or it may be for a mandatory period of one to five years, or permanent. Exclusions occur for many reasons including program-related criminal convictions, patient abuse, and controlled substances. It is important that you do not bill for services provided by an excluded individual. Service provided by a sanctioned individual is not reimbursable by Iowa Medicaid, is considered an overpayment, and shall be recovered. If Program Integrity discovers a provider is excluded from reimbursement by federal/state dollars, the Department of Human Services will exercise its administrative authority to take further action.

More details can be found in Provider Information Letter 1235. 

In addition, Iowa Medicaid Program Integrity has asked that participating districts and AEAs provide the name, date of birth, and last four digits of the social security number for any individual providing services that the entity is billing to Medicaid. All items are necessary to provide for a second identifier in case there is match between one of your individuals and someone on the list. This request is related to 42 CFR 455.400-455.470 and Program Integrity responsibilities to ensure that providers of services are eligible to be reimbursed with federal/state dollars.

To assist with meeting the above outline requirements, a School-Based Provider Search Template has been developed and will soon be posted on the School-based Medicaid page of the Department’s website. Each quarter, complete the template, including the National Provider Identifier (NPI) of your district or AEA, and provide the requested information to Jim Donoghue, Iowa Department of Education Medicaid Consultant at jim.donoghue@iowa.gov. For any questions or assistance with checking the Exclusions databases, please contact Jim at 515-281-8505 or 515-326-1032.

School Transportation

Fall 2021 Inspection Schedules

The fall 2021 school bus inspection schedules have been posted to the Bus Inspection Schedules page of the Department’s website. Please help ensure that the inspection date for your district is communicated to the transportation staff and added to the district calendar.

If you have further questions, please contact the inspector for your region: Joe Funk (east), 515-669-4987; Tom Simpson (west), 515-326-1022; and Verlan Vos (central) 515-669-4994.

Bus Driver Physicals

Department of Transportation (DOT) physicals for school bus drivers must be performed by a certified medical examiner. The federal government has made this a requirement for anyone obtaining a DOT physical. The National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners website includes a search engine showing the location of all certified medical examiners within the state of Iowa and across the nation. It offers a number of options to search for medical examiners in your area. Also, remember that all school bus driver authorizations must be updated and renewed by August 15. Once updated data on the driver’s physical is entered in the Driver Authorization application accessed through the Iowa Education Portal, be sure to print off the new authorizations for your drivers to carry with them.

If you have further questions, please contact max.christensen@iowa.gov or 515-281-4749.

Iowa DERA Grants Now Available

The Iowa Department of Transportation is now accepting grant applications for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Fiscal Year 2021 Diesel Emission Reduction Act Program (DERA) for diesel fleets in the state of Iowa.

Iowa school districts or other interested parties should go to the DERA grant website to read the program information guide and find out more about the grant process and previous DERA awards. Applications are being accepted through September 10, 2021.

The total amount of available DERA funds in Iowa is $857,288, and the opportunity is open to all school districts.

General Information

School Budget Review Committee Hearing

The School Budget Review Committee (Committee) met for a special session on Thursday, June 17, 2021. The Committee noticed rule changes for Iowa Administrative Code r. 289.8 to be consistent with recently passed legislation regarding rule waiver requests. The Committee received updates on other recently passed legislation (HF602 and HF868) which may impact future SBRC action as well as an update from the Department regarding the intervention of the State Board within one district.

The Committee approved for one district and approved, tabled, and denied for one district requests for modified supplemental amount (MSA) related to hazard abatement. The Committee also approved a request for MSA related to new program start-up costs, failed to approve requests for MSA related to increased energy costs from two districts, and denied a request for MSA related to back wages for one district.

The Summary of Action is available on the School Budget Review Committee Hearing Information page of the Department's website. For further information, please contact SBRC liaison Kassandra Cline or 515-281-4738.

Iowa Education Portal

It is important to maintain at least two portal security officers in each district, since a portal security officer cannot give access to himself or herself. To inquire about upcoming fall portal security officer training sessions, email ed.portal@iowa.gov.

School Finance Resources

Superintendents and business managers who are new to the state or new to the position may find the following resources located on the Iowa Department of Education’s website (https://educateiowa.gov/) beneficial:

• The Department Calendar can be filtered to show all events or categories such as deadlines, Department-sponsored meetings and technical assistance, and School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) deadlines and hearings.
• Special Education Finance provides links to topics such as the Tuition-In Billing application directions, appropriate uses of special education funding, school-based Medicaid, and sample contracts for special education services.
• School Facilities provides information on construction, school safety, disaster recovery, and facilities planning.
• School Transportation provides links to bus inspection schedules, driver trainings and conferences, open enrollment transportation assistance, nonpublic reimbursement claim, and instructions to and results from prior year’s Annual Transportation Report (ATR).
• School Finance Resources provides links to the Department of Management (Aid and Levy worksheet), the Uniform Financial Accounting manual, Uniform Administrative Procedures manual, and Iowa Legislature (Iowa Code and Administrative Code lookups).

For more information on a specific topic listed above, inquiries can be directed to the consultant listed on each webpage. If you have further questions on available resources, please contact Tom Cooley at tom.cooley@iowa.gov or 515-725-1120.

Upcoming Deadlines

Current and past issues of the School Leader Update.
Current and past issues of the School Business Alert.

If you have suggestions for future SBA articles, please submit them to Tom Cooley at tom.cooley@iowa.gov.

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.