Special Education Base Funding (AB 602)

State apportionment and Federal grant revenues are passed through by the SELPA to our partners throughout the year. The tabs below provide access to cash flow, budgeting, forecasting and federal grant reporting details

The SELPA monitors state and federal special education funding data throughout the year and issues budget advice for state and federal revenue based on tracking and analyzing this data. Projected cash flow is determined based on this budget advice, and is updated at each certification or expenditure reporting period. Current budget advice appears below. Click on the links to the right for the most current cash flow schedules.

    • Current Advice:
      • 2017-18 $514 State/$129.25 Federal (prior to admin/set aside)
    • __________
      • 2018-19 $522 State/$125 Federal (prior to admin/set aside)

In order to facilitate our partners’ multi-year planning please see the attached Admin Rate as well as a tool for forecasting special education revenue over three years is provided at right.

Unlike state special education revenue apportionments, the cash flow from which is based on a predetermined schedule, federal revenues require expenditure reporting, The SELPA calls for federal expenditure reports three times during the year in order to facilitate regular federal cash flow. Expenditure reports are submitted using the online Fiscal Portal.

Business Office Resources
The governance body in a SELPA establishes the SELPA’s allocation plan. The El Dorado Charter SELPA’s allocation plan represents over a decade of CEO Council decisions about how best to distribute to partners Special Education funds received by the SELPA.
The online Fiscal Portal is your one-stop shop for all SELPA fiscal reporting and related data submissions.
Electronic receipt of funds offers safety and more timely receipt of payments vs. paper checks. We strongly encourage joining our direct deposit program. Follow the link below to the Fiscal Portal for ACH registration.
Details on the Special Education revenue payments sent to SELPA partners are available here.
For access to Level 3 ERMHS funding, a master contract for each service provider must be filed with the SELPA, and an individual services contract (ISA) for each student receiving services must also be filed.
While a detailed list of all SELPA fiscal due dates and activities is available at the bottom of this web page in our dynamic calendar, this at-a-glance yearly calendar is a handy desk reference.
Each month (beginning in June 2017), a newsletter-style Fiscal Update e-mail is published. You may read the most recent editions by following the links below. If you would like to be placed on the mailing list, click the link and let us know. You may access the most recent newsletters at the bottom of the page.

Mental Health (ERMHS) Funding

Meeting the mental health service needs of students identified with disabilities is a critical and at times costly component of special education program delivery. ERMHS funding guidelines are derived from the applicable sections in the CEO Council approved Allocation Plan. The intent of the ERMHS guidelines is to ensure adequate and equitable distribution of the mental health revenue received by the SELPA.

Funding for Educational Related Mental Health Services (ERMHS) is an elective process. To apply, please read the guidelines and complete the Annual Mental Health Plan.

Level 2 funding is provided for less intensive Mental Health supports (500 series CASEMIS codes).

Level 3 ERMHS funding is provided for more intensive mental health support

ERMHS Resources
All ERMHS-related uploads and reports may be completed through the fiscal portal.
Detail on the Mental Health (ERMHS) revenue payments distributed is contained in the payment data below.
There are critical submissions during the year each LEA must manage in order to guarantee ERMHS revenue. This at-a-glance chart will help you navigate the key dates associated with the ERMHS revenue participation process.
The very first submission required for ERMHS funding each year is the Annual Mental Health Plan. This one-page mental health program overview outlines an LEA’s mental health service delivery model, and establishes the LEAs place in line for ERMHS revenue.

Additional Funding & Risk Pools

Partners may choose to apply for advance or reimbursement funding from three sources established by the allocation plan: the cash advance for new partners, Low Incidence pool, or Legal Risk pool.

As many of our new partners will not receive a regularly scheduled disbursement until February, new partners may apply for a cash advance to help cover initial operating expenses.

Partners may apply for low incidence reimbursement to help cover the costs associated with providing material and/or services to students identified with low incidence disabilities.

To address potential issues with a parent proactively, El Dorado Charter SELPA partners are strongly encouraged to contact their assigned Program Specialist, who is trained in Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), anytime the situation warrants. In the unfortunate instance where a partner faces a due process hearing, the Legal Risk pool is there to defray related legal costs.

Additional Funding Resources
All forms and submissions required to access these three additional funding sources are managed via the online Fiscal Portal.

Year End & Maintenance of Effort

The close of each school year brings a flurry of activity at a time when attention spans are short but the need for focus and accuracy is acute.

The year end planning resources offered at right should help partners prepare and execute the required end of year processes.

One of the federal grant requirements is that federal revenue may supplement, but not supplant, revenue from state and local sources. In general, federal Maintenance of Effort (MOE) compliance requires an LEA receiving federal funds to spend the same amount from state and local sources each year prior to spending federal special education revenue. The Charter SELPA offers ongoing training and resource guides to assist Charters in meeting MOE testing. The required expenditure information to conduct this testing is submitted via the Fiscal Portal.

Another element of the “supplement but not supplant” requirement for receipt of federal revenue is the Excess Cost calculation. Federal revenue may only pay for the excess costs of providing special Education and related services. Excess costs for special Education are those costs for the education of a student identified with a disability that are in excess of the average spent to educate a general education student. The Business Services Team performs the Excess Cost calculation on behalf of each member LEA to ensure compliance with this requirement.

MOE & Year End Resources
The definitions and instructions for both the MOE pre-test and the year-end MOE are identical. You may access them here.
For Organization Partners in the SELPA, income reallocation from one LEA member to another can assist with passing MOE compliance testing, managing unspent funds among the LEA network, and equalizing local contributions.

Business Meetings and Professional Learning Opportunities

The Business Services Team offers both in-person and web-based fiscal meetings and professional learning events. Additionally, we make available archived training materials and presentations which may be of use throughout the year.

Successful special education budgeting, financial reporting, and program implementation requires an effective partnership between LEA program and business teams. This workshop provides fiscal and program information to SELPA partners for successful implementation of special education programs.

We encourage our Charter SELPA members to send a team of program and business staff to this training.

Individualized attention to our partners’ fiscal and program teams is provided via our online Program-Business Round Tables. During these web events, SELPA partners meet with the Business Services and SELPA directors in an informal question and answer setting. The agenda is set by the attendees.

The Fiscal Committee is an invitation to all Charter SELPA business support staff to meet on-line in October and June (following the two CEO Council meetings each year. Updates on all CEO council agenda items with fiscal impact are provided to assist with the continuity of information flow throughout member LEA business office teams.

Archived Fiscal Trainings
Below are copies of several past Fiscal Committee presentations.
Past Fiscal Workshop material can be found here.

SELPA Business Office Communication

We distribute a monthly e-newsletter outlining upcoming reporting dates, scheduled events, and general special education business news. We also host informative meetings that emphasize the cooperation between program and business.

The fiscal newsletter is published the first of each month with the goal of keeping the field informed of upcoming reporting dates, resources, etc. To subscribe, let us know!

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We provide additional and intermittent notifications of fiscal interest. To subscribe, let us know!

In addition to our regular monthly updates, we send out reminder e-mails about key data request items. Read more here.

Click here to contact the Fiscal Support Team!