Commissioner’s Memo COM-07-097 dated March 29, 2007, stated that if House Bill 2656 becomes law, additional financial and student coding would be required for 2007-2008. House Bill 2656 was enacted as Act 1006 of 2007 (Act 1006). Act 1006 amends portions of Ark. Code Ann. § 6-20-2203(c). The purpose of this memo is to communicate additional coding requirements necessary in order to comply with the provisions of Ark. Code Ann. § 6-20-2203 which were amended by Act 1006.
Act 1006 requires that financial coding be required for the purpose of tracking expenditures from the following sources of revenue:
1. Student Growth
2. Declining Enrollment
3. Special Education Catastrophic Occurrences
4. Special Education Services
5. Technology Grants
6. Debt Service Funding Supplement
7. General Facilities Funding
8. Distance Learning
9. Gifted and Talented
Act 1006 states that during the 2007-2008 school year the department shall complete a trial implementation for tracking expenditures from Student Growth and Declining Enrollment revenue and will fully implement the tracking of all of the revenue listed in Act 1006 beginning with the 2008-2009 school year. Therefore, for 2007-2008 it will be necessary to use Source of Funds (SOF) code 217 for Student Growth Revenue (revenue code 31450) and the expenditures made from Student Growth Revenue. Expenditures charged to SOF code 217 must not exceed the revenue credited to SOF 217. Also for 2007-2008 it will be necessary to use SOF code 218 for Declining Enrollment Revenue (revenue code 31460) and the expenditures made from Declining Enrollment Revenue. Expenditures charged to SOF code 218 must not exceed the revenue credited to SOF 218.
Based on the results of the 2007-2008 trial implementation referred to above, financial coding requirements necessary for 2008-2009 will be determined and communicated by March 31, 2008.
Act 1006 also requires coding for the purpose of identifying the number of students transported. Currently students are to be coded as transported or non-transported based on eligibility to ride a bus to and from school as coded on the Pentamation entry/withdrawal screen. A transported student is defined as one who lives two or more miles from the assigned school. Beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, each student must also be identified by the method of transportation using one of the following codes:
B - Bus
D - Drives Self
G - Parent/Guardian (includes walkers, child-care vans, and any other mode of transportation not covered by B, D or P)
P - District Paid Transportation
This code should be entered on the Travel Screen/Travel Type Field in Pentamation’s StudentPlus software and will be collected in cycles 3, 5, 6, and 7 during the 2007-2008 school year. The Pentamation database will be updated in July after all rollovers are completed. Since a student's mode of transportation may vary, the mode of transportation most often used by the student should be entered.
House Bill 2656 became Act 1006 on April 3, 2007. To comply with Act 1006's impending implementation requirements beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, some of the coding changes required by Act 1006 must become effective July 1, 2007, which is less than 90 days from the date of this memo. Therefore, in accordance with Ark. Code Ann. § 6-20-2207 and Department of Education “Rules Governing the Arkansas Accounting and Reporting System, and Annual Training Requirements,” the Commissioner of Education has declared that an emergency exists due to the impending requirements imposed by Act 1006 and that all 2007-2008 coding changes specified in this memo are effective July 1, 2007.