August 2021
Juvenile Home Advance Payment Schedule
The 2021-2022 Juvenile Home Advance Payment Schedule for area education agencies has been posted to the Department website at Budgets, Area Education Agencies.
If you have further questions, please contact denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741.
Fiduciary Activities - Custodial and Scholarship Funds (GASB 84)
The following is a continuation of information first mentioned in the July 2021 SBA.
Scholarship Funds
Scholarship Funds may be impacted from the changes in GASB 84 if the scholarships do not meet the criteria for a trust or if the district has administrative involvement.
Whether these are accounted for in a Special Revenue Fund, Trust Fund, or Custodial Fund will depend on the characteristics of each individual scholarship. Districts should complete the GASB 84 Flowchart (GASB 84, pages 44-46) for each scholarship to help determine how it should be reported and review this with the district’s auditors. We avoided use of the General Fund due to spending authority issues, and anticipate that most scholarships will either remain in Fund 81 (Scholarship Trust Funds) or move to newly added Fund 19 (Non-Fiduciary Scholarship Funds). Following are the possibilities:
- If the Scholarship Fund meets the criteria for a trust and the district does not have administrative involvement, Scholarships will remain in Fund 81, Fiduciary Scholarship Trust Funds.
- If the Scholarship Fund does not meet the criteria for a trust and the district does not have administrative involvement, and the funds are held for a separate legal entity, Scholarships will be accounted for in a Custodial Fund (Fund 99, Custodial Scholarship Funds). Districts will move balances using upward and downward adjustments.
- If the Scholarship Fund does or does not meet the criteria for a trust or custodial fund, but the district does have administrative involvement, scholarships will be accounted for in a Special Revenue Fund (Fund 19, Non-Fiduciary Scholarship Funds). Districts will move balances using upward and downward adjustment.
GASB 84 (footnote, page 4) defines administrative involvement. For purposes of this provision, a government has administrative involvement with the assets if, for example, it (a) monitors compliance with the requirements of the activity that are established by the government or by a resource provider that does not receive the direct benefits of the activity, (b) determines eligible expenditures that are established by the government or by a resource provider that does not receive the direct benefits of the activity, or (c) has the ability to exercise discretion over how assets are allocated. A government has direct financial involvement with the assets if, for example, it provides matching resources for the activities."
GASB 84 (Paragraph 11c (1)) states the criteria for a trust as: the assets are (1) administered through a trust agreement or equivalent arrangement (hereafter jointly referred to as a trust) in which the government itself is not a beneficiary, (2) dedicated to providing benefits to recipients in accordance with the benefit terms, and (3) legally protected from the creditors of the government.
The following entries will be used to move funds from Fund 81, Scholarship Funds to Fund 19 or 99, when applicable. We recommend keeping the same project code currently used for the scholarship.
Fund 81 - Debit Downward Adjustment to Beginning Fund Balance (Function 6900, object 990) and Credit Cash Fund 19 or 99 - Debit Cash and Credit Upward Adjustment to Beginning Fund Balance (source 5900)
If you have questions, please contact denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741 or janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740.
School Meals - 2021-2022
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued nationwide waivers that allow SFAs the option of operating the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)/School Breakfast Program (SBP) or the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) in school year 2021-2022, effective through June 30, 2022. The NSLP/SBP and SSO Comparison Chart provides information on meal cost and meal reimbursement rates for each of the two programs.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) will not be an option for the school year 2021-2022 and SFSP operations must cease with the start of the new school year.
Further questions regarding coding can be directed to denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741, or janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740. Further questions regarding the Child Nutrition Programs can be directed to your assigned School Nutrition Program Consultant, patti.harding@iowa.gov or 281-4754, or stephanie.dross@iowa.gov or 515-281-4760.
USDA Food and Nutrition Service Emergency Operation Cost Reimbursement Program
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service is offering additional funds to State agencies administering the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to provide local operators with additional reimbursements for emergency operating costs they incurred during the COVID-19 public health emergency. These funds provide additional reimbursement for operators whose revenues declined or were temporarily interrupted during the early months of the pandemic due to COVID-19 related restrictions and closures.
The Iowa Department of Education Bureau of Nutrition and Health Services (BNHS) has an approved plan from the USDA to provide local operators reimbursement for emergency operating costs incurred during the months of March through June 2020. The amount of funding provided to each program operator has been determined using a statutory formula described in USDA memorandum SP 06 2021 - Child Nutrition Program Emergency Operating Costs During COVID-19: Implementation Guidance for State Agencies. Not all School Food Authorities (SFAs) will be eligible to receive emergency funding. SFAs eligible to receive emergency funding have been notified. The BNHS anticipates the payments will be disbursed by our agency on or around September 30, 2021. The CFDA number and source/project code for this funding is 10.555 and 4553 for NSLP; and, 10.558 and 4554 for CACFP.
All payments made to eligible Child Nutrition program operators will be subject to the same performance/allowable cost rules as other reimbursement funds. For questions, please contact patti.harding@iowa.gov or 515-281-4754.
Nutrition Fund Coding
As we transition out of the Summer Food Service Program to either the USDA Seamless Summer Option (SSO) or National School Lunch Program (NSLP) with the start of the school year, districts should return to the use of the function code 3110, when the Seamless Summer Option or regular National School Lunch Program resumes. Districts may check the source of funding with each Department payment in the Iowa Education Portal application, “Department Warrants.” If a Portal user does not have this application, a request can be made through “My Profile” in the top right corner of the Portal.
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 updates are provided below.
July 2021 |
|
|
Source/Project 4030 |
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) of 2021 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Additional USDE Programs Apr 09) (name change)
|
Source/Project 4031 |
ARP Special Education – Grants to States (Part B – Section 611) (CFDA 84.TBD)
|
Source/Project 4032 |
ARP Special Education – Preschool Grants (Part B – Section 619) (CFDA 84.TBD)
|
Source/Project 4033 |
ARP Special Education – Grants for Infants and Families (Part C) (CFDA 84.TBD)
|
Source/Project 4044 |
American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief – Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) (CFDA 84.425W) (Jul21)
|
|
|
Certified Annual Report (CAR) - Due on or before September 15
Although the CAR - 2021 COA Test Records application remains available for use for individual records, the CAR – 2021 Upload and Reports application must be used for a full file upload once the application is open. Multiple uploads can take place in the Upload and Reports, just as they can in the Test Records. Please read the home page for any important messages. Districts must comment on any warnings remaining on the CAR, giving a brief explanation as to why each situation is not applicable to their district. If the situation is applicable, corrections need to be made in the FY21 district financials and the district must reupload the CAR file.
A “Certify” button will not appear until the file is edit free and comments have been made for each remaining warning.
By rule, extensions are available only for good cause such as illness or death of the staff member responsible for the filing, acts of God, or unforeseeable unusual or unique circumstances (281 IAC 99.3). Please refer to the CAR instructions for more information about extension requests and the CAR deadline. Requests can be emailed to tom.cooley@iowa.gov, but no sooner than two weeks prior to the due date and no later than two days prior to the due date.
Also, as a reminder, if the district has expenditures paid from the flexibility fund account, the board-approved resolution required by Iowa Code subsection 298A.2(2) should be filed with tom.cooley@iowa.gov or with one of the Finance Consultants in the Bureau of School Business Operations if it wasn't already.
If you have further questions or need assistance with uploads, reports, extensions, account codes and journal entries, please contact denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741, or janice.evans@iowa.gov or 515-281-4740.
Certifying the CAR
Make sure to plan sufficient time to thoroughly review what is about to be certified before clicking the “Certify” button. The Special Education Supplement (SES), the Transportation Annual Report (ATR), and the CAR itself are not the only reports that should be reviewed prior to certification. The LEP Allowable Costs application will also pull data from the CAR.
Completing the CAR is a significant culmination to more than a year’s worth of work, and viewing the reports created by the CAR is an important step needed before certifying to help ensure accuracy of the submission.
- Balance Sheet
- Review the balances of each account and compare to the prior year.
- Think through any large variances to determine a reasonable explanation. Perhaps a second look for accuracy is in order.
- Are all payables and receivables booked?
- Do the Fund Balances make sense? Is the Committed Fund Balance that upon which the board acted by June 30? If there were expenditures against this balance during the year, has the balance been adjusted accordingly? If there is an Assigned Fund Balance, is it accurate? Are they the amount expected? Take a quick look at the expenditures for each categorical—do they appear appropriate?
- In the Proprietary and Fiduciary funds (60 – 89), does Account 76x, Investments in Capital Assets, Net of Related Debt, equal the balance of the capital assets less depreciation?
- Treasurer Report by Fund
- This report is a quick summary of beginning balance, revenues, expenditures, and ending balance. Compare the beginning balance to the beginning balance on the district’s software. The Adjustments to Beginning Balance row is a forced adjustment if the report doesn’t add up—this should be zero. Compare balances, revenues, and expenditures to the previous year for consistency. Research any large variance if an explanation does not come to mind.
- Revenues and Expenditures
- Same as above. Compare to prior year and research large unusual variances.
- Miscellaneous Income and Expenditure Report
- Same as above. Compare to prior year and research large unusual variances.
- Does the maximum Cash Reserve Levy amount seem correct in comparison to expected, or last year? If not, are all payables/expenditures coded? Are Fund Balances coded correctly, as Unassigned and Assigned Fund Balances flow into this formula?
- Balance Sheet by Long-Term Governmental Account Group
- For funds 8 and 9, start with the audit report. Be sure the district starts with the same balances reported in the previous year’s audit. Increases and decreases should be journalized and reported as the ending balance in the current CAR.
The CAR is used extensively to provide the data required for federal reporting purposes. The state files reports with the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and provides a smaller data collection to the National Education Association (NEA).
If you have further questions, please contact denise.ragias@iowa.gov or 515-281-4741.
Special Education Supplement - Due on or Before September 15
The Special Education Supplement (SES) is now available through the Iowa Education Portal. On the initial screen of the application, there is a link to obtain the “District Resident Tuitioned Out Report,” which contains information needed for Screen 1 of the SES. The SES is due September 15 and must be certified on or before that date. Districts must receive board approval for the “Request for Modified Allowable Growth and Supplemental Aid” for their special education deficit. However, districts can include this request on their September or October school board meeting agenda. Please upload your board minutes on the Certification Screen of the SES or email your minutes to Bill Roederer.
If you have further questions related to the SES, please contact bill.roederer@iowa.gov or 515-281-7972.
Transportation Annual Report - Due on or before September 15
The Annual Transportation Report has many features and capabilities to make it easy to complete and to assist in ensuring accuracy. Many items will be pre-populated from the district's CAR and Vehicle Information System (VIS) data, however, there are four things the district must provide manually:
- The number of miles traveled.
- The number of days buses operated.
- The number of students transported.
- The aggregate number of weeks of students were transported.
The number entered into the “aggregate weeks” column by the district should be the sum total of weeks for the individual riders – not the total number of weeks for the riders as a group. For example, if buses ran for 36 weeks and 10 students rode the buses every week, the total aggregate weeks would be 360 (10 students x 36 weeks) rather than 36.
The aggregate weeks information is used to calculate the average number of students transported, which is shown in Line 1 of the "Miscellaneous" form of the application (total aggregate weeks/number of weeks = average number of students). This is a good item to spot check to make sure the number seems reasonable. Keep in mind a student need only ride a bus one time per week to be counted for one aggregate week.
Please refer to the full instructions posted on the Transportation Guidance page of the Department's website. For further assistance, please contact max.christensen@iowa.gov or 515-281-4749.
District Contact Verification
All school business officials and other district and Area Education Agency (AEA) staff responsible for completing the Special Education Supplement, Special Education Billings, Claim Forms, and Medicaid Claiming are reminded to check whether the contact person(s) listed for each of these applications is correct. Please verify that the individuals, telephone numbers, and email addresses are up to date. You may complete this process on the main page of the Tuition In Billing program.
If you have further questions, please contact bill.roederer@iowa.gov or 515-281-7972.
Fall BEDS Staff and Operational Function Sharing
The intent is to have the Fall BEDS Staff application open by late September. At this time, the Operational Sharing application is planned to be open on October 1, with a certification deadline of October 30. While districts do not need to have their Fall BEDS Staff certified before completing the Operational Sharing application, both the district holding the contract and the district purchasing a portion of a person’s contract must report the shared individual in Fall BEDS Staff in order for the sharing to appear in the Operational Sharing application.
- The contract-holding district reports the individual’s entire salary, benefits, and FTE according to the employee’s contract.
- The district purchasing a portion of the contract reports the combined amounts of salary and benefits in the “purchased amount” field. This field is located on the Edit Assignment screen where the district selects the shared status. The district purchasing the service also reports the individual’s FTE according to the portion being purchased. The FTE field is located on the Edit Position screen.
Due to recently enacted legislation (HF 847 and HF 868), there are changes to the positions eligible for operational function sharing supplementary weighting, as well as changes to the weighting that will be generated by most positions. For more information regarding these changes, refer to the 2021 Legislation Related to School Business and Finance guidance document. The maximum FTEs a district can generate remains at 21.
Sharing arrangements that qualify for shared operational function supplementary weighting are limited to the following position codes in Fall BEDS Staff:
- Superintendent (8 FTEs)
- 510 - AEA Chief Administrator
- 511 - Superintendent
- Business Management (each district can generate supplementary weighting for only one of the following) (4 FTEs)
- 612 - School Business Official (each district can only have one SBO)
- 133 - Other Business Official
- 112 - Board Secretary
- HR Manager (4 FTEs)
- Transportation Director (4 FTEs)
- 167 - Transportation Director
- Operation & Maintenance Director (4 FTEs)
- 168 - Operations Director
- Curriculum Director (2 FTEs)
- 633 - Director/Coordinator/Department Head
- Counselor (2 FTEs)
- Social Worker (2 FTEs)
- 624 – Social Worker
- 198 - Social Worker (Non-BoEE licensed)
- (NEW) Special Education Director (2 FTEs)
- 515 - Special Education Director
- (NEW) Workplace Learning Coordinator (2 FTEs)
- (NEW) Mental Health Professional with Statement of Professional Recognition (SPR) from BOEE (2 FTEs)
Each district that enters into an eligible sharing agreement with eligible sharing partner(s) will generate supplementary weighting as designated above. A district can only generate supplementary weighting for sharing one individual per position. If an individual holds two eligible operational sharing assignments and is shared with another district for both assignments, only one of the two positions will generate supplementary weighting, assuming the minimum 20 percent time requirement is met.
Social Workers must be licensed by the Iowa Department of Public Health and hold either a master social worker or independent social worker license. To verify a social worker’s license type, go to the Iowa Department of Public Health’s online license search.
For new sharing arrangements involving other governmental entities that are not another Iowa public school district or area education agency (AEA), the district will be asked to submit a copy of the sharing contract and job description to the Department. This information is used to verify the sharing arrangement as eligible for generating supplementary weighting.
New sharing arrangements should begin at the beginning of the normal contract period. For example, a 12-month position begins July 1. A new sharing arrangement involving five districts, each purchasing 20% of the contract for a position that does not begin until November 1, would be ineligible for operational sharing during the first year of the arrangement. One-third of the year would have transpired. Each district would then have contracted for only two-thirds of 20 percent, or 13.3 percent (0.133 FTE) of the full-time equivalent. However, if a sharing arrangement is contracted to begin October 1 and involves only three partners, each purchasing a minimum of 27 percent of the full-time contract, each partner would then meet the 20 percent minimum (three-fourths of 0.27 = 0.203 FTE).
If you have further questions regarding Fall BEDS or Fall BEDS Staff, please contact shelly.neese@iowa.gov or 515-281-3111. Additional information regarding reporting of shared positions in Fall BEDS Staff can be found on the Fall BEDS Staff Documentation section of the Fall BEDS webpage.
If you have further questions regarding Operational Sharing, contact tom.cooley@iowa.gov or 515-725-1120.
Providing Medicaid Reimbursement Documentation
During the last legislative session, Governor Reynolds signed SF 260 into law. This legislation relates to the Medicaid-eligible health services provided by a receiving district to open-enrolled students receiving special education services. SF 260 requires the attending districts to provide to the resident districts the documentation necessary to seek Medicaid reimbursement for the eligible IEP-ordered health services. A guidance document containing a list of the required documentation will soon be available on the School-based Medicaid page of the Department's website.
If you have questions regarding this requirement, please contact jim.donoghue@iowa.gov or 515-281-8505.
School Bus Driver Authorization
All school bus driver authorizations expire on August 15. Beginning July 1, school districts were given a window of opportunity to update all authorizations in the “Driver Authorization” application accessed through the Iowa Education Portal. Authorizations for your school district’s bus drivers should have been updated between July 1 and August 15. Please verify that this action was completed.
- If a driver is no longer on your staff, please delete the individual from the system by selecting “Remove.”
- When reviewing the driver list, make note of any missing or expired information, which will be shown in red. If licensing, physicals, and/or training is not up to date, fix as needed in order to obtain the new authorization.
To update an authorization from the driver page, select the “View” button next to the driver. If all licensing, physicals, and training information is up to date, you will see a message above the Driver Detail section stating, “A New Authorization Would Expire 8/15/22.” To finish, click the button labeled “Create Authorization” and print the driver’s authorization document. Repeat this process for each individual. Once completed, be sure to provide the new authorizations to your drivers to carry with them – they are required to carry it whenever driving a school bus.
Failure to possess an accurately reported, current authorization can result in a citation from law enforcement. If you have further questions, please contact max.christensen@iowa.gov or 515-281-4749.
Determining Student Residency
Determination of a student’s resident district must be ascertained by the local school district. A district’s criteria must be applied consistently from one student to another and from one year to the next. It may be helpful to apply a “reasonable person” test to determine if a student should be considered a resident of your district. A good “reasonable person” test would be to ask yourself, given the situation and facts presented about a particular student, and if a neighboring district were to enroll the student as their resident student, would I agree with their decision?
Following are several references to assist in determining whether a student is or is not a resident of your district.
KUDOS
Iowa was recently recognized with two awards from the National Center for Education Statistics of the United States Department of Education. The two awards were for recognition of outstanding performance in timely and complete reporting of the Common Core of Data National Public Education Finance Survey (NPEFS) and for the Common Core of Data Survey (F-33) for FY19, which are submitted by the Bureau of School Business Operations. These awards, which Iowa has received each reporting year since 2009, would not be possible without the timely submission of quality data by each of the state's districts and AEAs. Congratulations to all!
Due Date
|
What's Due |
|
September 1 |
New Regional Academy Applications Due |
September 10 |
Request/Exhibit Deadline for October SBRC Hearing |
September 15 |
CAR, SES, and Transportation Reports Due |
September 30 |
Facilities, Elections & Sales Tax Data Collection Due |
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. 14th 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.
|