The Maine Department of Education would like to acknowledge the hard work of school districts in ensuring that the data they submit to the Department is as accurate as possible. Each year there are a handful of data errors that districts notice after the release of the ED 279 printouts and these can have a significant impact on subsidy.
The Department encourages school districts to examine their ED 279 printouts as closely as possible to identify any possible data errors. Any districts who have found an error in their data are encouraged to report this as soon as possible to the Department of Education’s School Finance Team. Errors must be identified and reported within 30 days of the posting of the preliminary ED 279s.
While we cannot guarantee a complete financial correction for errors that have been made because of inaccurate data submitted by school districts, we will work hard to mitigate the impact on your district to the greatest extent possible. (The Department will always make fiscal corrections in the event that an error is made on our end – this notice pertains to inaccurate data submitted by school districts). As corrections are submitted, they will be placed on a list for review in the order received. As a reminder, any financial corrections in subsidy are made after the state budget has passed the legislature.
To better understand where and why errors might occur, here is a list of reports that impact the ED 279 subsidy calculation and a list of deadlines. We send out reminders around these reports, and encourage superintendents and business office staff members to carefully examine the data before submitting and certifying it; this will help to avoid issues that emerge after the release of the ED 279 printouts.
Should you have questions regarding subsidy printouts or to report an error, please contact our friendly, smart, and helpful school finance team: Tyler Backus at tyler.backus@maine.gov; Paula Gravelle at paula.b.gravelle@maine.gov; or Ida Batista at ida.batista@maine.gov.