The second state aid notice for fiscal year 2006-2007 has been completed and will be posted after March 2, 2007, to the Arkansas Department of Education web site http://www.arkansased.org/. A hard copy will not be mailed. To view a district’s state aid notice, first select School Finance Reports from the drop-down menu located under Quick Links. From the list of school finance reports, select State Aid Notice 2006-07 - PDF February 28, 2007. Then, select Edit and Find. Type the name of the school district in the Find box, and click Enter. To print a copy of the selected state aid notice, select File, Print, and then Current Page under the Print Range section. Then, click OK.
For each funding category, the following information is provided on the state aid notice: indication of the existence of an ADE Rule; the amount of state aid; the applicable statutory code; indication of the existence of expenditure restrictions; the Revenue Code; and the Source of Funds Code. The DATA section of the state aid notice shows the data supporting the funding calculations. Current year data has been added. Updates to the FUNDING section (since the first state aid notice) include a slight increase in the percentage of State Foundation Funding that is Educational Excellence Trust Funds. Student Growth Funding is provided based on the comparison of 2006-2007 two-quarter Average Daily Membership (ADM) data to 2005-2006 two-quarter ADM data. Alternative Learning Environment Funding is based on prior year full-time equivalent data. English Language Learners Funding is based on data reported on the home language survey completed by school districts in October 2006. National School Lunch Act Funding for some Provision 2 districts will be updated on the final state aid notice. National School Lunch Act Growth Funding and Isolated Funding are provided. Isolated Special Needs Funding and Declining Enrollment Funding are provided for most qualifying school districts. Funding amounts in these two categories for the remaining qualifying school districts will be provided on the final state aid notice.
The Arkansas Department of Education Rules may be found at http://www.arkansased.org/. From the drop-down menu located under Rules, select Current Rules, and then select the specific rule. The Rules Governing the Distribution of Student Special Needs Funding and the Determination of Allowable Expenditure of Those Funds may be accessed by selecting Rules, Current Rules, and then Student Special Needs Funding - PDF Nov. 13, 2006. The Rules Governing Professional Development, the Rules Governing the Closing of Isolated Schools, and the Education Excellence Trust Funds Rule may be accessed using the same steps, but as the final step, select Professional Development - PDF 7/11/2005, Closing Isolated Schools - PDF July 2005, or Education Excellence Trust Funds - PDF 6/10/1996. The Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation published the Emergency Rule Governing the Retirement and Termination of Bonded Debt Assistance, General Facilities Funding and Supplemental Millage Incentive Funding as an attachment to Commissioner’s Memo number COM-06-035 dated October 13, 2005. The Schedule of 2006-2007 State Aid Disbursements is attached to Commissioner’s Memo Number FIN-07-005, dated July 19, 2006. Please review your district’s state aid notice carefully. Questions may be directed to Vivian Roberts at 501-682-4258.