BUDG-25 reports for all school districts have been posted to the School Finance website.  FY 2026 May BUDG-25 reports have been calculated using the FY 2026 May BSA-55 information.

• District BUDG-25, BUDG-75, and BSA-55 reports are available to download from this School Finance website. For further instructions on how to navigate the website, please view this Hot Topic.

Please contact the Budget Team ([email protected]) if you have any questions.

Thank you!

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

End of the Year Integrity Rule: -40055

Beginning May 1^st of each fiscal year, -40055 integrity rule is re-run to capture any misaligned or unreported data related to SPED Exit Date, SPED Exit Reason, Enrollment Exit Date, and Enrollment Exit Reason in AzEDS.

If a student’s SPED Exit Reason does not align with the student’s year-end enrollment status or withdrawal enrollment status, then the discrepancy will trigger -40055 integrity error. As of May 22, 2026, 18,196 students are failing this rule. Please review your SPED72 or your INTEG15 report in the AzEDS portal to see if you have any students failing this integrity error for your PEA.

For guidance on resolving this error, please refer to the SPED-Related Integrity Rules document available on AzEDS SPED Reporting webpage for detailed steps.

Please direct any questions to ESS Data Management.

Budget forms for the upcoming fiscal year are typically published shortly after the state budget passes to incorporate any changes in state law. Since the FY 2027 state budget has not yet passed, School Finance and the Auditor General's Office are planning to publish preliminary budget forms to allow districts and charters to plan budget preparation processes and governing board meetings.

The Auditor General's Office expects to publish preliminary budget forms for use in budget proposal and adoption by Friday May 22nd if the State budget has not passed and does not appear likely to pass the following week. It is recommended to revise budgets in early FY 2027 to incorporate changes in State law. Please note that preliminary budget forms will account for an annual inflation change of 2.00% in the Base Level Amount (BLA), but will not anticipate any other changes to State law. Districts in which the qualifying levy is greater than the equalization base (non-state-aid districts) in particular, should be aware of the impact of preliminary forms on the budget and discuss property tax rate considerations with counties if preliminary budget forms are used with revisions expected. We will provide a timeframe for final budget form issuance once final changes in State law are known.

If the State budget passes before May 22nd, or appears likely to pass the following week, the Auditor General’s Office will not publish preliminary forms and will instead publish the final budget forms as soon as possible after the budget passes. The final forms will account for all changes in State law, and it may not be necessary to revise the budget in early FY 2027.

As a reminder, if the preliminary budget forms are utilized for the proposed budget, then the preliminary budget forms must also be utilized for the adopted budget. A district must not propose their budget using the preliminary forms then adopt their budget using the final forms.

School Finance will continue to provide updates via Hot Topic when more information is available.

Thank you!

As mandated by A.R.S. § 15-1042(B), all School Districts and Charter Districts are required to submit data electronically to receive funding. As part of this process, School Districts and Charter Districts must create an instructional calendar for each school site. The Superintendent or authorized representative must certify that each calendar has met the minimum instructional time requirements defined in A.R.S. § 15-901. School Districts and Charter Districts must enter the instructional calendars in student information systems (SIS) for submission to AzEDS. AzEDS will be available for FY 2027 instructional calendars and student data transactions beginning on 6/1/2026.

If the instructional calendar deadline has not been met, the initial release of state aid will be delayed.

Click here to review the full calendar memo. 
Click here to review the Calendar Integrity Reference Guide. 
 

If additional assistance is needed, please submit a HelpDesk ticket.
 

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. 
 
The Charter Estimated Counts application will open for data submission on 05/31/2026. The deadline to submit Charter Estimated Counts is 07/1/2026. 

• Charters can be paid based on Charter Estimated Counts for the first two payments of the year.
• Payment 3 will be based on FY2027 AzEDS ADM data.
• Charter Estimated Counts cannot be revised after the 7/1/2026 deadline.

Click here to review the full Charter Estimated Counts memo.
Click here to review the new Charter Estimated Counts manual.

If additional assistance is needed, please submit a HelpDesk ticket.

Average Daily Membership (ADM) is calculated using data submitted in the Arizona Education Data Standards (AzEDS) system. Data capture stores a static copy of ADM every month on the data capture deadline. ADM is the basis of state aid funding. Monthly state aid payments are a percentage of the annual equalization assistance less previous payments year-to-date.

Ensure data is reconciled and free of integrity errors prior to the monthly data capture dates. Reports are published at https://schoolfinancereports.azed.gov/.

The FY 2027 API is available from 6/1/2026 to 7/15/2027.

*Alternative to FY 2027 AzEDS data available for the first two payments only. Districts will be paid based on AzEDS prior-year ADM, which does not apply to Charters. Charters will be paid based on estimated counts submitted via the ADEConnect Charter Estimated Counts application.

To be eligible for an increase in expenditure capacity and state aid, all FY2025 15-915 requests must be submitted by June 01, 2026, to ensure all data changes/corrections are completed before June 30, 2026.
Requests completed after June 30, 2026, are outside the subsequent fiscal year and are not eligible for increased expenditure capacity and state aid.

Year two (2) and three (3) corrections made within the 2nd and 3rd prior year may decrease expenditure capacity and state aid. Under A.R.S. § 15-915, no increases may result from FY2023 and FY2024 student data corrections.

For additional information and instructions on submitting a request, see the Guidelines for Requesting Prior Year Corrections to State Aid or Budget Capacity (A.R.S. § 15-915) posted here: /finance/school-finance-external-guidelines. 
 

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

FY26 Parentally Placed Private School Student Survey (PPPSS) is now open and due August 13, 2026 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 requires that each public school district with geographic boundaries maintain records and provide to the State information related to parentally placed private elementary and secondary school students, in accordance with §§ 300.130 through 300.144. 

The application is now open and will close for submissions on August 13, 2026. 

Each PEA must assign the ESS Data Surveys: User role in ADEConnect at the district level to the individual who will submit this survey. Once the role has been assigned, users should log in to ADEConnect, navigate to the Exceptional Student Services (ESS) Portal, and select the Data Surveys link within the Surveys and Assurances section. From there, select the "Take Survey" button under the Parentally Placed Private School Student Survey section to begin.

Upon successful submission, a “Thank you for submitting” confirmation page will be displayed. 

The PPPSS Technical Assistance Manual is available to support this data collection requirement. 

If you have any questions, please contact the ESS Data Management Inbox. 

The Exceptional Student Services (ESS) Data Management team is pleased to announce that the recording of the FY26 Special Education Data Dashboard (SEDD) webinar is now available for your viewing and reference. If you or your staff were unable to attend our webinar held on Thursday, April 23rd, we recommend watching this video to become familiar with reporting requirements and application updates for the FY2025-2026 SEDD process. PEAs can access the recording on our Vimeo account and our SEDD webpage.

The ESS Data Management team is also pleased to announce that we will begin hosting office hours starting on Monday, May 18th. Office hours provide PEAs with the opportunity to meet one-on-one via Microsoft Teams with an ESS Data Management specialist to review any ESS data reporting issues and challenges as they pertain to SEDD. PEAs can register for a 30-minute session by navigating to the ESS Data Management Bookings page.

Office Hours and other technical assistance opportunities are intended to provide guidance; however, they cannot replace the requirement for the PEA to verify and correct data prior to the submission deadline. If a specialist must reschedule a session due to emergent and/or conflicting obligations, we will do our best to communicate this in a timely manner.

Important Dates

• Now: SEDD is currently open
  • Validate that users have the correct access to the application
  • Validate that data is landing appropriately in SEDD
• July 15, 2026: AzEDS Data Deadline
  • Last day any data can be synced to AzEDS for FY26
  • Preschool Transition and SWOD data entry
• July 22, 2026: SEDD Certification opens
  • LEA Signer must complete electronically
• August 5, 2026, by 5:00 p.m.
  • Late submissions may hold IDEA funds and impact PEA determinations

Please email the ESS Data Management inbox with any questions.

Urges schools to be open and follow the law on reporting

PHOENIX – Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is levelling criticism at a rise in incidents of serious misconduct by school employees, noting schools must ensure they are reported immediately to protect children and comply with the law.

Under Arizona law, those requirements include reporting to law enforcement, Department of Child Safety and / or tribal authorities as well as the State Board of Education. Recently, a dispute arose in the Peoria Unified School District over an incident of sexual conduct between a teacher and student.

Horne said, “I am deeply concerned about the events occurring on the Peoria district board. It is absolutely crucial that every school be transparent with the public about what happens in schools. There should be zero tolerance for people who don’t live up to their duty to report misconduct. In recent months, the State Board of Education, where I am a voting member, has disciplined educators for that kind of failure.”

Peoria district leadership is embroiled in a dispute over an effort by former governing board president Heather Rooks’ attempt to have the Maricopa County Attorney and State Board of Education added to an internal investigation of alleged sexual misconduct. The Board opposed that and removed Rooks as president. Horne agrees with Rooks that full reporting is legally required.

Under Arizona law, school employees are mandatory reporters. The law defines reportable offenses including, non-accidental physical injury, abuse, serious emotional damage, sexual abuse or acts, exposure to dangerous drugs, and neglect, among others.

Also, reports are to be made immediately, and reporting to a supervisor or administrator is not sufficient. Failure to comply is a Class I misdemeanor for child abuse or neglect and a Class 6 felony for not reporting a reportable offense.

Horne added, “There seems to be a terrible trend of school employees being accused of egregious breaches of conduct, including sexual activities with children. This is completely unacceptable and schools must do everything possible to ensure the safety of children. The exploitation of a child by anyone, but especially an educator or other school employee, is an unfathomable breach of trust and cannot be tolerated.”

Educators and other school personnel are hired by local districts or charters. Disciplinary matters are the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education, while law enforcement handles potential criminal matters.