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 February 2024
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Inside this issue:
Department of Education Resources
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Upcoming Deadlines
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Due Date
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What's Due
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February 12
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AEA Certified Budget Deadline
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February 15
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Last Date to Bill for First Semester Special Education Tuition
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February 23
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Deadline to Request to Appear or Submit Exhibits for March 26 SBRC Hearing
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March 26
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School Budget Review Committee Hearing
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March 31
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Last Date to Submit LEA and AEA Electronic Annual Audit of Prior Year to the Department and Auditor of the State's Office
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Staff Contact Information
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In accordance with state and federal requirements, the Department reviews all district and area education agency (AEA) annual financial audit reports and follows up on audit findings to determine if appropriate and timely corrective action has been taken. As a part of this process, the Department requests documentation demonstrating how the findings were resolved or, if a finding remains unresolved, any steps taken toward resolution.
The Department’s previous audit review practices did not require follow up on segregation of duties findings; however, a recent review of the process concluded that follow up on these findings should be conducted due to the critical nature of this internal control and the potential risks associated with inadequate segregation of duties. It was noted that some districts receive recurring segregation of duties findings in their annual audit reports, but make no indication that any steps have been taken toward resolving the issue.
While completely segregating duties in smaller districts may be difficult to achieve, districts should still make efforts to strengthen business practices to segregate duties based upon the skills and abilities of existing personnel, including potentially the involvement of staff outside the business office. Districts are encouraged to work with their auditor to identify acceptable practices.
Any progress made toward strengthening segregation of duties (even if the finding cannot be completely resolved) should be documented in the annual audit finding response and included in the response to the Department’s audit finding follow-up request.
For further information, please contact Kathy Bowers at kathy.bowers@iowa.gov or 515-210-9674.
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Question: May the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) fund pay for radon testing?
Answer: Yes, radon testing is an appropriate use of SAVE funds if the district’s revenue purpose statement permits.
Iowa Code section 423F.3
3.a. If the board of directors adopts a resolution to use funds received under the operation of this chapter solely for providing property tax relief by reducing indebtedness from the levies specified under section 298.2 or 298.18, or for radon testing pursuant to section 280.32, the board of directors may approve a revenue purpose statement for that purpose without submitting the revenue purpose statement to a vote of the electors.
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The "2023-2024 District AEA Flowthrough Amounts", "2023-2024 Sources for Local Projects", "2023-2024 Preschool Funding" (with administrative reduction amounts), and "Utility Replacement Tax Payments" documents are available under the heading “Data Used to File FY24 CAR” on the Certified Annual Financial Reports (CAR) webpage.
For further information, please contact Jina Brincks at jina.brincks@iowa.gov or 515-313-5942.
Message from the Department of Management:
The February 2024 income surtax payment is the second and final income surtax payment for the 2022 income tax year. The payment represents one-quarter of the amount of income surtaxes collected for your district, plus or minus any adjustments made by the Department of Revenue.
This payment is based upon the income surtax rates established for your 2022-2023 budget. If your district did not have a surtax for the Physical Plant and Equipment (PPEL) Fund, the entire payment should be credited to the 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 Aid and Levy Worksheet. The General Fund income surtax rates can be found on lines 10.15 and 11.4. The Department of Management has provided a summary, including the split between funds, which is posted under "State Payment Information FY24" on the State Payment Information webpage.
Friendly reminder: There is a difference between Property Tax and Utility Excise Replacement Tax. The former is a property tax and the latter is not a property tax. Federal reporting and the district budget process are affected by related coding choices.
- Source 1171: Gas and Electric or Utility Replacement or Excise Tax (Iowa Code chapter 437A)
- Source 111X: (Current) Utility (not gas and electric) or Delinquent Utility
To assist districts, the FY24 Utility Excise Replacement Taxes have been added to the Department website. Go to Certified Annual Reports - see the category "Data Used to File FY24 CAR" and look for the document titled “2023-2024 Utility Replacement Tax Payments”. Only utility items labeled "Gas and Electric", "Utility Replacement", or "Excise Tax" should be coded as Utility Excise Replacement Taxes, Source 1171. Items labeled "Utilities" or "Current/Delinquent Utilities" are coded as regular property tax, Source 1110 (1111).
There is also a document on the Uniform Financial Accounting webpage named "Property Taxes - Types and Coding" that has helpful information on how to code the different types of taxes. In addition, the School Resources webpage on the Department of Management's website has a document named "Outstanding Property Tax Levies and Maximum Levy Limits FY2024" which includes the estimates for FY24. FY25 estimates will be posted this summer and the district should check those estimated amounts to assist with FY25 coding.
If you have any 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.
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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 Department’s Uniform Financial Accounting webpage.
January 2024
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Account Code
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Description
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Source/Project 4038
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ARP EANS (FAL/CFDA 84.425V) (Reinstated for ARP Jan24) (Previously Teacher Quality Partnerships, Recovery Act (FAL/CFDA 84.405)) (Apr10)
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The Bureau of School Business Operations hosted the Finance Roundtable at the Grimes Building on Wednesday, January 24. Led by Bureau Chief Kassandra Cline, 27 members attended, including two new members, and discussed agenda topics including time and effort reporting requirements, the new Department website, new Iowa School Business Institute (ISBI) boot camp curriculum, corrective action plan for late fiscal filing requirement updates, Special Education Supplement (SES) application reporting, Medicaid background checks, and other current topics.
This diverse group is an invited focus group comprised of school business officials, superintendents, and AEA representatives from around the state and also includes members of the Department of Education, Department of Management, Legislative Services Agency, and Office of the Auditor of State, as well as individuals from various organizations that support school districts 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 is scheduled to meet again in May.
All current information regarding the Students First Education Savings Account (ESA) program can be found here.
As districts are preparing for the upcoming Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) testing window, please be sure that you have discussed the testing protocols and security guidance provided by the publisher. This discussion should include building level administrators and staff who will be included in the assessment process, as well as staff who may be working with home school families to complete the assessment. Please remember the ISASP is not to be sent home for completion by students outside of the school building, AEA, or other location designated for testing and is to be supervised by district or AEA personnel who have completed the required training modules for those administering the assessment.
Questions can be directed to the Department of Education's Home Schooling (Private Instruction) contact Buffy Campbell at buffy.campbell@iowa.gov or 515-954-8651.
School districts and AEAs may purchase goods and services through master agreements negotiated by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS). A wide variety of goods and services are available at rates that are already negotiated. Items range from copy paper to automobiles. Purchases from master agreements do not require a competitive bid process. The link to the DAS procurement website can be found here.
AEA Purchasing is an initiative of the Iowa Association of Area Education Agencies (IAAEA) with the mission of combining the purchasing power of Iowa schools to offer competitive pricing on materials, goods, and services through a formal bid process. Serving as a local purchasing cooperative for education for over 20 years, AEA Purchasing has partnered with vendors from across the US – including Iowa and the Midwest – to supply schools with the products needed to operate their programs equitably, efficiently, and effectively. From desks to groceries and everything in between, when a school makes a purchase using an AEA Purchasing contract, it is supporting all schools in Iowa by bringing purchase volumes up, which, in turn, keeps prices low, enabling a sustainable investment to better serve Iowa students and communities. During the 2022-2023 school year, AEA Purchasing contracts saved Iowa schools an estimated $11.5 million.
To learn more about the program's offerings and the advantages of cooperative purchasing, please contact Joni Puffett at joni@aeapurchasing.org or 800-632-5918, or visit http://www.aeapurchasing.org.
If the school district is responsible for providing textbooks for a concurrent enrollment course, the expectation is that textbooks are provided to students enrolled in the concurrent enrollment course consistent with the district's established textbook policy and in the same manner as the district provides textbooks for all students of the district (Iowa Code chapter 301).
If the district charges an annual textbook rental fee to all students, that established fee covers all textbooks for all courses (e.g., high school credit only, concurrent enrollment). If the district charges no fee for textbooks, then no fee may be charged to students for concurrent enrollment textbooks. Only if a district’s policy is to charge on a book-by-book basis to all students for all courses can a district charge a textbook fee for each concurrent enrollment course.
It would not be permissible for a district to establish a separate textbook policy specific to concurrent enrollment courses which may require a student to purchase textbooks for their concurrent enrollment courses; doing so would set additional restrictions on participation in the course (281 IAC 22.4(1)(h)) as well as equate to charging tuition (281 IAC 22.11(6)), both of which are expressly prohibited in state law.
Please note the following:
- This applies to all instructional delivery methods (e.g., in the high school, online, on-campus, through a career academy).
- There would be nothing preventing the student from purchasing the textbook for the concurrent enrollment course if they want to keep it, but requiring the student to purchase the book would equate to charging tuition, which is not permissible.
- Refer to page 28 of the Senior Year Plus guide for additional information.
For questions or comments, contact Heather Meissen, Senior Year Plus, at heather.meissen@iowa.gov or 515-326-5378, or Song Luong, School Finance, at song.luong1@iowa.gov or 515-205-0259.
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For each claim period, a Year-to-Date (YTD) General Ledger (GL) is required to be uploaded in CASA for each Title program. The purpose of this requirement is to ensure the reviewer verifies the YTD GL total amount matches the total claimed to date amount in CASA. Correct time frames give reviewers the proper expense information needed to review the submitted claim.
The time frame that should be reflected in a YTD GL for each claim period is reflected below.
- Quarter 1: 7/1/2023 through 9/30/3023
- Quarter 2: 7/1/2023 through 12/31/2023
- Quarter 3: 7/1/2023 through 3/31/2024
- Quarter 4: 7/1/2023 through 6/30/2024
For questions, please contact Tim Glenn, Administrative Consultant, at tim.glenn@iowa.gov or 515-205-7650.
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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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