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August 18, 2021
To: Special Education Directors, Business Managers, and SEDRA Contacts
From: Division of School Finance
Executive Order 20-82
The governor signed Executive Order 20-82 on Thursday, July 30, 2020. Under paragraph 38, it stated the following: "Upon approval by the Executive Council, for Fiscal Year 2021 only, expenses for special education staff assigned to other work during distance learning or hybrid learning implemented pursuant to paragraphs 4, 5, or 6, and expenses recorded in the food service fund, may be charged to the same Uniform Financial Accounting and Reporting Standards (UFARS) codes to which the service is charged for an instructional day. The commissioner must notify districts and charter schools of these formula changes as soon as practicable."
Special education staff who were reassigned to other work during distance learning or hybrid learning models may not be charged to any federal special education fund nor could this time be charged to Medical Assistance (MA), finance code 372.
20-21 SEDRA Personnel Type Code 21 and Service Code 9
To track reassignment expenditures, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) created Special Education Data Reporting System (SEDRA) personnel type code (PTC) 21 and Service Code (SC) 9 for benefits.
The new codes are allowed only for 20-21 under funding codes “A” and “E” with service codes “A” and “U.” Schools will not need to make any changes to staff coding in their Uniform Financial Accounting and Reporting Standards (UFARS) system. Staff calendars, timesheets, personal activity reports or similar support will be required to support how staff were allocated in SEDRA during the year-end reconciliation process for SFY 21.
PTC 21:
- Salaries for Special Education staff reassigned during distant learning or hybrid models (only to be used in SFY 21)
- This new PTC will only be allowed under funding codes “A” and “E” with service codes “A” and “U”
- It will correspond to UFARS object code 161 (staff) or 396 (purchased staff)
The amount is included on the Special Education/UFARS Comparison report under the category of Non-Licensed Instructional Support Staff
Besides staff salaries, fringe benefits will also need to be recoded in SEDRA for time spent outside of working with students with disabilities. MDE has created a new service code:
Service Code 9:
- Fringe Benefits for Special Education staff reassigned during distant learning or hybrid models (only to be used in SFY 21)
- This new Service code will only be allowed under funding code “a”
- The amount is included on the Special Education/UFARS Comparison report under the category of Fringe Benefits/Fixed Costs
UFARS Year-End Data Reporting
The UFARS Year-End Data Reporting site (MDE > Districts, Schools and Educators > Data Submissions > UFARS File Upload) is open for FY 2021 UFARS data submissions. Local educational agencies (LEAs) did not have to make any changes to their UFARS reporting for reassignments.
Maintenance of Effort
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and provides guidance on the maintenance of effort (MOE) statutory requirements. OSEP indicated that expenditures for special education staff reassigned to other work areas should be tracked separately and not included in the LEA MOE calculation. Therefore, both of the SEDRA codes above will not be included in final SFY 21 MOE calculations.
The federal government has not provided any waivers or safe harbors for LEAs with regards to MOE. The state also has no authority to waive the LEA MOE requirement for any reason.
Reassigning or laying off staff like teachers and regular classroom paraprofessionals who work with a number of students will not qualify under any of the allowable exceptions for MOE. It would be treated as a cost savings to the LEA, which is not an allowable exception.
If special education staff, specifically paraprofessionals are being provided to a group of students (both with and without individualized education plans [IEPs]) for child care purposes and they are the only adult watching over the students, then the cost of the paraprofessional must be coded to the new PTC 21 code along with their benefits to service code 9.
If there are other adults providing child care services and the special education paraprofessional is assigned to provide instruction to just the special education students, then their time would be reported as regular special education (hence they would not be reassigned).
Next Steps
- Review Safe Learning Model Look-Up System to see how LEA was reported. Only assignments that occurred during distance learning or hybrid learning may be considered.
- Review staff calendars, time sheets, personal activity reports or similar documentation to determine reassignment expenditures.
- Calculate and enter eligible reassignment expenditures in SEDRA.
- Calculate and enter fringe benefits for eligible reassignments in SEDRA.
MDE will begin reviewing SEDRA coding for all LEAs starting in late August and comparing data to each LEA’s education model for SFY 21. We will begin reaching out to LEAs in early September based on the findings.
If you have any questions, send an email to the Special Education Funding and Data Team.
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