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Subject: Special Education Part B Entitlement
Application
Source: Linda Sneller, Director, Funds Management
Intended Audience: Special Education Directors, Finance Administrators
Date: September 12, 2007
The 2007-08 (FY08) IDEA Part B Entitlement applications are ready for
district review and submission.
The deadline has been extended due to the delay in the availability of the
application. Districts submitting an application by September 27 will begin
receiving funds with the October State Aid Payment, assuming all prior year
budgets are closed.
You should note that the FY08 Part B Entitlement allocations are less for
many districts. There are several factors that may be attributed to the
reduction:
1) The amount of annual increase to the Part B grant award has declined from
17.25% in 2003 to 1.57% when compared to FY07.
2) IDEA 2004 requires LEA Part B (*section 611) calculation to be based on
three components: (1) the base amount sometimes referred to as the
hold-harmless amount. Any funds remaining above the base amount are
allocated based on two separate calculations as follows: (2) 85% of the
remaining amount is allocated on the basis of "enrolled" children in public
and private elementary and secondary schools, and (3) 15% of the remaining
amount is allocated on the number of children in poverty as defined by the
state agency. In Missouri, this measure is the number of free and reduced
lunch children.
Since 2001, the LEA Part B calculation has included an additional factor
called the demographer's estimate of children which primarily identifies,
through a statistical method, children aged 3-4 and 18-21. This
calculation significantly increased most districts' child count.
The demographer's estimate does not meet the IDEA requirement for allocation
of Part B funds which requires 85% of the "remaining funds"
calculation to be applied against "enrolled" children. This one change has a
significant impact on child count for many districts.
3) Changes in a district's enrolled child count and/or free and reduced
count.
The federal funding trend for Part B has been downward for several years and
there is no reason to believe this will change in the near future.
Therefore, districts should budget Part B funds in a conservative manner for
FY09 and subsequent years.
You can compare the changes in district population and free/reduced lunch
count numbers by viewing the "Allocation Details" on both FY07 and
FY08 applications.
The FY08 Part B district spreadsheet which compares the FY07 allocation to
the FY08 grant allocation is posted on our website under the heading "Part B
Entitlement" at:
http://dese.mo.gov/divspeced/Finance/index.html.
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