The primary use of School District Employee Report (SDER) data is to calculate your district's Teacher Experience Index (TEI) per A.R.S. § 15-941. This TEI calculation may have the effect of increasing your budget limit and equalization assistance (state aid) in the subsequent year.

The due date for SDER data is October 15th. The window for submissions will open one month prior to the due date. If a district needs to revise the submitted SDER data, the window for SDER revisions will open on February 1. The final deadline within the current fiscal year is March 1.

It is important to note that a district cannot update prior year SDER data.  SDER data revisions are between February 1 and March 1 of the current year. The new application requires that the SDER file be resubmitted to replace all data. The system does not allow a district to make individual edits.

Pursuant to A.R.S. § 15-941, teacher experience data must be transmitted to the Superintendent of Public Instruction by October 15th at 4:30 p.m. This requirement is for school districts only. Charter districts do not have to submit this information at this time.

A district must report all full-time and part-time district employees paid from the district budget. Individuals who are no longer employed by your district as of October 1 of the current school year must not be reported unless they are now filling a position in your district as a Purchased Service Personnel (PSP).

The School District Employee Report (SDER) application is in ADEConnect. If you do not have access to the SDER application in ADEConnect your district Entity can assign you the role "SDER - LEA User".

View the updated SDER manual

There is an excel spreadsheet posted online that show when each district submitted SDER data. /finance/reports

Report substitute teachers that are under contract with the district. An emergency substitute does not require a degree, only a high school diploma. Emergency substitute teachers’ years of experience should be reported as 1 year of experience. The employee number can be reported as the employee’s certificate issued by the ADE Teacher Certification, or you may enter their Social Security Number. For classified employees, you may enter SSN or another identifying ID.

The system only allows for .xlsx extensions. Try resaving your file to .xlsx instead of xls. and reupload the file.

If the SDER reports shows No TEI and the SDER shows your most recent submission was a Current Usable File, download the file and check to see whether Column B has a School CTDS number for each of your teachers, not the District CTDS that ends with 000. Correct and re-submit if needed.

Currently, you can view your district and school sites CTDS numbers on the Find-A-School website.

As defined in A.R.S. § 15-901, a route includes the total number of miles necessary to transport an eligible student on a school bus from their residence to their school of attendance and back to their residence. The morning run and the afternoon run equals one route.

• Transportation Route Report—A.R.S. § 15-922 requires school districts to submit transportation route reports within 12 days of the 100th day of instruction. The data must be submitted via ADE Connect. The submission window opens in mid-January.
• Vehicle Inventory Report—Each school district shall, on or before July 15 immediately following the fiscal year submit their vehicle inventory. The submission window opens on May 1.

Prior-year transportation reports, up to FY21, are located on the Student Counts page of the School Finance website: /finance/reports.

If the reports were never generated, request an A.R.S. § 15-915 to reopen the application and then create the report.

To correct prior year data, your Transportation Director and Business Manager will need to submit an A.R.S. §15-915 request letter. Please see page 5 of the posted guidance: Guidelines for Requesting Prior Year Corrections to State Aid or Budget Capacity (A.R.S. § 15-915).

If the global submission window closes before your LEA’s 100th day, contact the School Finance Account Analyst Team and request an extension of time.

According to A.R.S. § 15-901, school districts are required to report their annual bus mileage to the ADE. A.R.S. § 15-922(C) states that the passenger capacity defining a standard bus in A.R.S. § 28-101 does not apply for funding purposes. It is essential to acknowledge that additional state and federal regulations, as well as insurance requirements, may limit the use of vehicles used to transport students on a daily route. Each school district is responsible for ensuring compliance with these regulations. 

For the purposes of School Finance reporting, the passenger capacity of a standard bus  (A.R.S. § 28-101) does not apply to the Transportation Support Level (TSL) for funding purposes. If you use a vehicle that is not a "bus" as defined in A.R.S. § 28-101, include the vehicle in your inventory or contracted miles reports in the ADE Connect Transportation and Vehicle Inventory application so that a variance does not reflect in the Comparative Miles Report (TRANS40-2). 

The posted guidance School Finance Manual [J] Transportation,  explains that each district can calculate the average number of riders for the first 100 days of instruction using at least 25 days of their bus drivers’ daily student counts. Districts must include at least 25 days to determine the average. The days do not need to be consecutive, but the days used in the average calculation must be identified.

If a school bus is leased between two districts, only one district may report the route miles on the Route report. The districts should have an established agreement, known as an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), to determine which district will be responsible for reporting miles driven and eligible riders.