Business Information Services & Finance
School Finance

This service provides Superintendents, Business Managers, Finance Directors and Transportation Directors with expert assistance, professional development opportunities and trainings in:

-Transportation Reporting
-Business Manager’s Roundtable
-SOF Template Workshop
-Public Funds Investment Act – Investment Officer Training 

2020-2021 Transportation Route Services Report

The 2020-2021 Transportation Route Services Report, through the web-based Foundation School Program (FSP) Module, is now open and available for completion. TEA requests your school district to promptly complete and submit this report to enable TEA’s process in finalizing the 2020-2021 Transportation Allotment amount.

The annual deadline for submitting the 2020-2021 Transportation Route Services Report is August 1, 2021. This deadline date is published on the School Transportation Funding webpage and is also found in the School Transportation Allotment Handbook.

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2021-22, 2022-23 Pupil Projection Survey

Instructions for Submitting Attendance Projections

For the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 School Years

The Attendance Projections module will open for data entry beginning October 15, 2020, through December 14, 2020. All revised attendance projections must be submitted to the TEA by midnight on Wednesday, December 14, 2020.

Note: Texas Education Agency (TEA) develops these attendance projections and will provide them to the Texas Legislature by March 1, 2021. The Legislature then uses these projections to determine the cost of public education for the next biennium (school years 2021–2022 and 2022–2023). Please note that TEA’s projections do not reflect any potential impact that Covid-19 could have on future enrollment and/or attendance. Because of this, districts are strongly urged to consider adjusting their own enrollment forecasts for the upcoming biennium if they believe that Covid-19 could have an impact beyond the 2020-2021 school year. Please review TEA’s projections and submit the requested district projections by midnight on December 14, 2020. 

 

Note: The FSP System is one of several applications available within the online Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE).  To access the FSP System, you must have a TEASE user name and password, and have applied for and been granted access to the FSP System, with the appropriate user role(s).  If you do not have a TEASE user name and password or have not applied for access to the FSP System, please see the instructions for accessing the system that are available on the following web page:http://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Other_Services/Secure_Applications/TEASE_-_Request_Access_Online/. 

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Reminder from Woody:  8/17/20

The Tax Information Survey (TIS) for the 2019–2020 school year opened for data submission June 1, 2020 and will close at midnight on August 31, 2020. If your district does not submit the survey by the deadline, your district’s state funding for the 2019–2020 school year could be adversely affected. Please do not submit any tax data related to the upcoming 2020 tax year (2020–2021 school year). This survey does NOT apply to charter schools.

Please ensure that your district has completed and submitted the TIS using the online Foundation School Program (FSP) System by August 31, 2020. Completing the survey is important because it allows the agency to use the most accurate tax collections data possible when we calculate 2019-2020 near-final Summary of Finances (SOF) estimates in September 2020. Your district will not have another opportunity to submit revised tax collections data for the 2019-2020 school year until the district submits its J1 schedule as part of its annual financial and compliance report. The J1 schedule tax collections will not be incorporated in the 2019-2020 SOF until April 2021. Compressed tax rates for districts which have adopted tax rates more than six pennies over their original compressed tax rate will be automatically adjusted.
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Note from Omar: Superintendents and School Business Officials

Omar Garcia with BOK Financial Securities has a new release (Release 7 dated 10/26/2020
that is now availabler download. As in Release 4, this one ONLY pertains to districts that get the Formula Transition Gran Link  https://www4.esc13.net/finance/

This new release deletes the 18-19 column and adds a 24-25 column.  Two new tabs have been added that you may wish to use – one dealing with the calculation of the 19-20 student counts that will be adjusted as a result of school closures and the other dealing with the ESSER funds (see Notes tab). There will probably be more to come, so as always, please stay tuned for any new developments.

Note from Woody: I will soon be posting the 2020-21 LPE-DPE Side-by-Side Template (r7,wb7 (or Omar's latest) as I receive updated files from Omar and State Funding. As Omar says, "Stay Tuned".

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House Bill 3 (HB 3) Implementation: Tax rate compression for the 2020-2021 School Year

This letter is to inform you about tax rate compression of school district maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rates required under HB 3 for the 2020 tax year (2020-2021 school year). This notice does not apply to open-enrollment charter schools. 

  1. Requirement to reduce tax rate. For the 2020 tax year, school districts will be required to reduce the tier one tax rate as defined under Texas Education Code (TEC), §45.0032. 
     
  2. Texas Administrative Code (TAC). The agency has adopted 19 TAC, §61.1000, Maximum Compressed Tax Rate Calculation and Data Collection, to address the calculation of the maximum compressed tax rate. 
     
  3. Agency to calculate and make available Maximum Compressed Tax Rates (MCR). In order to calculate and make available district’s maximum tier one tax rates the agency will be conducting a survey of local taxable property value growth through the Foundation School Program (FSP) system in the Texas Education Agency Login (TEAL). 
     
  4. Survey open and close dates. The Local Property Value Survey (LPVS) data collection will open in the FSP system on July 18 and close on August 1. 
     
  5. District data submission required. Districts will be required to submit the following:
    1. the chief appraiser’s July 25 certified taxable property values from the certified appraisal roll under Tax Code, §26.01(a) or (a-1) for tax year 2019; and 
    2. the chief appraiser’s July 25 certified taxable property values from the certified appraisal roll under Tax Code, §26.01(a) or (a-1) for tax year 2020; and 
    3. the amount of value estimated to be lost due to the Local Option Homestead Exemption (LOHE), if applicable. 

         6. Approval of maximum compressed tax rate. Once the district has submitted the data to TEA and received approval of the submission through the FSP system, i.e. the district’s LPVS status is “approved”, the MCR may be considered final unless the district chooses to appeal the calculated rate. 

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  Posting District's 2020-2021 "Proposed" and "Adopted" Budgets:

Posting your districts "Proposed" Budget and your districts "Adopted" Budget are still required. Please reference our templates page for "Proposed " Budget and "Adopted" Budget Templates and "Budget posting notice for setting tax rates". 
1) Notice of Public Meeting to discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate: (Form 50-280)
2) 2020-2021 "Proposed" Budget and "Adopted" Budget templates 

I have updated the templates to reflect changes from both the 85th Legislative Session and the 86th legislative Session. (See notes on templates).

I have included a link to the "Notice of Public Meeting to discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate" (Form 50-280).
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Note from Woody: I have posted the 2019-20 LPE-DPE Side-by-Side Template (r4 wb4 (or Omar's latest) as I receive updated files from Omar and State Funding.
As State Funding changes the Web SOF, I will updated the side-by-side template to reflect these changes. Be sure to use the latest revision of the template and Web SOF. 
As Omar says, "stay tuned".

This template is an "expansion" of Omar's templates The template will allow districts to compare "earned" DPE with TEA's Summary of Finance "payment" LPE to calculate "projected" over/under payment of Foundation School Funds. The template incorporates actual six weeks attendance data and M&O tax collections to "project" over/under payments. Be sure to import the latest Summary of Finance report from TEA, and your "most accurate projection" of M&O tax collections. Be sure to re-enter your previous and current six weeks attendance data (numbers will have changed!!) Remember these templates are an "as is" projection based on you current data. 

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July 15: NIFA Application Deadline
The deadline to apply for the New Instructional Facility Allotment (NIFA) for the upcoming 2020-21 school year is July 15. The online application for funding is currently open until in the TEAL system’s Foundation School Program (FSP) application. There is an online NIFA training (four parts) located midway down thiswebpage.
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Posting Districts Utility Usage:

The requirement for school districts to post their utility usage on the webpage was changed in this past legislative session. Here is the citation from government code:

SECTION 1.13.  Section 2265.001(a), Government Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 2265.001.  RECORDING AND REPORTING OF ELECTRICITY, WATER, AND NATURAL GAS CONSUMPTION.  
(a)  In this section, "governmental entity" means:
      (1)  a board, commission, or department of the state or a political subdivision of the state, including a municipality, a county, or any kind of district other than a school district; or
      (2)  an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code.

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Important Note from State Funding:

Financial Hardship Transitional Program and Adjustment for Rapid Decline in Taxable Value of Property.
This letter provides guidance to districts and charter schools that are eligible for state funds under TEC Sec. 42.451 or Sec.42.2521. 
(LINK to letter from Leo Lopez)
LINK to eligible districts for Hardship of Rapid Decline Grant

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Note from Danny Sanchez, Transportation Director School Finance Division

The Foundation School Program (FSP) System will be available for input of the school year 2016–2017 Operations Services Report data on October 3, 2017. The due date for the report to be in Submitted status is December 1, 2017.

Please review the Instructions for Completing the School Transportation Operations Services Report, document before compiling data and filing the report in the online FSP System. The instructions can be found on the School Transportation Funding web page.

We highly recommend using “Internet Explorer 9” as your browser when entering data into the report.  Use of any other browser may result in an inability to open and access all needed data screens. If you have questions or if you need more information, contact the School Transportation Allotment program administrators in the Texas Education Agency's Office of School Finance: Danny Sanchez, telephone: (512) 463-9266, email: danny.sanchez@tea.texas.gov.

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Special Education Funding by Instructional Settings Template:

I have posted a Special Ed. Template on our Templates Web Page. This template will allow the district to enter attendance counts from the "Superintendent's Report of Student Attendance & Contact Hours" in order to calculate "earned" revenue for each instructional setting. See Templates Page.

  • 2021-22 LPE-DPE Side-by-Side Template (r4,wb4)

    I have posted the 2021-22 LPE-DPE Side-by-Side Template (r4,wb4). This is an "enhancement" of Omar's template. I have downloaded 2020-21 PEIMS ADA/FTE's for comparison with "current" ADA/FTE's.
    I am using the Comptroller's 2021 Preliminary T-Values. (Remember this affects your "Local Fund Assignment" and re-capture).

    For TxEIS districts, you may enter your ADA/FTE's from TxEIS SAT0920 combined tracks report into the cells of the "Enter Cycle ..." sheets. This will enter the data into the Summative Attendance Sheet.
    For Skyward districts, you will need to enter data in the Summative Attendance sheet since it will not mertge (sorry!)

    Always import the latest Summary of Finance report from TEA's web page, and enter your "most accurate" projection of M&O tax collections.

    This version combines tracks from both TxEIS and Skyward. No more entering tracks. Follow instructions from "Notes Woody" sheet.

    Be sure to re-enter your previous and current six weeks attendance data since numbers often change with corrections.
    Remember!!  This template is an "as is projection" of your state and local revenue based on you current data
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  • NOTICE: Web Posting Requirements for Budgets

    Notice of Public Meeting to discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate: Form 50-280.
     (Link to Form) 

    Web Posting Requirement (HB1): "Proposed" Expenditure Budget on district's web page as required by HB1. A school district must post the budget summary on the school's Internet Web site when it post the "Notice of Public Hearing" on the budget in the newspaper. 

    Link to 2021-22 "Proposed" Budget Reporting Template _wb5
    (Updated 05-13-2021)

    Web Posting Requirement: Adopted Budget. House Bill 3 from the 81st Session of the Texas Legislature requires school districts, on final approval of the budget by the board of trustees, to post a copy of the Adopted Budget on the district’s Web site. This requirement is in addition to posting the "proposed" budget. The Web site must prominently display the electronic link to the adopted budget. The adopted budget must be maintained on the Web site for three years after adoption.  

    Link to 2021-2022 Web Posting of Adopted Budget_wb5
    (Updated_05-13-2021)

     

    Note from Woody: HB 3 requires posting only General Fund Budget. Since adoption of Federal Funds is a local decision, they are not required posting. If you choose to add Federal Funds to the template, this would be acceptable, but not required.

  • Special Education Block Grant Template
    This template calculates funding for each Special Education Instructional Setting utilizing the districts
    adjusted allotment and data from Superintendent's Report.
    (Link to Special Education Block Grant Template)

  • Federal Funds Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Templates

    MOE Templates may be used to to help a district determine compliance with Federal Maintenance of Effort requirements. The template compares "current" year spending (not budgeted amount) with "base year" expenditure to determine compliance
    (Link to 2015-16 MOE Template)