California SELPA Administrators Meeting
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California SELPA Administrators’ Meeting
Finance Report – May 2017
1. State News
· We are awaiting the Governor’s May Revise. It is due to be released on May 12th.
· As of February, state revenues were $239 million below projections. However, March revenues far exceeded the forecast by $1.4 billion. Therefore, revenues are now $1.1 billion ahead of the Governor’s January Budget forecast. This was a result of:
- Personal income taxes that were $874 million ahead of projections
- Corporation taxes exceeded projections by $338 million
- Sales tax was the only tax below expectation by $66 million
There is now optimism that April revenues will also be strong. This could certainly mean the May Revise won’t be as conservative as first expected.
· AB 312 (O’Donnell) Special Education Funding passed unanimously out of the Assembly Education Committee on April 26th. Thanks to everyone who wrote letters, passed resolutions and came to Sacramento to the hearing! We will be sending out an e-mail with information regarding sending letters and resolutions to the Appropriations Committee. Please help us keep this Bill moving.
· AB 1449 (Muratsuchi) was pulled by the author prior to the hearing. The author plans to make it a two-year bill. We will continue to work with the author.
2. Federal News
· The Feds had a Continuing Resolution (CR) through April 28th. They were unable to come to an agreement, and have passed a stopgap bill for one week in order to try to reach an agreement. It appears that an agreement on an omnibus spending bill is close and will add money to defense and border security (not the wall). It will fund the Federal Government thru the end of September.
· There are some very slight increases to a few educational programs. IDEA is projected to get 90 million nationwide. This would mean 9 million to California. That amount is so small that we are reporting the Federal funds will be flat funded.
· There is huge concern about the Federal Health Care Bill, which was just narrowly passed by the House. The Bill contains huge cuts to Medicaid. LEA Medi-Cal funds are federal funds. If this Bill goes forward to the Senate and is passed, we could see large cuts to the LEA Medi-Cal program. These cuts would prove to be very difficult for districts.
3. Important!!
· The Legislature allocated almost 2 million dollars in one-time funds in the 2015-2016 State Budget to backfill the federal funds that they used to fund ADR. It was sent out to SELPAs in a grant under the Resource Code #6501. These grant funds must be expended by September 30th. 47 SELPAs have not turned in expenditure reports for these funds, and therefore, have not received the funds. We will send out the list and an expenditure report form. Please complete and submit ASAP, as we do not want any special education funds left in the Budget as unspent.
4. Upcoming Special Education Fiscal Information
· Annual Budget and Service Plan due to CDE by June 30th. Don’t forget to post 15 days prior to your public hearing.
· P-2 Funding Exhibits will be posted by the first week in July.
· Check to make sure expenditure reports have been submitted and track to make sure reimbursements actually come in.
· Districts will begin to do required Federal Reporting (SEMA, SEMB, Table 8, Excess Cost Calculation) when closing sometime after June 30th. These reports will not be due until November 15, 2017.
5. MOE Workgroup Meeting with CDE
· Subsequent Year Tracking Sheet
Upgrades to the form have been approved and will be completed on both the SELPA Tracking Sheet and the form on the CDE website. We are hoping to send out the new version by mid June along with revised directions.
*A big thanks to Mark Curtis for all of his amazing work! Also thanks to Russell Coronado and the San Diego SELPA Directors who have allowed Mark to do this work for us.
· Updated SEMA/SEMB Forms
Changes to the SEMA/SEMB MOE Forms have been done and inserted into the SACs software. We will get final copies of the updated forms and send them out to you to share with your fiscal colleagues.
· Excess Cost Calculation Worksheet
The form was reviewed and the only changes are date changes. We will complete these changes and send out the updated form in the next two weeks.
· Table 8
CDE does not expect to get reporting instructions from the Feds until mid August. Once they have arrived, CDE will send out the electronic worksheet to the SELPAs.
· Private School Proportionate Share (PSPS) Worksheet
- We discussed adding two additional boxes to the form for next year. They would include something like:
§ This LEA has no private schools within their boundaries.
§ This LEA did all of their child find activities and consultation and were unable to locate any eligible students. (Documentation attached).
- There was a question/discussion regarding Private School Proportionate Share responsibilities for charters.
- Please try to get LEA signatures on your PSPS to include with your first expenditure report. If you turned them in without signatures, they should not be sent back. You will need to follow-up with signed PSPS sheets once you have them.
· Federal IDEA Allowable Expenditures
- Several states have some written guidelines regarding expenditure of Federal IDEA funds. Eddie Davidson from Fresno presented a draft of guidelines that we could create for California. The workgroup agreed and will provide input on the document.
· Annual Budget Plan
- In an attempt to promote transparency and create a document that can be easily understood by educators, parents and the community, the Workgroup has designed some elements for a revised Budget Plan. A format similar to the SARC will be developed. Once we have a draft we will seek feedback from Directors and parents and will work on getting legislation to change the current requirements in the Ed Code to match our new Budget Plan format.