ESSA School Level Expenditure Reporting Requirement – What School Systems and School Leaders Need to Know

What is the new reporting requirement? Report cards on student outcomes by school have long been required under federal regulations. Now under the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, the federal regulations also require that school level spending data be reported along with the existing student outcome information.

What is school spending data? School level spending data includes information on the types of expenses made on behalf of a specific school. May include expenses such as: Salaries and benefits Contracts and supplies May be identified by its funding source: State, local, or federal

Why is school level financial data important? Researchers have for a long time noted that if school spending data was available it would be a key factor in measuring the quality of educational services. Theory: If correlations could be made between student achievement and spending, then lessons could be learned about improvements to budgeting that would benefit students. Now that the school level reporting is mandatory under ESSA, this data will be available to for study.

What could school level spending data reveal? School level financial data will allow for comparisons between schools within a district and across districts. Resource allocation methodologies across schools may be analyzed. Peer schools with high achievement scores can be identified. Lessons can be learned as to how resources were budgeted to increase student outcomes. A better understanding can be attained on the different types of spending required in schools to meet the unique needs of students.

How may the data influence community discussions? Release of the reports will generate conversations about spending amongst parents, community leaders, educators, and the media. Opportunities for a greater understanding will be created regarding how and why funding is received and spent at the school level. Discussions may question the distribution of school funding, or if budgeting changes should be made for better student outcomes.

How may district and school leaders be impacted? This new data will provide transparency into district and school finances never experienced before. Questions will be raised to district and school leaders never before addressed. Before the data goes public, district and school leaders will need to be prepared to respond to questions. Studying the data beforehand and formulating responses to possible questions will prepare district and school leaders for this new transparency.

School Level Spending Data and District and School Leaders

What preparation is needed for this new transparency? A considerable amount of time should be set aside over the next year in order to be prepared for this new transparency including the following: Analyze and understand the data prior to release. Prepare responses to anticipated questions. Develop communications to introduce the new transparency to stakeholders.

What preparation is needed for this new transparency? Analyze and understand the data prior to release. Train and familiarize district and school leaders on how to read the data. Identify variances and nuances in the data. Conduct research to identify causes.

What preparation is needed for this new transparency? Prepare responses to anticipated questions. Generate key questions about each school’s data. Formulate responses that provide context as well as answers.

What preparation is needed for this new transparency? Develop communications to introduce stakeholders to the new transparency. Identify stakeholders including parents, educators, community groups, and the media. Develop materials to introduce the components of the new transparency via differing methods of communications such as meeting presentations and newsletters. Ensure communications are clear and easy to understand.

School Level Spending Data and ESSA

What school level information does ESSA require? Expense data must be specific to the school site Both site specific and the site share of central spending must be included Data must include: Personnel costs – salaries and benefits Non-personnel costs – contracts and purchases Expenses must be reported by funding source: State/local (commonly referred to as “general fund”) Federal Amounts must be reported as a per pupil

What is included in the personnel costs? Personnel costs are defined as salaries and benefits. This would include salaries such as teachers, principals, assistant principals, para-educators, and instructional support staff assigned to the school. Benefits would include retirement and health insurance.

What is included in the non- personnel costs? Non-personnel costs are those expenses outside of salaries and benefits. School related non-personnel expenses may include costs such as classroom instructional materials, paper and other supplies, or contracts. Equipment is excluded from the expenses considered.

What school level information does ESSA require? Expenses must be reported by funding source: State/local Commonly referred to as “general fund” State allocations like the MFP provide funding Local funds are generated from sales and property taxes Federal Allocations awarded by the federal government May include ESSA, IDEA, Carl Perkins, etc.

What school level information does ESSA require? Spending must be reported as per pupil expense: Widely accepted analysis tool Makes comparisons between or among schools easy to understand Expenditure variations that may not be revealed through other analyses are often highlighted through school level per pupil expenditure comparisons.

School Level Spending Data and Louisiana

How will the school level financial data be collected? For a many years LDOE has already been collecting data on school level expenditures from districts and charter schools. This data has been utilized since 2008-09 to publish school level financial reports on every school in the state. Two data sets are combined to create this report: Profile of Educational Personnel (PEP) and Annual Financial Report (AFR)

Which systems provide school level spending data? Profile of Educational Personnel (PEP) Provides actual salaries and benefits at the school level. Annual Financial Report (AFR) Report utilizes LEA non-personnel expenditures and allocates the cost to school level based on student count. You can view this data on the Louisiana Believes website under the Funding tab.

LA School Level Spending

LA School Level Spending

LA School Level Spending

LA School Level Spending

LA School Level Spending

LA School Level Spending

LA School Level Spending

What does this data reveal? Salary per pupil spending = $3,667 Benefits per pupil spending = $1,705 Other per pupil spending = $1,439 Total per pupil @ school = $7,848 Central Office per pupil @ school = $1,037 Grand Total per pupil @ school = $8,885 Total per pupil @ district = $9,419 Total per pupil @ state average = $11,185

LA School Level Spending

What does this data reveal? Grades 6 through 8 375 total students 36.2 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff 18.2 FTE - Teachers Other instructional staff Pupil/instructional staff School admin Other support functions

LA School Level Spending

What does this data reveal? Average staff salaries $33,501 School Average $33,627 LEA Average $40,993 State Average Percentage Degree level 35.83% Less than Bachelor’s 42.04% Bachelor’s 22.13% Master’s Average years of experience 11.9 years School 13.3 years LEA 12.4 years State

School Level Spending Data and Analysis

How to analyze school level spending data? The new transparency will possibly highlight patterns of spending that could bring into question inequities among schools and students. District and school leaders are encouraged to analyze and research their own current school level data well in advance of the release of the new school level spending data.

How to analyze school level spending data? Five important analyses to run on school level spending data: Which schools are outliers and why? How does spending compare among types of schools (i.e. High versus low poverty, rural versus urban, student enrollment size) Are salary/benefit expenses driving unending spending in ways that are concerning? What share of the dollars are accounted for centrally? Which schools are getting the best/worst outcomes for the dollar?

How to analyze school level spending data? Additional analyses may include: Is the educational level and years of experience at the school influencing the smaller or larger per pupil school expenses? Is the per pupil expense at the school low/high because the salary and benefits costs are miscoded? Are the student to teacher ratio by grade the same as schools with the same student enrollment count? Is the same number of educators employed for the same student enrollment count?

How to analyze school level spending data? Differences in spending are not always negative. Variations in the per pupil amounts may be due to extra funding provided for a special student population at the school or years of experience and degree level or staff. Differences may also occur if allocations methodologies across schools are not equitable or are absent certain factors. ``

How to analyze school level spending data? The analyses of the data is time consuming but should be viewed as a good investment. Keep in mind that learning new information about current spending practices may eventually help improve budgeting decisions in the future. LDOE will support district and school leaders over the next year in analysis and interpreting the information through special data sets and ideas on possible questions. Special access to data for district and school leaders will be provided for review prior to release.

School Level Spending Data and New Report

What will the new reports look like? Since published school level financial reports already exist, the challenge now is to create a system that restructures the reports into the federally required format. Estimated Current Expenditures Per Pupil plus Central Office Overhead Per Pupil will now appear as “Total Per Student Spending.” A new component will include the division of “Total Per Student Spending” into the source of funds either state/local or federal. Central Office Overhead Per Pupil will now be called “Site Share of Central Spending.”

What will the new reports look like? The whole new presentation format of the data will make it easier to interpret and understand.

LA School Level Spending

New Report Format Louisiana Believes

What will the new reports look like? Student demographics will continue to be provided for context although not required by federal regulations. In-depth expense information for detailed research is provided as an option although also not required. Staff statistics are already provided in the same system and therefore there is no need to repeat the same data in this section.

LA School Level Spending

New Report Format Louisiana Believes

New Report Format Louisiana Believes

New Report Format Louisiana Believes

What will happen next with new reports? The system version revealed today is in the final development and testing phase. This system and the 2018-19 data will be utilized in official reporting on the LDOE website in June 2020.

School Level Spending Data and Publication

What questions to expect upon release? Parents, community leaders, and the media will have different approaches to reviewing the data and thus different questions. General inquiries could include: How to interpret the data? How does this new information impact decisions moving forward?

What questions to expect upon release? Some examples of the detailed questions that these stakeholders may ask include: Why does seniority drive more dollars to some schools? Why are special programs more costly? Why do central expenses feel so high?

What questions to expect upon release? Some examples of the detailed questions that these stakeholders may ask include: Why are schools with declining enrollments spending so much money? Are the per pupil expenses reasonable for my school as compared to other similar schools in the state?

What questions to expect upon release? District and school leaders should be prepared with communications to respond to the questions from stakeholders. Communications tools may include: Summary of key points about the new reporting and its impact Communications designed to address specific stakeholder interests School level spending FAQs to be widely shared Communications plan for newsletters, speeches, presentations and websites

School Level Spending Data and Next Steps

Next Steps Recognizing the challenges ahead, the LDOE will distribute tools and provide assistance to districts and schools over the next year. This support will include assistance with: Analyzing and interpreting the data. Identifying questions and preparing responses. Preparing communications on the data release.

Questions