A.C.A. §6-20-2204 Required Training
"(a)(1) any person whose job responsibility includes preparing the budget or recording expenditures of a school, school district, local education agency, or education service cooperative shall obtain training and instruction necessary to demonstrate basic proficiency as determined by the Department of Education…”
A committee comprised of members of the Arkansas Legislature, AASBO, AASA, AEA, Legislative Audit, and the Department has determined persons with the following responsibilities shall obtain the required training, referred to as Tier I Training:
At a minimum, two persons per educational entity are required to attend the Initial and Annual Training. One of these persons shall be the district superintendent, the educational cooperative director, or the charter school head master/director. The other shall be a person whose job responsibilities include preparing the budget or overall accounting responsibility. This should include the person who has the final authority to approve purchase orders.
Other Tier I Training issues determined by the committee include:
· For each person identified as required to attend the training programs, the district shall submit the person’s name, social security or employee identification number, their position, and type of training (initial or annual) via the APSCN Cycle 4 report. Directions for entering this data will be provided by APSCN. The persons identified on this list will be required to receive training or the district will be subject to the sanctions identified in A.C.A. §6-20-2204(a)(4).
· Each person required to obtain training shall receive twelve hours of initial training and four hours of annual training. The twelve hours of initial training for school year 2004-2005 must be completed by June 30, 2005. The four hours of annual training for school year 2005-2006 must be completed by December 31, 2005. Sanctions for failure to obtain the required training will be enforced March 1, 2006. (see A.C.A. §6-20-2204(a)(2)). Please note: at this time, the annual training requirement is two hours. It is anticipated the legislature will require four hours of annual training in the 2005 General Assembly. Therefore, the Department is planning to implement the four-hour requirement effective July 1, 2005. If the four hours is not mandated, the annual training will be two hours. Additional information will be provided later.
· The Department has actively offered training programs throughout the state. Additional training dates and sites will be announced as they are scheduled. AASBO will be offering a training program specific to the requirements of this law. Please contact AASBO for date and site information.
· Additional district personnel may attend the training programs. These persons will not be recorded in the APSCN Cycle 4 report.
The committee determined district employees who use financial codes also need training, referred to as Tier II Training. The following guidelines will be used to establish a district level training program for employees who do not make decisions about selecting codes and/or who have a limited number of codes they can use.
· The Department will create the training curriculum for Tier II employees
· The training will be annual and will be four (4) hours
· Districts will be responsible for providing the training to these employees
· District personnel providing the training are required to attend Tier I training
· District superintendent will provide to the Department an assurance statement that the Tier II Training has been completed by the end of each school year.
· Sanctions do not apply to Tier II training
In addition to Tier I and Tier II training, the Department is responsible to identify and work with districts that have a chronic problem providing timely, accurate and uniform data.