The FY2021 Superintendent's Annual Financial Report (SAFR) has been posted. 

The perpetual SAFR database has been updated to include FY2021 (now encompassing 2006-2021).

The Superintendent's Annual Financial Reports and Database can both be found on the School Finance Reports page.

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

Thank you!

Happy new year, school leaders!

The final deadline to apply for your LEA’s eligible ESSER III Funds is fast approaching – February 1, 2022.

Our team is here to help you in the final stretch to the deadline. We know you have additional grants due this month and are juggling competing priorities.

We will be hosting an Office Hours session every week where you are free to ask questions, discuss potential uses of funds, and work with an ESSER director or specialist. You can pop in any time during the hour.

January ESSER Application Office Hours

Registration not required – simply join a session during the hours listed below.

• January 13, 2022 2:00-3:00
• January 18, 2022 11:00-12:00
• January 27, 2022 8:30-9:30 AM

You can reach an ESSER specialist directly by emailing [email protected]. Better yet, give us a call directly. We’d rather answer your questions up-front and make sure your application is as impactful as possible.

Devon Isherwood, Deputy Associate Superintendent of School Support & Improvement

(602) 364-0379

[email protected]

Allison Barbor, ESSER Director

(602) 542-3068

[email protected]

Creative Uses of ESSER Funds

Ahead of the February 1 deadline, we are featuring creative examples of how Arizona LEAs can leverage ESSER Funds. 

We know that each school community has unique contexts and needs – and ADE’s ESSER Team is available to discuss how to leverage your ESSER dollars to best to meet those needs.

ESSER funds can be used to improve sanitation, facilities, and policies that support safety & health in their school communities. Consider these ideas:

• Vape detectors that detect particles in the air and alert mobile phones, to keep air quality in the bathrooms or classrooms clean.
• Renovating bathrooms to be touchless (flushing, soap, water, hand dryers) to improve sanitation challenges.
• COVID-19 Sick Leave Pay. ESSER I, II, and III funds can be leveraged pay for sick leave for staff who have tested positive or were exposed to COVID-19.
• Sports, PE, and the Arts can all be supported using the 20% Set Aside for SEL. Learn more about integrating sports, PE, and the Arts by visiting our Title IV-A website.

In need of other ideas? Visit ADE’s Evidence-Based Clearing House.

If you are using a Tier 4 Evidence-Based resource, you can complete this Evidence Based Summary Form and upload it to the related documents section of your ESSER III application.

Addressing Disrupted Learning

Curious what other districts and charters are doing to address Disrupted Learning? Review their submissions on our website to find out more.

Upcoming ESSER Set-Aside Opportunities for LEAs

Reminder: "ESSER Set-Aside" refers to federal dollars to spent by the Arizona Department of Education. These funds are separate than the ESSER funds allocated directly to LEAs. Learn more.

The following professional development opportunities are funded and supported by the Arizona Department of Education’s ESSER set aside investments:

Arizona SEL Course

The Arizona Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Course is a free online, self-paced, self-guided course that will focus on the development and understanding of the Arizona Department of Education adopted CASEL Competencies and how to develop a systemic implementation of the social emotional learning within their school or organization.

Note: This course is designed to be taken as a school team, leadership team, or district teams but individual educators may choose to take this course on their own as well. Please choose the class that best fits your needs

Discovery Ed Sessions

• Thursday, January 13, 2022, at 3:30 PM – Social Emotional Learning
• Thursday, January 20, at 3:30 PM - English Language Learners
• Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 3:30 PM – Career and Technical Education 

AzCAN College Access Professional (CAP) Training

AzCAN’s College Access Professional (CAP) Training will help professionals develop an understanding of their role in developing a college-going mission for all students, particularly students in poverty or facing other barriers in postsecondary planning. All the courses are designed for anyone who provides direct service to students, no matter what their role may be. Cohorts of staff are encouraged to participate in the courses together as creating an action plan is a course component.

Courses are self-paced, with a one-hour commitment a day! Initial courses include:

• Building a College Going Future for All Students
• Financial Aid & College Applications
• College & Career Advising in the Middle Grades
• College & Career Advising for Non-School Counselors

*See the full course list here.
 

ESSER Updates & Deadlines

Safe Return to In-Person Learning Plans: Spring 2022

Starting January 2022, Safe Return to In-Person Learning plans will be submitted via EMAC.

If you are not yet a part of EMAC, contact your ADEConnect Administrator and request to be added.

If you already have access to EMAC, perhaps through Title I or Title III, please reach out to your EMAC Admin to be added to the ESSER Group.

This quarter, you will receive an EMAC welcome email with set-up instructions and more information.

Resources:

• Contact [email protected] with any EMAC questions.
• How to add new users in EMAC (for ADEConnect Administrators)
• EMAC Portal User Guide

If you are not making any changes to your LEA’s Safe Return to In-Person Learning Plan this semester, please feel free to take the information from your previous approved plan and enter it into the new form in EMAC. You will complete this same form once every six months until September 30, 2023.

After you have submitted your plan, an ESSER Specialist will review your plan and then email you letting you know if it’s been approved or denied. Once approved, it will updated on the website.

NOTE: If you have not yet submitted your Fall 2021 Safe Return to In-Person Learning Plan, please do so immediately. You must complete this template and submit it to the online form (to be used for fall 2021 only. Spring 2022 plans must be submitted through EMAC).

Data Reporting

ADE continues to await new guidance from ED on the requirements for LEA ESSER Data Reporting requirements. We will email school leaders & federal programs contacts as soon as we learn more and have guidance and instructions to share.
 

ESSER Set Aside Update

The Arizona Department of Education received an incredible 130+ submissions for ESSER III Set-Aside dollars. Our team is reviewing submissions and plans to announce recipients by the spring.

Districts (not charters) are required to submit transportation route data within 12 days of their 100th day (or 200th day where applicable) per A.R.S. § 15-922. Beginning in FY22, School Finance will be collecting transportation data from districts via a new ADEConnect application. Users who submit transportation data must be assigned the role of “TransportationInventory – LEA User” in ADEConnect to access the new Transportation and Vehicle Inventory application. ADE IT has assigned the new role to every ADEConnect user who was assigned either the Transportation Routes or Vehicle Inventory role in Enterprise. If no user for an LEA was assigned those roles in Enterprise, then ADE IT assigned the ADEConnect role to the Entity Administrator. Entity Administrators can assign this role to users in ADEConnect. Please contact your Entity Administrator if you need assistance with role assignment.

The following resources have been created to assist in submitting transportation data via the new application:

• Transportation Data Submission Video
• Transportation Manual edited 1/12/22
• Transportation FAQ

Please review these resources prior to submitting your transportation data. If additional assistance is needed, please submit a HelpDesk ticket.

Special Education Directors,

As part of our ongoing recruitment efforts on behalf of Arizona’s public schools, ADE/ESS compiles and updates a list of education career fairs happening at educator preparation programs across the country.

If your school is planning to recruit for special education teachers from out of the state, we hope this list will make that task a bit easier for you. Review the Education Careers Fair Calendar to support your recruitment efforts this spring. The list is also available on the Arizona Education Employment Board website on the “Employer” page under the “Find a University Job Fair” icon.

If you have questions, please email Kim Rice or email Julie Lenza, ESS Recruitment and Retention Specialists.

We are cleaning up the School Finance website to make it easier to navigate and find information. You can now access all forms and reports by clicking on “Forms” or “Reports” on the navigation menu on the right side of the website and then selecting the desired report or form.

For example, student count and basic state aid reports are now available by clicking on "Reports" in the menu on our home page:

and then opening the "Student Counts and State Aid Reports" dropdown.

If you have any questions or need assistance finding a specific form or report, please email School Finance at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

MEMBERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY RULES ADDED TO OCTOBER 1 PROCESSING

Please be aware the Exceptional Student Services October 1 processing will be updated today to include integrity rules for Membership and Accountability. This will result in any SPED student receiving services over October 1 failing Membership or Accountability rules to be excluded from your October 1 count. Many existing SPED integrity rules rely on Membership and Accountability rules to ensure clean data.

If there are any students receiving services over October 1 missing from your SPED07 report you should review your INTEG15 report and resolve all State SPED, FED SPED, Membership, and Accountability errors. These rules are indicated as SPED, FED SPED, and ADM on the INTEG15 report.

Troubleshooting questions for Membership and Accountability rules should be referred to School Finance. Please open a ticket using the help link at the top right of your ADE Connect homepage to request assistance with a Membership or Accountability rule.

The SPED73 report in the AzEDS Portal has been updated to reflect the SPED07 report and will provide feedback on all students served over October 1 with a Y or N indicator for October 1 FED SPED status. Students indicated with an N will provide feedback as to why the student is not included in the October 1 count. 

Phase II of the ESS October 1 Data Collection will end on January 18, 2022. Please ensure all students are passing SPED, Membership, and Accountability rules through the deadline to ensure reconciliation.

For any questions this update, please contact us at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

ODC Phase II Deadline Extended – January 18, 2022

The October 1 Data Collection (ODC) application Phase II due date has been extended from December 15, 2021 to the NEW due date of January 18, 2022 by 5pm.

The ODC application is located within the Exceptional Student Services Portal in ADEConnect. Please ensure any user needing access to this report has the ADEConnect role of: ESS October 1 Data Collection: LEA User or LEA Signer.

The SPED07 report is located under the ‘Reports’ tab within the ESS ODC application. This report displays a list of students ages 3-21 identified in AzEDS as receiving special education services over the October 1 child count date as of the most recent integrity run.

It is expected that each PEA will ensure their count on the SPED07 report matches the verification count submitted in Phase I to reconcile their SPED October 1 Count for FY22. SPED integrity errors will prevent students from appearing on your SPED07 report.

To assist in the reconciliation process, please review the steps outlined in the October 1 Data Collection Manual – Phase II. The manual, training videos, and case study video are available on the ESS Data Management October 1 Data Collection Page. 

Since the closing of the ODC Phase I: Personnel & Verification Count on November 17, 2021, the verification count submitted by your PEA has been locked. If the submitted verification count was incorrect your PEA will be unable to reconcile, please continue to monitor your SPED07 report to ensure the data is correct for students served over October 1. If applicable, your PEA will be contacted to complete Phase III: Non-Reconciliation opening on April 13, 2022.

If you have any questions, please direct them to [email protected].

BUDG-25 reports for all school districts have been posted to the School Finance website.  FY 2022 December BUDG-25 reports have been calculated using the December BSA 55-1 information.

• District BUDG-25 reports are available to download from the School Finance website:
  • First, select a school district and then click “Go!”
  • Next, click “Switch to Budgets” from the top right corner of the menu bar and then click “Reports” from the middle of the menu bar.
  • Finally, select fiscal year 2022 and then click “Go!”. The BUDG-25 report will appear.

• District BSA 55-1 reports are available to download from the School Finance website:
  • First, select a school district and then click “View Reports”
  • Next, scroll down the page to the “School District Reports” section.
  • Finally, click the December “PDF” button. The December BSA 55-1 report will appear.

BUDG-25 reports will be available until the Budget Team performs the next update (typically after each State Aid distribution). Once the updating process has begun, all BUDG-25 reports will become unavailable at that time.  Please save a copy for future reference.

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

Thank you!

The FY22 ARP-IDEA Consolidated-Entitlement Grant is now available in the Grants Management Enterprise (GME) system. The ARP-IDEA Consolidated Grant must be submitted as a new funding application. The code assigned to ARP IDEA Basic and ARP IDEA Preschool should fall within the codes of the federal project for IDEA Funds.

The IDEA Consolidated-Entitlement funding application allocations will be updated soon and require a budget revision to bring the remaining balance to $0.00 for the IDEA Preschool and IDEA Basic grants.

The ESS Program Management team held a webinar on October 12, 2021, to discuss the impact of additional IDEA funds and the opportunity for some public education agencies (PEAs) to reduce the Maintenance of Effort compliance thresholds for fiscal year 2021–2022. Under 34 C.F.R § 300.205, an eligible PEA may take up to 50% of the increase in IDEA Basic funds from FY21 to FY22 and reduce its state and local (M & O) spending on SPED200 programs if the PEA tracks how it plans to use the freed-up funds to carry out activities under the ESEA. The slide deck and Zoom recording of the webinar are available on the ESS Program Management website.

ESS Program Management has published an updated allocations workbook that includes a tab for your public education agency to review the eligibility to take this MOE reduction. PEAs that did not receive Meets Requirements for the FFY19 PEA Determinations or were flagged for Significant Disproportionality in FFY19 are not eligible to take this reduction. PEAs that wish to take a MOE Reduction of any amount under 34 C.F.R § 300.205 must e-mail the ESS Program Management inbox by December 17, 2021.

Please contact ESS Program Management if you have any questions.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

SPED07 Report Now Available

The SPED07 report is now available within the October 1 Data Collection (ODC) application for Phase II: Reconciliation. 

The SPED07 report displays a list of students ages 3-21 identified in AzEDS as receiving special education services over the October 1 child count date as of the most recent integrity run.  

It is expected that each PEA will ensure their verification count submitted in Phase I matches the count on the SPED07 report to reconcile their SPED October 1 Count for FY22.

To assist in the reconciliation process, please review the steps outlined in the October 1 Data Collection Manual – Phase II. The manual, training videos, and case study video are available on the ESS Data Management October 1 Data Collection Page. 

The Phase II Reconciliation process is due Wednesday, December 15, 2021 by 5:00pm. 

To better align with federal reporting requirements, the age groupings have been updated on the SPED07 report. Students aged 3-5 and attending preschool will appear under the ‘Ages 3-5 (Preschool Only)’ section and students age 5 and above who are in Kindergarten or UE will appear under the ‘Ages 6-21 (Age 5 KG Included)’ section.  

For any questions related to the SPED07 report, please contact us at [email protected].