Funding Survey: Estimated Pre-K Enrollment Counts for New or Expanding Programs in 2024-2025

If your School Administrative Unit (SAU) is opening or expanding a Pre-K program in the 2024-2025 school year, you are eligible to receive funding on your FY25 ED279 for children you enroll in these new or expanded Pre-K programs in 2024. This means you will receive the funding for enrollment in the same year that you enroll the Pre-K children, without a year delay.

If you are planning to start and/or expand public Pre-K in the 2024-25 school year and would like to receive an FY25 estimate Pre-K allocation, please notify the Maine DOE by completing the FY25 Estimate Pre-K Count Data Form before November 8, 2023. There are 3 questions to be answered on the funding survey:

What is your SAU? Choose your SAU from a drop-down list.
Do you have an existing Pre-K program (FY24)? – Yes/No
What is your SAU’s Pre-K Estimated Increase Count (new slots available in new or expanding program)?

SAUs completing the form must also complete the Pre-K Program Application with DOE’s Early Learning Team by April 30, 2024 and obtain program approval.

The FY25 Estimate Pre-K Count Data Collection form is meant to capture the FY25 estimate for new and expanding Pre-K program enrollment. The estimated student count data, in addition to the current (FY24) enrollment in an existing Pre-K program, will be used to provide funding on the FY25 ED279. An SAU’s Pre-K total enrollment number, as reported and verified October 1, 2024, should match the combined existing and estimated increase total that was used to calculate funds in the ED279. After October 1, 2024, an audit adjustment, based on actual enrollment reported in NEO on October 1, 2024, will be made to the Pre-K allocation assigned on the FY25 ED279. Please note that this may increase or decrease funding.

For more information about establishing or expanding a Pre-K program, please check out the webpage on the topic, or contact Nicole Madore at  nicole.madore@maine.gov.

For questions specific FY25 ED279 estimates, please contact Paula Gravelle at 624-6792 or Paula.B.Gravelle@maine.gov.

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made; Review Q2’23 Reports by April 20, 2023

The recovery of Q2’23 MaineCare Seed will occur in the April 2023 subsidy payment. The Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by April 20, 2023, to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review, and submit disputes, student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q2’23 by April 20, 2023.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button.

You may export the reports to Excel but, please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

To dispute a claim:

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should not be on the report, please send an email with the following information for each State Student ID to Denise.towers@maine.gov.

State Student ID
The reason that you disagree
Identify the type of report: public or private
Quarter in which the claims are located
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services:

Students must be enrolled for the time period they are receiving educational services. This means that students that are receiving extended school year services in district or extended school year services in an out of district placement must have a primary enrollment for that time period in order for the MDOE to have the most accurate enrollment data to determine SAU responsibility for MaineCare Seed.

If you have difficulty logging into NEO:

Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module, will automatically have permissions to access MaineCare reports.

As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Please contact Denise.towers@maine.gov

for more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed.

Nutrition & Economic Disadvantaged Data Collection Webinar

Join the Maine Department of Education (DOE) as we discuss alternative methods for collecting economic disadvantage data for the EPS formula that do not involve free and reduced lunch forms.

The Maine DOE’s Data, Nutrition, and Finance teams will be collaborating to provide guidance about Special Provision II procedures and how to collect data to inform the EPS School Funding formula to mark economically disadvantaged students. Special Provision II schools and Community Eligibility Provisions (CEP) require that free and reduced lunch form are not sent out to families, however those forms are used to inform the EPS School funding formula.

Are you a Special Provision School? What does that mean for Child Nutrition and for EPS School Funding? Join Jane McLucas from Child Nutrition, Paula Gravelle from School Finance, and a member from the Data Team as they talk about what changes will be coming, and best practices to have in place to be ready for next year!

Monday, March 20th @ 1:30pm – Register Here
(this webinar will be recorded)

For questions about this webinar or collection of economic disadvantaged data please contact our data quality trainer by email Alexandra.Cookson@maine.gov or call 207-446-3897.

Reminder: National Board Certified Teacher Salary Supplement and Scholarship Requests Due October 15, 2022

National Board Salary Supplement

Do you have National Board Certified Teachers on your staff? Awesome! We are sending along a reminder to those fortunate superintendents, or directors of a publicly-supported secondary school, Education Service Center (ESC) as authorized under Chapter 123, or Career and Technical Education (CTE) region, with eligible staff who have attained National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification prior to July 1, 2022. Please let us know so we can provide you with their legislatively allocated salary supplement!

In order to qualify for the salary supplement, eligible staff must be currently employed by a Maine public school, ESC, or by a publicly-supported secondary school or CTE region in Maine. Eligible position titles include classroom teacher, special education teacher, literacy specialist, math specialist, long-term substitute teacher, library media specialist, school counselor, and teaching principals who have attained certification with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or its successor organization.

The amount of the salary supplement for fiscal year 2022-23 is $5000 for teachers employed in a school in which 50% + students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, and $3000 for teachers employed in a school in which fewer than 50% of students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, unless proration is necessary.

The submission form and further information is available on our National Board Certification Salary Supplement page. 

Scholarship Applications

National Board Scholarship Applications Due October 15, 2022

Are you a Maine public school, or a publicly-supported secondary school, or CTE school teacher who is interested in becoming National Board Certified? Are you a district who is eager to offer this exceptional professional learning opportunity to your teachers?  State law, 20-A MRSA Section 13013-A subsection 5 & 6; as amended by PL 2012 c. 702, established the National Board Certification Scholarship Fund to encourage teachers to apply to, and enroll in, the certification program offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or its successor organization.

A school administrative unit, or a publicly supported secondary school or CTE region, may request scholarship funds on behalf of its teachers who meet the requirements.

This fiscal year, the Maine DOE will allocate $75,000 to the scholarship fund, and shall award an amount equal to the cost of the certification program, less any other funds received by the applicant to not more than 30 teachers accepted into the program annually. Priority will be given to teachers who have already begun the process and teachers employed in high needs schools.

For more information and eligibility requirements, please visit our National Board Certification Scholarship page. 

If you have questions about the National Board Salary Supplement Program or the National Board Scholarship Program, please contact Emily Doughty at emily.doughty@maine.gov.

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made; Review Q4’22 Reports by October 15, 2022

The recovery of Q4’22 MaineCare Seed will occur in the October 2022 subsidy payment. The Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by October 15, 2022 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review, and submit disputes, student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q4’22 by October 15, 2022.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO using the link below https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
export button

Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button. You may export the reports to Excel but, please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

To dispute a claim: If you disagree that a particular student or time period should not be on the report, please send an email with the following information for each State Student ID to stephanie.clark@maine.gov.

State Student ID
The reason that you disagree
Identify the type of report: public or private
Quarter in which the claims are located
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services:

If you have difficulty logging into NEO:

Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module, will automatically have permissions to access MaineCare reports. As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Please contact stephanie.clark@maine.gov for more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed.