COMMONWEALTH
OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION
P.
O. BOX 2120
RICHMOND,
VIRGINIA 23218-2120
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 6
February 13, 2004
ADMINISTRATIVE
|
TO: |
Division Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Jo Lynne DeMary Superintendent of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
Education of Children in Foster Care
Fiscal Year 2004 Reimbursement of Fiscal Year 2003 Local Costs Due Date: March 19, 2004 |
Item 145 I. of Chapter 1042, 2003 Acts of Assembly
(2002-2004 appropriation act), provides an additional state payment for the
cost of prior year local operations, as determined by the Department of
Education, for certain children placed in foster care. The state funding is provided for each pupil
who is not a resident of the school division that is providing his or her
education and (a) who has been placed in foster care or other custodial care
within the geographical boundaries of such school division by a Virginia
agency, whether state or local, which is authorized under the laws of the
commonwealth to place children; (b) who have been placed in an orphanage or
childrens home which exercises legal guardianship rights; or (c) who are
residents of Virginia and have been placed, not solely for school purposes, in
a child-caring institution or group home.
This appropriation also provides funding to support handicapped children
attending public schools who have been placed in foster care or other custodial
care across jurisdictional lines, as provided by subsection B of Section
22.1-101.1, Code of Virginia.
Attachment A contains excerpts from the applicable Code of Virginia sections for your
reference. Please review these sections
of the Code of Virginia carefully to
ensure that only qualifying children in foster care are included in the
reimbursement report.
As with previous fiscal year reports, a downloadable Excel
file has been created to facilitate the collection of data used in the
reimbursement of local education costs for children in foster care. Instructions for accessing the Excel file
are provided in Attachment B to this memorandum. The Excel file is located on
the departments website and can be downloaded from the following address:
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Finance/Budget/cdc/index.html
All of
the forms required for reimbursement, including the
division superintendents certification form and specific instructions for
entering data, are included in the Excel template. All school divisions must complete the Excel template and
return it to the Department of Education by March 19, 2004, even if local
education costs for qualifying foster care children were not incurred by the
division in fiscal year 2003.
Please submit the completed Excel file to the department via
e-mail at (mailto:k12budget@mail.vak12ed.edu). Please return a hard copy of the
certification form, signed by the division superintendent, to: Virginia Department of Education, Attention:
Budget Office, P.O. Box 2120, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2120. Both submissions (Excel file and signed
certification form) are due no later than March 19, 2004.
The Department of Education will make all calculations and
disburse fiscal year 2004 foster care entitlements to divisions in the spring
of 2004, after the data collected through this memorandum is received from all
school divisions and verified by the department. Questions concerning this data collection should be directed to
the budget office at (804) 225-2025.
JLD/kr
Attachments