School Finance Guidelines & Manuals

Guidelines

The purpose of these policies and procedures is to guide to all school districts and charter districts throughout the State of Arizona on the rules and regulations, including Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.), which must be followed in the reporting of information to the School Finance Unit of the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). Following these procedures will assist the school districts and charter districts in complying with the reporting requirements placed upon these entities. It will support compliance with the Uniform System of Financial Records (USFR) Compliance questionnaire. For additional information regarding district or charter requirements, go to:

School DistrictsCharter SchoolsASBCS

 

The scope of these policies and procedures is to cover information and processes relevant to reporting data, which impacts state funding, to the School Finance Unit. As legislative or system changes occur, these documents will be updated accordingly.

During fiscal year 2015-2016, districts and charters began submitting via the Arizona Education Data System (AzEDS). AzEDS and various ADE online applications collect data that is required by the federal government; however, because the information does not affect state funding, information on those processes is not addressed in these policies and procedures. Other units within the ADE require that school districts and charter districts submit additional information. Those units include, but are not limited to, the following: Accountability, Exceptional Student Services, and the Office of English Language Acquisition Services.

 

This chapter provides guidelines and procedures for reporting student membership data and details for calculating the student's full-time enrollment (FTE) status to AzEDS.

This chapter guides how a calendar should be structured and submitted in order to meet statutory requirements and pass Integrity rules. 

 

For information related to Instructional Time Models, please refer to this document: School Finance Initial Guidance on H.B. 2862 for SY 2021-2022.

This chapter guides Integrity, a set of rules defined by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) business and the Arizona Revised Statute (A.R.S.). Integrity runs on student data that has passed through the Application Programming Interface (API) into AzEDS. A report (INTEG35) is generated nightly to show the results of Integrity processing on submitted school tracks/calendars. 

  • Please refer to the AzEDS Reference page and navigate to the "Integrity Rules Reference" section for detailed information on each Integrity Rule. This guidance also provides contact information for resolving any errors encountered.
  • School Finance owns the following integrity errors: 10XXX, 20XXX, 80XXX, and 90XXX. To request assistance in resolving these Integrity Errors, please submit a HelpDesk ticket.

    This chapter guides the statutory age requirements for funding, enrolling students in pre-k, and when a child is excused from being enrolled. 

    School Finance Manual [C] Age Requirements & Validation for Funding updated 1/15/25

    This chapter describes how student attendance records should be maintained to meet audit requirements. 

    School Finance Manual [D] Compilation & Maintenance of Student Records

    This chapter provides guidelines and procedures regarding defining excused absences and the effect of excessive absences on funding.

    School Finance Manual [G] Defining Excused Absences - updated 5/12/25

    Resource video: This video provides further examples of students with excessive absences that may result in a unfundable ADM interval. The examples shown in the video aim to provide clarity and are not exhaustive of all potential scenarios. 

     

     

    This chapter provides definitions, procedures, and data submission details for CTEDs. 

    School Finance Manual [L] Career Technical Education District  updated 5-15-25

      This chapter provides procedures for determining a student's first day of attendance. 

      GE-17 First Day Absences Issued 7-07

      This guideline clarifies whether the effective date of a sponsor-approved enrollment cap amendment will be the first day of the fiscal year in which the amendment is approved or the first day of the subsequent fiscal year.

      SF-0001 Enrollment Cap Amendments Issued 7-1-14

      The purpose of this guideline is to guide to school districts for completing the Transportation Route Report and Vehicle Inventory Report, to assist school districts in determining the types of transportation miles that are eligible for funding according to statute and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) policy, to provide records maintenance guidelines, and to provide compliance requirements as authorized by statute and ADE policy.

      SF-0002 Transportation Guideline Issued 7-1-14

      Arizona Online Instruction Issued 9-2024

      • The AOI Participation manual guides reporting student membership data for Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) programs. The guidance includes student Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) calculation and documentation requirements.

      Homebound Instruction - Modified 04-10-2024

      This chapter provides guidelines and procedures regarding reporting a student with a Homebound need to AzEDS. This guidance also outlines the department's definition of home-based, homeschooled, and homebound.

      The following guidelines are no longer accurate and have been replaced with a School Finance Manual chapter found above. These links remain for reference to prior year practices only. 

      School Finance Manual [L] Career Technical Education District  -Archive 5-15-25 

      School Finance Manual [G] Defining Excused Absences (formerly EX-1) Archive 5-12-25 (Please keep in mind that School Finance processes that generate non-fundable ADM intervals for students who accumulate excessive absences will not be enforced for FY23.)

      EX-1 Excused Absences Issued 11-18-09

      GE-20 Absence Reporting Issued 7-1-13

      GE-18 Instructional Hours and Programs Issued 7-1-13 - Archived August 2020

      School Finance Manual [L] Career Technical Education District - Archived August 2022

      GE-19 Passing Time Issued 7-1-13 - Passing Time guidance is now part of Reporting Student Membership

      SF-0003 AOI Participation Modified 9-23-19 - Archived 2025

      School Finance Manual [C] Age Requirements & Validation for Funding - updated UE comment per ESS Guidance, Archived January 2025

      Instruction Manuals

      This section contains instruction manuals that explain the various systems used by local education agencies (LEAs) to submit school, staff, and transportation data to School Finance. The manuals provide guidance in navigating the various systems to successfully submit data. 

      This document explains how to submit estimated student counts to School Finance at the beginning of each school year. Pursuant to A.R.S. § 15-185(B)(2), the student count of a charter school shall be determined initially by using an “estimated count” based on the actual registration of pupils before the beginning of the school year. 

      Charter Estimated Counts Manual This version was updated on 6/15 to align column headers in section B-2 to the column headers in the downloadable template.

      Entity Profile Change requests for existing districts (such as changes to address, grades served, mission statements, etc.) are submitted through the HelpDesk ticketing system. For new districts that do not have access to HelpDesk, this form can be requested by emailing [email protected]. 

      A.R.S. § 15-915 defines the ability to correct prior-year data that impacts state-aid or budget capacity. This document provides detailed guidance on how to request a prior-year data correction for transportation data, student data, and budgets/Annual Financial Reports.  

      This document explains how to use the School District Employee Report (SDER) application in ADEConnect.The primary use of SDER data is to calculate districts' Teacher Experience Index (TEI) pursuant to A.R.S. § 15-941. The TEI calculation may have the effect of increasing budget limits and equalization assistance (state aid) in the subsequent year.

      • SDER Manual originally posted 9/15/21, updated 10/7/21

      This manual guides districts on how to submit data in the Transportation and Vehicle Inventory application in ADEConnect. Transportation route and vehicle inventory data are used to calculate the Transportation Support Level (TSL) for districts.