Category: Data Management

ESEA Demographics Certification Report to Open 5/15/2021

The ESEA Demographics Report is an aggregation of students enrolled on 05/15/2021 for participation in state assessments during the 2020 assessment administration. This report includes student demographic categories for assessment and accountability purposes. This is required reporting for RSUs, CSDs, MSADs, Municipal school units, Maine Indian Education, charter schools, state operated schools, and private schools that accept publicly funded students.

The ESEA Demographics Report will be available for districts to submit and certify, beginning on May 15th with a certify-by date of May 30th.

The Maine Department of Education’s data management team will be holding a webinar where we will be discussing the ESEA Demographics Report and fielding any questions that you may have at 10AM on Tuesday May 18th, 2021. Register Here

In order to view this report, you will need access to NEO – Student Data, if you do not have this access please have your superintendent fill out our online Access Request Form.

ESEA Demographics Certification Report Instructions (PDF)

If you have any questions, comments or concerns in regards to the April 1st Enrollment Count Report please feel free to contact us at the MEDMS Helpdesk.MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896.

April 1st Enrollment Count Report to Open on April 1st, 2021

The Maine Department of Education is asking schools to submit and have their superintendents certify their April Enrollment Count Report. The April Enrollment Count Report is utilized by the Maine Department of Education for the purpose of calculating public school tuition rates.

Please note that, new for 2021, the April Enrollment Count Report will consist of two sets of counts, one for attending counts and one for enrollment counts. Each of these count sets are as of April 1st, 2021. Enrollment counts will be given to all students who are enrolled at your district/school as of April 1st, 2021. Attending counts will be given to all students who are enrolled at and attending your district/school as of April 1st, 2021, this will exclude any of your students that attend a special purpose privet school, a regional program or non-traditional limited purpose school. The attending counts will be utilized for calculating tuition rates in accordance with Title 20-A, §5805, subsection 1.B and the enrollment counts will be used for all other April 1st reporting requirements.

The April Enrollment Count Report will be available for districts to submit and certify, beginning on April 1st with a certify by date of April 15th.

The Maine Department of Education’s data management team will be hosting a webinar where we will be discussing the April 1st Enrollment Count Report and fielding any questions that you may have from 10AM to 11AM on Tuesday April 6th, 2021. Register Here

In order to view this report, you will need access to NEO – Student Data, if you do not have this access please have your superintendent fill out our NEO Access Request Form

April 1st Enrollment Count Report Instructions (PDF)

April 1st Enrollment Count Report Instructions Video (MP4)

If you have any questions, comments or concerns in regards to the April 1st Enrollment Count Report please feel free to contact us at the MEDMS Helpdesk at MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896.

 

EPS High-Cost Out-of-District Report (EF-S-214) Open for Reporting on March 1, 2021; Deadline is April 15, 2021

The EF-S-214, also known as the EPS High-Cost Out-of-District Report will be open for data entry to Maine public schools on March 1 in the Maine DOE’s NEO Portal.

School districts should sign into the report as early as possible to allow time for data entry as well as the two-step submission process. The Department must approve the report by April 15 to allow time to make possible EPS adjustments.

Adjustments to the Special Education High-Cost Out-of-District allocation will be based on costs exceeding:

  • $18,586 for placements in Regional Special Education Programs,
  • $27,879 for placements in other school administrative units, and
  • $37,172 for placements in private schools.

Below are a few important things to note about the EF-S-214 report:

  • School districts will need to project the tuition cost for the full fiscal year.
  • This report is required for all publicly funded school districts, including districts that do not meet the High-Cost Out-of-District tuition threshold, these districts must login and submit “no students to report”

The report can be located by logging into NEO at: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/NEO/Accounts/Account/Login

Navigate to→ Special Education → Forms → EFS-214

Questions about the report should be direct to Stephanie Clark Fiscal Compliance Associate for the Maine Department of Education at Stephanie.clark@maine.gov or 207-624-6807.

 

The Special Education Staff Certification Report (EF-S-05 Part II) Open on March 1, 2021; Deadline is April 15, 2021.

The EF-S-05 Part II Special Education Staff Certification report must be verified and certified by the Special Education Director in the Maine Department Of Education’s NEO System. The report is used to verify the full-time equivalency (FTE) and qualification status of special education teachers, paraprofessionals (educational technicians), and related services personnel who were employed or contracted to provide special education services to students with disabilities ages 3 through 20 as of December 1, 2020.

  • Please note that this will be final year that the EF-S-05 Part II will allow for adjustments of numbers. The 2021-2022 collection will come directly from NEO staff and the EF-S-05 Part II will only be a certification of those numbers.  The timeline of the certification will also change to align with the NEO staff certification timeline.  More information will be provided in summer and fall of 2021.

Access instructions for completing the EF-S-05 Part II report.

If you have trouble logging into NEO or have other technical issues, contact the help desk at 207-624-6896 or MEDMS.Helpdesk@maine.gov .

For questions about the EF-S-05 Part II report, contact Brandi Giguere at 207-446-6526 or brandi.a.giguere@maine.gov.

Dropout Reporting Certification for Federal Reporting Year 2019-2020 Due January 15th; Jan. 7th Webinar Available

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) Data Team is hosting the following webinar to review and discuss Dropouts Certification Report:

Thursday January 7th at 10AM – Register Here

Dropout reporting is now for all students of compulsory age regardless of grade.  On December 10, 2019 the DOE Data Governance team voted to bring Maine’s Dropout reporting into compliance with USDOEs guidance, starting with the 2019-2020 school year. As a result, our state level dropout reporting, and your review of your districts data, will include all compulsory age students that meet the dropout definition of being enrolled as of 10/01/2019 and not enrolled on 10/01/2020 and were expected to be in enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year (i.e. – did not graduate, exit to home instruction, etc.)

The dropout certification report no longer has the functionality to change exit codes of students, instead we are only asking you to verify that the report is correct and accurate. The following instructions link will guide users in locating the dropout report, as well as guide users on how to validate that the report is correct and accurate.

Dropout Reporting Instructions

Users looking to complete the Dropout Certification Report will need access to the Student Data module within the NEO application. If you do not have access to this module, please have your superintendent submit a NEO access request form on your behalf.

NEO Access Request Form

Report Open Date: December 14th, 2020

Report Due Date: January 15th, 2021

Questions, comments, or concerns in regards to the Dropout Certification Report should be directed to the Maine Educational Data Management Systems helpdesk at:

MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896

Graduation Certification Report Due January 15th, 2021; Jan. 6th Webinar Available

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) Data Team is hosting the following webinar to review and discuss the Graduation Certification Report:

Wednesday January 6th at 1PM – Register Here

Users looking to complete the Graduation Certification Report will need access to the Student Data module within the NEO application. If you do not have access to this module, please have your superintendent submit a NEO access request form on your behalf. NEO Access Request Form

New for 2019-2020: The is no longer a need to validate the start and exit codes of students during this report. The report will also no longer be required to be ‘Accepted’ by the Maine DOE. Please make sure that all the data is accurate prior to certifying.

Graduation Certification Report Instructions

Report Open Date: December 21st, 2020

Report Due Date: January 15th, 2021

Questions, comments or concerns with the Graduation Certification Report should be directed to the Maine Educational Data Management Systems Helpdesk at:

MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896

Important Reminder and Webinar Assistance: Due Date Approaches for Quarter 1 (Q1) Attendance, Behavior, Bullying, and Truancy Data Review

In order to assist SAUs with their legislatively mandated data reporting, the Maine Department of Education Data Team is offering a free webinar to review the requirements and new features. The webinar is strongly encouraged for those responsible for the compilation and entry of the required data.

The Quarter 1 Reporting and Certification Webinar will be held on Wednesday, October 14th from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Click here to register

The certification period for Quarter 1 (Q1), which includes attendance, behavior, bullying, and truancy opens October 1st.  Review and certification are required by October 15th.

Quarter 1 attendance will be used for the average daily attendance (ADA) reporting requirements for Title V. There will not be a separate Title V ADA collection.

Why?  Each year the US Department of Education begins the process for determining Title V eligibility for both the State and Federal grants, starting in late November.  Part of that eligibility is asking each state to provide several pieces of data on all their districts, including average daily attendance (ADA).  Without this data, no district would be eligible for the Federal (Small Rural Schools Achievement or SRSA) grant, and districts that are eligible for the State (Rural Low-Income Schools or RLIS) grant would get a reduced allocation, as 30% of the allocation formula is based on ADA from all eligible districts.

  • Attendance data certification can be found here, and guidance on reporting attendance can be found here.
  • Behavior data certification can be found here, and guidance on reporting behavior can be found here.
  • Bullying data certification can be found here and guidance on reporting bullying can be found here.
  • Truancy data certification can be found here, and guidance on reporting truancy can be found here.

If you have difficulties navigating to Synergy or NEO, please call the Helpdesk at 624-6896 or email at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov .

All due dates for reports are listed on the MDOE reporting calendar. All quarterly reports are based on the following months, not on a school’s scheduled quarters:

  • Quarter One (Q1)– As of Oct 1 (to include July, August, Sept) – due Oct 30
  • Quarter Two (Q2) – As of Jan 1 (to include Oct through Dec) – due Jan 15
  • Quarter Three (Q3) – As of April 1 (to include Jan through March) – due April 15
  • Quarter Four (Q4) – As of July 1 (to include Apr through June) – due July 15

 

 

MaineCare Seed Adjustments, Q4’20 Reports Due by October 15, 2020

The recovery of Q4’20 MaineCare Seed will occur in the October 2020 subsidy payment and the Maine DOE is asking school administrative units (SAU) to review their reports by October 15, 2020 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q4’20 by October 15, 2020.

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

  1. Log into NEO using this link: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
  • 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.
  1. Click on the Student Data tab
  2. Click on the Student Report tab
  3. Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
  4. Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
  5. Click view report button
  6. 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.

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should be on the report, please provide the reason that you disagree along with the following information to stephanie.clark@maine.gov:

  • Identify the type of report (public or private) and the quarter in which the claims are located.
  • State Student ID
  • 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.

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

 

 

Annual Audit Reminder: Key Dates and Important Information for District Admins

We know that superintendents are extremely busy this summer, preparing for a new school year in a climate full of unknowns. As there is much to organize, we are providing an annual audit reminder, with key dates so that you can mark your calendars and take any initial steps needed.

Initial Report to the Commissioner Due November 1st:

As is required by Title 20-A MRSA 6051 §4, statements of assurance and Maine Education Financial System reconciliations are due to the Department by November 1, 2020. Please submit via email to DOE.audit@maine.gov .

  • Any adjustments identified by these reconciliations should be uploaded to the Maine Education Financial System in NEO by November 30, 2020.

Annual Audit Reports Due December 30th

Annual audit reports are due within six months after the end of the audit period (e.g., reports for the fiscal year ending June 30th are due on or before December 30th).

  • Per statute, the auditor is required to review the audit with the school board.
  • Per statute, it is the school board’s responsibility to submit the annual audit document unless it is stated in the engagement letter that the audit firm will submit the audit to the Department on behalf of the school board.
  • Municipal school units are required to submit either a combined annual audit or a school department audit and a municipal audit to the Department. The municipal annual report (a.k.a. town report) cannot be accepted in lieu of the complete municipal annual audit.
  • Per statute, Maine DOE must receive a Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards (SEFA), which includes federal award expenditures for all reporting entities, even if a Single Audit (formerly A-133 audit) is not required to be conducted. The SEFA provides information needed by Maine DOE to conduct sub-recipient monitoring as required by the US Department of Education and is due at the time of the annual audit.
    • Municipal school units, please note: where a combined audit is not conducted, Maine DOE should receive two audits: an audit with a SEFA for the school department, and an audit for the city/town including a SEFA.
  • If a management letter is prepared by the auditor, a copy must be submitted to Maine DOE with the annual audit, as this letter provides us with information needed to conduct sub-recipient monitoring, as required by US DOE.

Extensions and Subsidy Payments

If an extension or exception is needed for the deadline to submit either the municipal or school department audit, the superintendent must contact us to request the extension.

The forms are available on the Fiscal Review and Compliance webpage, under forms on the menu bar.

  • Extensions will expire no less than 30 days from the date the extension was submitted.
  • Extension requests will be considered until June 30th (six months after due date); extensions will not be valid after June 30th and all municipalities and school administrative units with overdue audits that have not submitted an extension request before May 31th may have a delay in subsidy release. Those who have not submitted an extension request will have subsidy withheld until addressed.

Exception for a Municipal School Audit

  • Municipalities that do not operate a school and have different fiscal year end than the school may request an exception for the school audit. The exception form and more information may be found on the  Fiscal Review and Compliance webpage.

Please submit all annual audit documents, reports, information requests, questions and other audit correspondence via email to DOE.Audit@Maine.gov or via the direct link provided on the Fiscal Review and Compliance webpage.