COMMONWEALTH
OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION
P.
O. BOX 2120
RICHMOND,
VIRGINIA 23218-2120
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 44
August 20, 2004
ADMINISTRATIVE
|
TO: |
Division Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Jo Lynne DeMary Superintendent of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
Education of Children in Foster Care
Fiscal Year 2005 Reimbursement of Fiscal Year 2004 Local Costs Due Date: October 1, 2004 |
Chapter 4, 2004 Acts of Assembly,
Special Session I (2004-2006 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 pupils who
are not residents of the school divisions that are providing their education
and (a) who have 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 applicable Code of Virginia and Board of Education
regulation 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 October 1, 2004, even if no local
education costs for qualifying foster care children were incurred by the
division in fiscal year 2004 and no reimbursement is being requested from
fiscal year 2005 state funds. For
school divisions not requesting reimbursement, only minimal data entry is
required in the Excel template in order to generate the division
superintendents certification form indicating that no foster care student days
are being claimed for reimbursement.
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 October 1, 2004.
The Department of Education will make all calculations and
disburse fiscal year 2005 foster care entitlements to divisions after the data
collected from the 2003-2004 Annual School Report and this memorandum are
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/bkl
Attachments