Maine Education - Administrative Letters

ADMINISTRATIVE LETTER NO: 21

POLICY CODE: IHBA

TO: Superintendents of Schools, Directors of Special Education and Business Administrators

FROM: Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

DATE: March 15, 2007

RE: 2006-07 EPS High Cost Out-of-District Placement Cost Adjustment Report (EF-S-214) – Due April 9, 2007

Currently, in each school administrative unit’s 2006-07 Computation of Unit Allocation (ED 281 subsidy printout), the EPS Special Education Allocation on line 32 contains an “estimated” amount for high cost out-of-district placements, pursuant to 20-A MRSA §15681-A, sub-§2. This amount must be revised, based on the information you will provide in the 2006-07 EPS High Cost Out-of-District Placement Cost Adjustment Report (EF-S-214).

If your school administrative unit expects to pay more than $26,452 (4 times the statewide EPS special education rate of $6,613) in tuition and board for an individual special education student in an approved out-of-district placement during the 2006-07 school year, you must include this student(s) on this report. Do not report State Wards or State Agency Clients on this report. For the “Total Anticipated Cost”, you may be required to estimate the remaining payments for the student for this fiscal year.

All school administrative units must complete this report. If your unit does not have any students that cost more than $26,452, please submit a zero report.

The 2006-07 EPS High Cost Out-of-District Placement Cost Adjustment Report (EF-S-214) is available on the Department of Education’s Reporting Forms website at: http://www.maine.gov/education/forms/specservices.htm

After the report is reviewed by the Special Services Team, the report’s data will be compared to the estimated amount currently included in the EPS Special Education Allocation and one of the following will take place:

If the high cost out-of-district adjustment needs to be increased and if this results in an increased EPS Special Education Allocation, then this change will be made in the 2006-07 ED 281 subsidy printout. Should this adjustment increase subsidy for 2006-07, the increased subsidy will be paid in the remaining subsidy checks for this fiscal year.
If the high cost out-of-district adjustment needs to be decreased and if this results in a decreased EPS Special Education Allocation and would have resulted in a decrease in 2006-07 subsidy, then this change will result in an audit adjustment in the 2007-08 ED 281 subsidy printout, reducing the amount of subsidy for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
If the high cost out-of-district adjustment is the same as the data reported on the 2006-07 EPS High Cost Out-of-District Placement Cost Adjustment Report (EF-S-214) then no action is necessary.

Finally, the information on the 2006-07 EPS High Cost Out-of-District Placement Cost Adjustment Report (EF-S-214) will be compared to the “actual” expenditure data to be reported on the 2006-07 Request for Subsidy Allocation of Tuition and Board for Students for Students with Disabilities Report (EF-S-07). The Request for Subsidy Allocation of Tuition and Board for Students for Students with Disabilities Report (EF-S-07) should include all actual tuition and board expenditures for the approved out-of-district special education students reported on the EF-S-214 as well as those approved out-of-district special education students below the $26,452 threshold.

The completed EF-S-214 Excel form should be emailed to tcoulombe@doe.k12.me.us and a signed copy should be mailed to the Office of Special Services no later than April 9, 2007, where it will be reviewed for approved placements.

If you have any questions regarding the completion of this form, please contact Thomas A. Coulombe, Office of Special Services, at 624-6650 or by email at tcoulombe@doe.k12.me.us .

SAG/DNS/tac