COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

P.O. BOX 2120

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120

 

SUPTS. MEMO NO. 197

September 22, 2006

 

INFORMATIONAL

TO:

Division Superintendents

 

FROM:

Billy K. Cannaday, Jr.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

 

SUBJECT:

Provisions for Reallocating Unused Student Slots in Regional Alternative Education Programs Effective Fiscal Year 2007

 

The final enacted 2006-2008 biennial budget (Chapter 3, 2006 Acts of Assembly, Special Session I) includes several new provisions for reallocating unused student slots in regional alternative education programs. These provisions are as follows:

 

  • In the event a school division does not use all of the student slots it is allocated under a regional alternative education program, the unused slots may be reallocated or transferred to another school division.
  • A school division must request from the Department of Education the availability and possible use of any unused student slots. If any unused slots are available, and if the requesting school division chooses to utilize any of the unused slots, the requesting school division shall only receive the states share of tuition for the unused slot that was allocated for the originally designated school division.
  • However, no requesting school division shall receive more tuition funding from the state for any requested unused slot than what would have been the calculated amount for the requesting school division had the unused slot been allocated to the requesting school division in the original budget. Furthermore, the requesting school division shall pay for any remaining tuition payment necessary for using a previously unused slot.
  • The Department of Education will report by June 30 each year, to the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, the number of available student slots, students placed, the request of unused slots, and the number of unused slots subsequently used by each school division for each regional alternative education program.

 

In order to determine the number of unused student slots that will be available for reallocation in fiscal year 2007, and the number of unused student slots being requested by divisions, a data collection form will be sent under separate cover to the division superintendent acting as the fiscal agent for each regional alternative education program. Once the Department receives the information, a reallocation process will be conducted to distribute unused student slots to requesting divisions. The process that the Department will use for determining the distribution of unused slots can be found in Attachment A.

 

The data collection will be due to the Department in October 2006, and it is anticipated that the process to reallocate any unused student slots will be completed by the Department in November 2006. School divisions to be awarded additional student slots and school divisions to have slots reallocated to other divisions will be notified at that time.

 

For 2006-2007, the fiscal agent school division for the regional program will no longer be required to prepare and submit reimbursement requests in order to receive state funds. Funds will be sent to the fiscal agent on a semi-monthly basis (i.e., the 16th and last day of the month) through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) payments. These payments will begin on September 30, 2006, based on the budgeted number of student slots. After the distribution of unused slots, the Department will readjust the semi-monthly payments where applicable. Semi-monthly payments for the program will continue through June 30, 2006.

If you have questions, please contact Diane Jay, associate director, Office of Program Administration and Accountability at (804) 225-2905, or by e-mail at Diane.Jay@doe.virginia.gov.

 

BKCjr/DJ

 

Attachment

 

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2006/inf197a.pdf