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May 2023
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Upcoming Deadlines
Due Date
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What's Due
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May 12
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Verify Yes/No Data Breach for Medicaid
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May 31
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Deadline for District Budget Amendments
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June 15
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Nonpublic Transportation Claim
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June 30
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Last Day to Pay Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) Tuition Due to Eligible Postsecondary Institutions
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Staff Contact Information
Department of Education Resources
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House File 68 (HF 68), signed into law on January 24, 2023, was effective upon enactment. Related guidance is posted to the Department’s website on the Categorical Funding page under the sub-heading Teacher Salary Supplement (TSS).
HF68 Guidance: Categorical Funding and Operational Sharing guidance document summarizes the additional uses authorized for specific categorical funding and provides an update to the operational function sharing supplementary weighting eligibility timeline. The legislation increases allowable uses of the following categorical funds: professional development (PD) (Iowa Code § 257.10(10)”d”), teacher leadership and compensation (TLC) (Iowa Code § 257.10(12)”d”), and gifted and talented (TAG) (Iowa Code § 257.46(3)).
Beginning with FY24, available PD, TLC, or TAG funds may be used for teacher salary supplement (TSS) purposes and distributed to teachers pursuant to Iowa Code section 284.3A: teacher compensation – single salary system. Available funds include any balance carried forward from the prior year (i.e., carryforward balance) as well as the current year’s allocation. Transfers may be made beginning July 1, 2023.
Specific account coding guidance for the intrafund transfer is included in the guidance document linked above.
Account code questions may be sent to Jina Brincks at jina.brincks@iowa.gov or 515-313-5942, or Song Luong at song.luong1@iowa.gov or 515-205-0259.
The CAR 2023 COA test records application is available for district and area education agency (AEA) use. Changes and updates to edits and warnings will be ongoing. Stages one and two validate the composition of the account code. Stages three and four will be available but may change as updates are made. A district may test an individual account code or an entire file. The COA test records application mirrors the CAR upload and reports application. Many of the COA test records edits are programmed to check tables for information. These tables may not be completely loaded during the testing period. This information is entered as it becomes available. The incomplete tables are noted on the homepage of the application. Also, districts may get stage four reconciliation messages, as all revenue, receivables, or restricted fund balances would not be entered prior to the end of the fiscal year in the district’s accounting system.
We strongly urge districts to test files early and often for account coding accuracy. Please be sure to update the district’s financial software to the most current version before creating a text file. Districts should not “fix their books” to pass edits, as the edit may need to be modified during testing. The COA test records application is available on the Iowa Education Portal. Once logged in, go to EdInfo, then Finance Applications.
The edits below have been added to the CAR 2023 COA test records application.
- Functions 231X are not used in Fund 40
- Source 1754 is not used in Fund 61
- Source 4911 is used in Fund 61
- Object 638 is used in Fund 61
- Amount reported in Object 638 must equal the amount reported in Source 4911
If you need access to the CAR 2023 COA test records application, the portal security officer at your district or AEA will be able to grant access. Any other login questions or issues may be directed to ed.portal@iowa.gov.
If you have coding questions, issues with the upload, or edits and/or warning messages, please contact Kathy Bowers at kathy.bowers@iowa.gov or 515-210-9674, Jina Brincks at jina.brincks@iowa.gov or 515-313-5942, or Song Luong at song.luong1@iowa.gov or 515-205-0259.
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Districts that are part of a Perkins consortium or Regional Planning Partnership (RPP) should expect to receive some journal entries from the fiscal agent to record in the district’s records, including transactions done by the fiscal agent on behalf of the consortium or partnership. The School Business Operations Bureau worked with the Iowa Department of Education (Department) Bureau of Career and Technical Education on the documents Accounting for Perkins Funds: Consortia and Accounting Guidance for Regional Planning Partnerships
For Perkins or RPP questions, please contact Dennis Harden at dennis.harden@iowa.gov or 515-314-7852.
For coding questions, please contact Jina Brincks at jina.brincks@iowa.gov or 515-313-5942.
Although the annual Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Allowable Cost application is not available until September, it is important to remember that the data supporting the application is generated from 2022-2023 data.
Reminder: Continue to code English Learners (EL) (formerly LEP) expenditures to Programs 410-419, even when expenditures exceed the cost of revenues coded to Project 1112 or 4644. Excess expenditures will use Project 0000 and Programs 410-419.
For LEP Allowable Cost application questions, please contact Scott Dryer at scott.dryer@iowa.gov or 515-402-8700.
For coding questions, please contact Kathy Bowers at kathy.bowers@iowa.gov or 515-210-9674, Jina Brincks at jina.brincks@iowa.gov or 515-313-5942, or Song Luong at song.luong1@iowa.gov or 515-205-0259.
Iowa Quality for Kids (IQ4K) is Iowa’s new Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS) licensed child care centers and preschools, registered child development homes, and programs operating under the authority of an accredited school district or nonpublic school. IQ4K is replacing the Quality Rating System (QRS). IQ4K is funded through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (FAL/CFDA 93.575). The IQ4K Source/Project is 4625.
Source/Project 4625 - Child Care and Development Block Grants (Iowa HHS) (Iowa Quality for Kids (IQ4K)) (FAL/CFDA 93.575).
For coding questions, please contact Kathy Bowers at kathy.bowers@iowa.gov or 515-210-9674, Jina Brincks at jina.brincks@iowa.gov or 515-313-5942, or Song Luong at song.luong1@iowa.gov or 515-205-0259.
The Tuition-In Billing (TIB) application is now available for districts to complete their FY23 final year billings. Please remember that all school districts will need to submit their final year billings by July 17.
You are required to enter student information by number of DAYS only. As in past years, an upload must be completed to activate the TIB program. Districts should also clear edits related to special education accounts in the CAR 2023 COA Test Records application prior to sending bills through TIB.
Between June 1 and 22, districts should ensure all students have been entered into their TIB program, including all special education foster care, termination of rights, nonpublic, and high cost claims. Also to be entered are students educated in day programs, residential programs, and hospitals.
From June 22 to July 5, all school districts should review and verify the accuracy of the tuition out information through the Special Education Supplement (SES). If it is determined that a student has been omitted, contact the district that provided educational services to ensure they add the student in their TIB program.
If you have further questions, please contact Bill Roederer at bill.roederer@iowa.gov or (515) 393-8349.
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. Updates are posted each month to this document which can be found on the Uniform Financial Accounting webpage.
April 2023
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Source/Project 4625
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Child Care and Development Block Grants (Iowa HHS) (Iowa Quality for Kids (IQ4K) (FAL/CFDA 93.575) (Used with program 840) (Apr23)
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Source/Project 4683
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Urban & Community Forestry (DNR) (FAL/CFDA 10.675) (Apr23) (Formerly Mine Health and Safety Grants) (FAL/CFDA 17.600)
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Source/Project 3289
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Community Forestry Grant (DNR) (Apr23) (Formerly Earth Year 2000 Grants) (DNR)
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Source/Project 4035
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Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSLFR) – Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) (FAL/CFDA 21.027) (Reinstated for CSLFR ARP Apr23)
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The Bureau of School Business Operations hosted the Finance Roundtable at the Grimes Building on Wednesday, April 26. Led by Bureau Chief Kassandra Cline, 24 members attended and discussed agenda topics including Executive Order 10, the Department's federal fiscal risk assessment evaluation tool and process, charter school payments and billing, school transportation, safety and security training offered through US Homeland Security & Transportation Security Agency, school-based Medicaid, and district employee recruitment and retention efforts. This diverse group is an invited focus group comprised of school business officials, superintendents and AEA representatives from around the state including members of the Department, Department of Management, Legislative Services Agency and Office of the Auditor of State, as well as individuals from various organizations that support school district's across the state including IASBO, IASB, SAI, and ISFIS. The group meets three times during the school year to discuss school finance-related issues and will meet again in October.
All current information regarding Educational Savings Accounts can be found here.
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The Nonpublic Transportation Reimbursement Application is now open. Please enter the data and certify the application by June 15. The Department intends to issue reimbursements to districts in July but will need to have all district data in by June 15 to meet this goal.
Information relating to the nonpublic transportation reimbursement process is found on the Nonpublic Reimbursement webpage of the Department’s website. The reimbursement application is accessed through the Iowa Education Portal.
If you have further questions, please contact Max Christensen at max.christensen@iowa.gov or 515-336-3965.
Districts offering concurrent enrollment courses and eligible Project Lead the Way (PLTW) courses may bill resident districts for the supplementary weighting generated on open enrolled students enrolled in the contracted courses. Bills for the supplementary weighting can be generated using the information provided in the Student Reporting in Iowa (SRI) application. Before paying a bill for supplementary weighting, the resident district can verify the information by reviewing the Supplementary Weighting (Non-Fall) application in the Iowa Education Portal. When computing the supplementary weighting, use the student’s resident district cost per pupil of the year in which the course was taken. Directions for generating and verifying the bills are located on the Supplementary Weighting – Certified Enrollment page of the Department's website (281 IAC 17.10(8)).
SRI data is open for final reporting, but data should be considered preliminary until the reporting district’s last day of school. Concurrent enrollment information should not change before the end of the school year, since most community colleges will have already ended their school year. Be sure to bill the resident districts of your open enrolled students after the Non-Fall Supplementary Weighting application is available.
If you have further questions regarding the billing process for foster care reimbursements, please contact Scott Dryer at scott.dryer@iowa.gov or 515-402-8700.
If you have questions related to student reporting, please contact Rachel Kruse at rachel.kruse@iowa.gov and 515-281-4153.
Many psychiatric medical institutions for children (PMIC) placements are parent placements and not placements by Iowa HHS or the Iowa Juvenile Court System (JCS). Iowa Code 282.27, “Children living in psychiatric hospitals or institutions - payment,” was changed in 2015 to allow hospital PMIC-placed students to be included in the Foster Care Claim process. Subsection 5 states, “If a child placed in the psychiatric unit or institution was not enrolled in the educational program of the district of residence of the child on October 1 of the current school year, the district of residence may include that student in a [foster care] claim submitted to the department of education pursuant to section 282.31(1)"b"(2).
Each district must do the following to ensure accurate reporting of hospital PMIC-placements in the Foster Care Claim application:
- Identify students for whom your district received a bill from another district because of a hospital stay involving the student’s placement in a hospital psychiatric ward. Then, determine if the student was included in your district’s certified enrollment count.
- For any students identified above who were NOT in your district’s certified enrollment count, either:
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- Enter the student as a new student in the district’s student information system and show enrollment corresponding to the period of time of the placement with a service/facility type of 2 and service provider/facility code of 97777777. This will usually be for students who are homeschooled, attend a nonpublic school, or resident individuals who dropped out of school and were not enrolled on count date. During a hospital stay while placed in a psychiatric ward, the student is considered a public school student and must be entered into the student information system with an entry code of 1. Exit the student using the date when the student ended the hospital stay and an exit code to show the current status of the student (transferred to home school, transferred to a nonpublic school, dropped out of school).
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- Add a new enrollment record for any student already in your system for the period of time the student was placed in the hospital psychiatric unit. The service/facility type field must be identified as 2 (PMIC placement) with a service provider/facility code of 97777777 (hospital psychiatric ward).
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If you have further questions regarding PMIC placement foster care reimbursements, please contact Scott Dryer at scott.dryer@iowa.gov or 515-402-8700.
If you have questions related to reporting students in a hospital PMIC-placement, please contact Rachel Kruse at rachel.kruse@iowa.gov and 515-281-4153.
Below are some tips to help ensure the integrity of positions engaged in operational function sharing and provide transparency for your communities:
- Ensure the agreement is in place, approved, and commencing on the normal start date for the position based on the length of the contract for a returning employee in that position.
- The entity holding the contract does not give away a portion of their employee’s contract. The purchasing entity must pay for the portion of the contract that is being purchased (minimum 20% of salary and benefits is required for the sharing to be an eligible sharing arrangement for supplementary weighting).
- Any new contract with a governmental entity that is not another Iowa public school district or AEA must include the responsibilities the person will perform for each organization or be available for review by the Department. Any questions or concerns about the eligibility for supplementary weighting should be discussed with the Department prior to the signing of the agreement to allow for modifications to the contract if the sharing is dependent on the generation of supplementary weighting.
- Continuing agreements that will not be changing do not need to be revisited, unless previous concerns were not addressed.
- If five districts enter into an agreement to share a position at 20% each, but the sharing does not start until October 1, the sharing among the five entities would not be an eligible arrangement. For a 12-month position, 25% of the year would have transpired. Only 75% of the remaining contract would be eligible to be shared. Even four districts sharing the remaining 75% would not result in each of the districts receiving 20% of the contract. The same would be true for a 10-month contract running August through May. If the sharing does not begin until October, only 80% of the full-time contract remains. Therefore, only four districts would be eligible to purchase 20% of the remaining portion of the full-time position. To avoid any questions of impropriety, the sharing arrangements must be in place at the beginning of the full-time employee’s contractual year.
- All eligible operational function sharing arrangements must be entered correctly in Fall BEDS Staff each fall. This includes:
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- Providing the appropriate position of the individual being shared.
- Identifying the sharing status as either the contract holder or the district purchasing services.
- Reporting salary and benefits to be paid by your district with the contract holder reporting the full amount and the district purchasing the services reporting their portion of the salary and benefits (using the purchased amount field).
- Reporting the type of shared arrangement and identifying the sharing partner(s).
- Reporting the individual’s full-time equivalent (FTE) with the contract holder reporting the full amount and the district purchasing the services reporting their portion of the FTE.
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If you have further questions regarding operational function sharing eligibility, please contact Scott Dryer at scott.dryer@iowa.gov or 515-402-8700.
If you have questions about reporting positions part of an operational sharing agreement in Fall BEDS Staff, please contact Shelly Wolterman at shelly.neese@iowa.gov or 515-336-3859.
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Each district and AEA enrolled as a Medicaid provider signed a one-page Business Associate Agreement (Agreement) in 2022. The Iowa HHS Privacy and Security Office is now requiring a more detailed Agreement which will include more specific requirements about elements like data breach reporting.
Highlights include:
- If you as the Business Associate discover any breach of unsecured protected health information (PHI), you will report it promptly to the Department as the Covered Entity and in no case later than 30 calendar days.
- If you become aware of any security incident affecting electronic PHI of the Department, you will report it to the Department within five business days of becoming aware of the incident.
- If you provide a subcontractor with Medicaid PHI relating to the Agreement, you are to notify the Department within 30 calendar days of subcontract agreement.
Next Steps: Within the next month, the Department will be sending the School Business Official (SBO) for each participating provider a new Agreement. Please complete the few blank fields, sign, date, and return the completed Agreement within 30 days.
If you have further questions, please contact Jim Donoghue at jim.donoghue@iowa.gov or 515-281-8505.
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On April 24, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of at least $400 million in grants for cleaner school buses. This grant opportunity through the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program will fund electric, propane, and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) school buses that will produce either zero or reduced tailpipe emissions compared to their older diesel predecessors. These reduced emissions will result in cleaner air for students, drivers, and other staff. Eligible applicants for this funding opportunity include:
- State and local governmental entities that provide bus service
- Public charter school districts
- Indian tribes, tribal organizations, or tribally-controlled schools
- Nonprofit school transportation associations
- Eligible contractors (including Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), dealers, school bus service providers, and private bus fleets
Grant information and applications can be found at Clean School Bus Program Grant. A webinar will be held on May 10 to more fully explain the grant process. The Clean School Bus Grant Program will be open for 120 days and will close on Tuesday, August 22, 2023. Questions about applying may be directed to CleanSchoolBus@epa.gov.
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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. 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.
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