COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

P.O. BOX 2120

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120

SUPTS. MEMO NO. 117

June 8, 2007

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 Fiscal Year 2008

The current 2006-2008 biennial budget (Chapter 847, 2007 Acts of Assembly) includes 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.

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. The data collected will determine the number of unused student slots that will be available for reallocation in fiscal year 2008, and the number of unused student slots being requested by divisions. 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 to determine reallocation of student slots will be due to the Department in July 2007, and it is anticipated that the process to reallocate any unused student slots will be completed by August 2007. School divisions to be awarded additional student slots and school divisions that have slots reallocated to other divisions will be notified at that time.

The fiscal agent school division for the regional program will not be required to prepare and submit reimbursement requests to receive state funds. Funds will be sent to the fiscal agent on a semimonthly basis (i.e., the 16^th and last day of the month) through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) payments. These payments will begin on July 16, 2007, based on the budgeted number of student slots. After the distribution of unused slots, the Department will readjust the semimonthly payments where applicable. Semimonthly payments for the program will continue through June 30, 2008.

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/2007/inf117a.pdf