001Hello, welcome to TEA's federal fiscal compliance and reporting divisions presentation on the ESSA fiscal requirements for title one part A comparability of services. This presentation will specifically review the reporting and documenting of enrollment data. The presentation is based on the viewer being familiar with the comparability requirement and having viewed the title one part A comparability of services overview presentation. Based on last year's validation review of the comparability computation forms, TEA has identified some common issues which are occurring among school systems. We believe additional clarification is needed. For the most part, school systems are applying the comparability computation form guidance correctly in regard to items such as grades span groups, high low enrollment, etc. The issues identified are not occurring within how the school systems are conducting the comparability testing. Rather, the issues are incurring within
002the data the school systems are using in the comparability calculations. The fiscal requirements for the comparability requirement are federal law. Because the consequences of non-compliance with the comparability requirement is the return of all title one part A funds for the fiscal year. TEA collects the comparability data during the fiscal year under review. This allows for any non-compliant campuses to be brought into compliance with the requirement. School systems are required to test for compliance using current year budget data. The term expenditures is used, but because the requirement is tested during the current year, school systems must report budget data where applicable. Because you're required to test for compliance using current year budget data, the school system should not report the previous year's data, the current total expenditures to date. When reporting the state and local expenditures,
003you're reporting budgeted data. For example, for school year 2526, you should report the 2526 enrollments and the 2526 state and local budgeted amounts, FTEEs, etc. The two most common issues made when reporting enrollment numbers are the enrollment figures do not accurately reflect the student population or the Comparability testing enrollment figures must accurately reflect the student population. Each student's enrollment must be reported as outlined in the student attendance accounting handbook. For example, the handbook states students who are provided instruction for at least 2 hours but fewer than 4 hours each school day must be reported as.5 enrollment. All students regardless of grade level must be included in the total campus enrollment. No student or students should be removed from the total campus enrollment. If a student is removed from the total enrollment, the school system should
004keep complete documentation as to why the student or students were removed. There is not a comparability exclusion that allows a school system to remove any student from the total enrollment. The recommended methodology for success is um the first step is for the school system to identify the date it will use for enrollment across all campuses and keep complete records and be sure to maintain auditable enrollment documentation from your local student attendance system for every single campus. You want to enter the enrollment for each campus as it is in the local student attendance system. Do not add students. Do not remove students. If an adjustment is made, you must keep complete supporting documentation as to why an adjustment was made to the enrollment figures and ensure that an auditor can arrive at the same figure the
005school system reports by carefully detailing the changes numerically. You want to keep complete records as to why students were removed or added to the enrollment numbers with official records as documentation. You want to keep all your documents which support the number the enrollment numbers reported per the school systems record retention schedule. TEA does request this documentation from school systems on an annual random basis and informal spreadsheets are not acceptable because they cannot be independently validated. That concludes our presentation on reporting and documenting campus enrollment figures in the comparability computation form. Should you have any questions about this information, please email us. One of our team members will be happy to assist you. compliance at tea.t texas.gov