New York City Board of Education School Based Budget Report

1. How Expenditures Were Distributed to Functions

2. How Expenditures Were Distributed to Locations

3. How Expenditures Were Distributed to Student Types

4. How We Determined Where Funds Are Spent

5. How Expenditures Were Distributed to Instructional Levels

The expenditures were classified by function based on components of the budget structure: Unit of Appropriation, Budget Code, Quick Code, Grant, Object Code or Line Number. Each instructional district was assigned a specific unit of appropriation for: instruction and instructional support; operations and administration; special education instruction and support; and special education operations and administration. All instructional units of appropriation were assigned budget codes to identify the following three areas: school leadership; direct instruction; and support services. Within each budget code there are quick codes and line numbers and object codes to further identify the personnel titles and supply specifications. Personnel information regarding employee’s actual office or school function was not the basis of the classification.

DEFINITION OF REPORTING CATEGORIES

The Function Reporting Category divides funding into purposes that allow us to classify how funds are used. The categories reflect often-used classifications of education spending, as well as priority areas of the New York City Board of Education. Note that the numbering for each category below, for example, I.A.i., matches the numbering of functions on the reports.

Services provided directly to public school students and staff, and which take place primarily in the school building during the school day, during the school year.

i. Teachers: All teachers who provide direct instruction on a full-time, part-time or per diem basis or during their preparation periods. General education, special education, and bilingual teachers are included. Also included are library teachers in elementary and middle schools whose salaries appear on teacher lines. Teachers on sabbatical or leave are excluded.

ii. Educational Paraprofessionals: Full-time, part-time, per-diem and substitute educational paraprofessionals who provide direct services in the classroom. Paraprofessionals who provide mandated services as per a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are included in Related Services.

iii. Other Classroom Staff: Included are other classroom personnel who provide direct services to students, primarily laboratory technicians.

iv. Textbooks: Funds spent for textbooks for school day, school-year classroom instructional use including New York State Textbook Law funds as well as other City and State Operating funds. Textbook funds spent in after-school budgets are included in After-School Programs; textbook funds for summer school are included in Summer School, etc. Thus, funds reported in this category do not represent the entire spending for textbooks.

v. Librarians/Library Books: Funds spent for library books for school libraries for school day, school-year use including all New York State Textbook Law funds and other City and State operating funds. Librarians at the high school level are included here. Note: librarians in elementary and middle schools appear on classroom teacher lines and are included in the teacher category. Library book funds spent in after-school budgets are included in After-School Programs; library book and librarian funds for summer school are included in Summer School, etc. Thus, funds reported in this category do not represent all spending for library books.

vi. Instructional Supplies and Equipment: Funds spent for instructional supplies and equipment (including student furniture, lab equipment, audio-visual equipment) for direct classroom use during the school day, during the school year. Instructional supply and equipment funds spending in after-school budgets are included in After-School Programs; instructional supply and equipment funds for summer school are included in Summer School, etc. Thus, funds reported in this category do not represent all spending for instructional supplies and equipment.

vii. Professional Development: Funds spent for professional development provided at the school level, primarily teacher trainers and trainees. Included in this category are funds spent for professional educational conferences.

viii. Curriculum Development: Funds spent for school-based staff to write curriculum guides to support the implementation of the new academic standards.

ix. Contracted Instructional Services: This category includes funds supporting consultants, agencies and community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide educational services to students and staff.

x. Summer and Evening School: Included are summer instructional and recreational programs operated by the Community School Districts and Division of High Schools that are funded with City, State, Federal funds, inclusive of all teachers, paraprofessionals, other support and school administrative staff, supplies and materials. Also included are High School Evening instructional programs, inclusive of all teachers, paraprofessionals, other support and school administrative staff, supplies and materials. Funds used for air conditioning for summer school sites are included in building maintenance.

Included in this category are direct services to students that supplement the basic classroom instructional program. Also included in each category below are staff who directly supervise the services and programs, and other than personal services (supplies, materials, etc.) that are used by the service providers. Both BOE providers and contracted staff are included.

i. Counseling Services: Included are guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists who provide counseling services on a full-time or part-time basis to general and special education students, including mandated counseling as per a child’s Individualized Educational Plan (IEP). Direct supervisors and supplies and materials are included. Note: Guidance counselors and social workers that work on School Based Support Teams are not included here -- See I.C.iv.

ii. Attendance/Outreach Services: Included are attendance teachers, school neighborhood workers and family workers who provide attendance and family outreach services for Community School District, High School and Citywide Special Education students. Also included here is the systemwide truancy patrol program. Supervisors, supplies and materials are also included.

iii. Related Services: Included are the following health and other related services: health screening, nursing (including Section 504), occupational therapy, physical therapy, adaptive physical education, hearing, vision and speech services provided by the Board and contracted providers. Also included are all mandated special education paraprofessionals who provide sign language/interpreter services, mobility training, toilet training, crisis management and health services to students per their IEP. Direct service providers, supervisors, related supplies, equipment and materials, and travel time are included.

iv. Drug Prevention: Included are Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists (SAPIS) employees funded with City and State and Federal funds.

v. Referral, Evaluation and Placement: Included are educational evaluators, psychologists, social workers and guidance counselors on School Based Support Teams (SBST) and Committee on Special Education (CSE) review teams who evaluate students referred for special education services during the day or after school. Board and contract providers are both included, as are clinical supervisors and related supplies and equipment. CSE chairpersons, assistant chairpersons, placement officers, administrative and clerical staff are included in District/ Superintendency Costs - Instructional Support and Administration (II.A.).

vi. After School and Student Activities: Included are after-school instructional, recreational and latch-key programs. Also included are all salary costs for student aides working as part of their educational program. Direct service providers, supervisors, fees for building usage, instructional and other supplies, equipment and materials are included.

vii. Parent Involvement Activities: Included are costs associated with parent involvement, parent association and PTA activities.

i. Principals: All salaries for full-time and per diem principals are included. School directors on teacher lines are excluded, as are principals on sabbatical or leave.

ii. Assistant Principals: Salaries for all full-time and per diem assistant principals and teachers functioning as assistant principals that appear on assistant principal lines are included. Teachers functioning as assistant principals but whose salaries appear on teacher lines are excluded, as are assistant principals on sabbaticals or leave. No reduction has been made representing the amount of time assistant principals spend teaching, since this is not available from budget information.

iii. Supervisors: Full-time and part-time supervisors who work primarily in schools are included here unless otherwise included in another category along with direct service providers -- see I.B functions. For Galaxy districts teachers who serve as deans or program coordinators also appear in this category.

iv. Secretaries, School Aides, and Other Support Staff: School secretaries, school aides, general assistants (high schools only), audio-visual and media service technicians who work in schools are included. Funding for School Leadership Team members are included. Spending on similar titles in central or district offices is not included here. Secretaries on sabbatical are excluded.

v. Supplies, Materials, Equipment, Telephones: Included is funding in instructional program budgets for supplies, materials, equipment, photocopy machine maintenance, telephone, telecommunication lines, Board-wide internet access (including schools) postage, travel, printing, that are not specifically designated as instructional supplies and equipment -- see I.A.vi. Materials and supplies used by School Leadership Team members are included.

Funding for essential ancillary support services for public school students only. Spending for administrative costs in central administrative budgets is not included here -- see III.B.ii.

i. Food Services: Included are funds supporting the purchase, warehousing, transportation and distribution of food for students and school staff. School lunch workers and field supervisors are included. The cost of nutritional education programs is also included. Funds spent in central office, district or borough offices and school budgets for school purposes are included.

ii. Transportation: Included are funds supporting yellow buses, passes for public bus, subway and ferry service for general and special education. Specialized transportation for special education students is also included. In addition, the personnel responsible for routing, scheduling, issuing passes and monitoring eligibility are included. Funds spent in central, district and school budgets for school purposes are included.

iii. School Safety: Included are school safety officers, supervisors and related supplies and equipment such as metal detectors, vans, uniforms and training. These funds appear as O.T.P.S. as the services are provided on a contract basis from the New York City Police Department. Funds spent in central office, district/borough offices and school budgets for school purposes are included. Capital costs for metal detectors, vans, etc. are excluded.

iv. Computer System Support: Funds spent for school level computer support are included. The reports reflect the following areas: school support for the Automate the Schools (ATS) Project (including data and phone lines, hardware and software, technical assistance and training); funds expended for Project Smart Schools and Project Connect as well as funds spent for the UAPC contract, the automated student program scheduler in the high schools. Funds budgeted for the summer attendance program appear in I.A.x.

i. Custodial Services: Included are custodians, custodial helpers, custodial supplies and equipment and contracted custodial personnel for the operation of school buildings during and after the school day, as well as supervisory staff. Spending in central, district and school budgets for school purposes are included. Custodial costs spent in afterschool program budgets, summer or evening schools are included in those categories.

ii. Building Maintenance: Included are maintenance and repair personnel and field supervisors. Also included are machinists and elevator operators, and all related supplies and materials.

iii. Leases: Included are the costs of leasing space used for instructional purposes for community school district, high school and citywide special education schools. Leases for administrative and district offices are excluded -- see District Administration II.A and Central Administration, Instructional Offices III.B.i.

iv. Energy: Included are the costs for electricity, heat, oil, coal and power.

i. Projected Expenses: Represents encumbrances (or their withdrawal in the case of “negative expenses”) that have not yet been assigned to specific accounts e.g. delayed payroll actions, charge-backs and late journal entries.

Funds supporting the operation of the 32 Community School District offices and boards, 6 High School Superintendencies, the Chancellor’s District Superintendency, Chancellor’s High School District, and Citywide Special Education district office.

Included are community school board members and their staff, community school district, high school and special education superintendents and deputies, district business, personnel, and administrative/clerical staff, instructional/pedagogical support and supervisory staff working primarily in district offices and related Other Than Personal Service costs. Also included are administrative (indirect) costs associated with running State, Federal and privately funded categorical programs. Leasing space for district administration purposes is also included.

i. Sabbaticals and Leaves: Included are funds to cover the cost of pedagogic sabbatical leaves taken by district personnel for approved education, travel or restoration of health. Funds spent for terminal leave and termination pay are also included. These are excluded from Direct Services to Schools since no direct benefit is accruing to the schools or students at the time these payments are made.

ii. Additions to Regular Salary: Additions to an employee’s regular salary that were payrolled separately from salary are included here for all employees in the district where the expense could not be identified with any of the functions listed in IA, IB, IC or ID. Additions to regular salary include: education differentials, assignment differentials, longevity differentials, holiday pay, overtime, back pay, salary adjustments, payment of and interest on deferred wages.

iii. Projected Expenses: Represents encumbrances (or their withdrawal in the case of “negative expenses”) that have not yet been assigned to specific accounts e.g. delayed payroll actions, charge-backs and late journal entries.

Dollars spent to support systemwide functions and obligations and are not associated with any specific district or school.

Instructional and pedagogical staff, related supplies and services in support of school level instructional programs who work in central offices. Included are non-administrative pedagogical employees, such as teachers, teacher trainers, and counselors, supervisors, contracted instructional services. See Technical Appendix, Section B for more detail on how budgets were assigned to Central Instructional Support.

i. Instructional Offices: Funds spent for instructional support staff and services in the following offices: Division of Bilingual Education; Office of Multicultural Education; Division of Program Development; Division of Student Support Services and Office of Instructional Support. Also included are pedagogical support programs (Supervisory Support Program; Assistant Principal Internship; Peer Intervention) and other associated instructional support staff; and tuition costs associated with pre-service scholarship programs administered by the Division of Human Resources are also included.

All heads of Central Offices, administrative and clerical staff, business, personnel, payroll, timekeeping, data entry staff and related supplies, materials and other than personal services.

i. Instructional Offices: Deputy Chancellor for Instruction; Office of Instructional Support; Division of Assessment and Accountability; Division of Bilingual Education; Office of Multicultural Education; Office of the Chief Executive for Community Affairs; Division of Program Development; WNYE; Division of Student Support Services; Division of Funded and Community Resources and the Center for Recruitment and Professional Development. Included here also are leases for administrative offices for the above-listed divisions.

ii. Operational Offices: Deputy Chancellor for Operations; Office of the Chief Financial Officer; Division of Budget Operations and Review; Division of Revenue Operations; Division of Human Resources; Division of Instructional and Information Technology; Division of School Facilities; Division of Financial Operations; Office of School Food and Nutrition Services; Office of Student Safety; Office of Pupil Transportation; Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Office of Legal Services; Office of Corporate Partnerships.

iii. Central School Board and Chancellor’s Offices: Board of Education; Office of the Chancellor; Board of Education Retirement System; Office of Public Affairs; Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; Special Investigations; Auditor General.

i. Debt Service: Payment for long-term debt in support of school construction. These funds are actually held and expended in the City of New York’s budget rather than in the Board of Education’s budget.

ii. Retiree Health and Welfare: Funds spent for health and welfare payments for Board of Education retirees.

iii. Special Commissioner for Investigation: Funds supporting the entire budget of the Special Commissioner for Investigation, an independent oversight office.

Included in this category are tuition payments made to non-public schools for general and special education students; payment for transportation services provided to non-public school students; funds to provide food services to non-public schools students; NYSTL textbook funds for non-public school students; Federal IDEA funds and Title I funds reserved for non-public school students, including those in correctional facilities, as well as overhead costs associated with the delivery of Title 1 remedial services to non-public school children (e.g. leases, mobile instructional units). Tuition costs for City students in foster care attending out of City schools are included here. Also included are evaluation and placement costs for pre-school and school age students referred for special education private placements. All administrative costs associated with the running and oversight of the above programs are included here as well.

Included are all funds included in the Board of Education’s budget that are paid to subsidize the operation of the Fashion Institute of Technology, a community college for which the Board is the official sponsor.

Funds that are passed through the Board of Education budget to support charter schools.

One of the primary goals of these reports was to assign all public school expenditures to specific school locations. The first task was to define a school. Only those schools that have been recognized by central Board of Education resolution are represented in these reports. Some districts have created alternative programs or schools within schools but these do not have distinct expenditure locations in many of the Board’s data systems, thereby making accurate reporting impossible. The dollars for these programs are a subset of an official school identified by the district as the “parent” school and are therefore not represented as separate entities in these reports. It should be noted that the enrollments for these schools might not have been reported at the same location as the expenditures. This could cause variations in per student expenditure amounts among schools in those districts that operate alternative programs.

How costs were distributed to locations depended on where they were spent in the Financial & Accounting Management Information System (FAMIS), and the types of pupils served with the dollars.

a. Expenditures recorded in School Spending Plans are displayed in the School Based Expenditure Reports in the locations as they appear in the Spending Plan. The only exceptions are locations that are not official schools (e.g., schools within schools, programs within schools). In these cases, dollars were displayed in an official school within the district as per information provided by the Superintendent’s office.

b. Expenditures recorded in district or Borough Office locations in the Spending Plan were distributed to schools within the district on a per capita basis depending on Student Type. For example, funds expended from General Education accounts were distributed to schools based on their General Education register. Funds expended from Special Education accounts were distributed to schools based on their Special Education register.

To facilitate the analysis of how the school system spends its dollars on different types of students, every public school dollar was designated as serving either General Education or Full-Time Special Education students. The tables that follow describe how expenditures were categorized according to these Student Types.

The Board of Education’s current account code structure does not fully support the classification of expenditures according to which students are eligible to receive services purchased by funding source. First, within the Units of Appropriation (U/A) for District, High School and Citywide Special Education programs, eight Units of Appropriation are designated specifically as Special Education[1]. However, what is expended in the remaining U/As[2] is not necessarily only for General Education students. For example, though funds for elementary, middle, and high schools principals are expended in General Education U/As 301 or 311, they serve all students. Thus, specific items were pulled out of General Education U/As and identified as funds serving all students, and distributed across all students on a per student basis based on the enrollment of the school.

It was not possible to accurately determine which students are actually served by which dollars, particularly with Federal and State grants. Some districts and schools may serve only general education students with certain categorical grants; others may include their special education students in all their funded programs. Thus, the classification of reimbursable grants was made based on the following assumption: Unless the grant is earmarked for Special Education students, it is assumed that all students are eligible to be served by Federal, State and Private grants. Therefore, these funds were distributed across all Student Types on a per student basis derived from the enrollment of the school. Grants specifically earmarked for Special Education were distributed to Full-Time Special Education students on a per student basis derived from the enrollment of the school.

Each budget, account or line number was classified according to the following Student Types:

Related Services and School Based Support Teams: All Related Services and School Based Support Team costs were distributed across all Full-Time, and a proportion of General Education students equivalent to the number of identified special needs students (i.e. pupils who receive only supplementary special education services but spend the majority of the day in the general education setting). This method does not take into account frequency, duration or group size. It therefore overstates the costs attributable to General Education students and understates costs for Full-Time students by awarding equal weight to all students. Full-Time students, especially the severely handicapped, generally have a higher frequency of service in smaller group sizes. We were able to identify the exact dollars per school for each related service but were not able to integrate actual CAP data to determine which students at each site received which services, how often and for how long to determine accurate costs by student type.

The reader of the Function by Student Type reports will notice that in all cases the per student costs are equal for general and special education students within each school in a district, but not equal on the district summary report. For example, the principal’s salary in each school generates the same per capita cost for the general ed and special ed students in a given school. This is always the case in schools that have both general ed and special ed students. However, on the district summary report, the per capita will be greater in principal’s salary for special education students. This is a mathematical artifact of the way the district summary reports are created so that the sum of all school student type expenditures is equal to the district student type expenditures. This is illustrated in the table below:

This difference ($50 vs. $70) occurs because the full time SE per student amount receives different weighting from the GE per student amount in the school report and the district report. The district per student amounts by student type could only agree if all the schools within a district had the same per student costs or the same GE and SE enrollments.

To assist in understanding how the school system allocates and spends its funds, the School Based Expenditure Reports indicate where funds are actually spent for all public school dollars. There are three locations: the School Spending Plan, the District/Borough Office, and Central Offices.

School Spending Plan: Actual spending recorded in schools in the School Spending Plans in the Accounting System (FAMIS)

District: Actual spending recorded in District Offices in the accounting system (FAMIS)

Central: All spending in central offices. (See Technical Appendix, Section F for the definition of Central offices.) It also includes funds that are held in the City’s budget for Debt Service and all pass-through dollars (except for Board of Elections expenses).

Note: The majority of funds that appear in the District/Superintendent Wide function are recorded in the District location. However, the following expenditures are recorded in School Spending Plans but are nonetheless District functions:

Sabbaticals - Expenditures for pedagogic personnel are recorded in school spending plans. At the time of the sabbatical however, these staff are not providing direct services to schools or students, and thus are reported as a District function.

Additions to Salary - Payments are made to employees during the summer months for work completed during the prior school year. For example, payment for June preparation periods or per session (Fiscal Year 2000) may be received in July (Fiscal Year 2001). These payments are then booked back to the appropriate year. While the accounting system gives this information by school location it does not indicate the personnel line number for all the payrolls. When line information was not available these expenditures were displayed in function “Additions to Regular Salary” in District/Superintendency Costs. Most of these additions are for pedagogic staff (particularly teachers). This may cause expenditures in the area of Direct Services to Schools (Classroom Instruction in particular) to be understated.

School-Based-Support Team Clerical and Administrative Staff – School aides, placement officers, and other support staff while recorded in the School Spending Plan are included in District Instructional Support and Administration.

The instructional levels are: Elementary, Middle School, High School, Collaboratives, and Citywide Special Education.

Information comparing instructional level expenditures is found in Systemwide Report #4.

“Comparable Schools” are based on the similar school classifications generated by the Board of Education’s Division of Assessment & Accountability (DAA), based on Fiscal Year 2000 student data. The similar school classifications were adapted to the school location codes used in the expenditure reports (which may differ from DAA’s school definition – e.g. DAA reports separately on programs within schools, whereas in these reports data for programs housed in the same school are collapsed and reported as a single unit).

An explanation of the rationale and statistical methods used in determining similar school classifications, can be found on DAA’s web page www.nycenet.edu/daa/reports/index.html. The following definition has been excerpted from that page.

Each school’s per capita is compared against the average for the similar school category to which the school belongs, “in recognition of the impact of high proportions of low-income, special education and English language learners (ELL)… It levels the playing field by comparing the performance of each school to that of other schools with students having comparable proportions of low-income families, special education students, and ELLs in combination.

New York City Department of Education
Office of Financial & Management Reporting
School Based Expenditure Reports -- School Year 1999-2000
1. Summary of Findings	5. Expenditures By Function
2. District Needs	6. Expenditures By District and School
3. Three Year Comparison	7. PDF's & Downloads
4. Revenue Source Overview	8. Appendix	Chancellor's Message

School	Expenditure (a)	General Education Enrollment (b)	Per Student Amount (a/b)	Expenditure (c)	Full Time Special Education Enrollment (d)	Per Student Amount (c/d)
PS 1	$1000	10 (16%)	$100	$500	5 (50%)	$100
PS 2	$2000	50 (84%)	$ 40	$200	5 (50%)	$ 40
District Summary	$3000	60 (100%)	$ 50	$700	10 (100%)	$70

HOW EXPENDITURES WERE DISTRIBUTED TO FUNCTIONS

DEFINITION OF REPORTING CATEGORIES

HOW EXPENDITURES WERE DISTRIBUTED TO LOCATIONS

HOW EXPENDITURES WERE DISTRIBUTED TO STUDENT TYPES

HOW WE DETERMINED WHERE FUNDS ARE SPENT

HOW EXPENDITURES WERE DISTRIBUTED TO INSTRUCTIONAL LEVELS

COMPARABLE SCHOOLS

Appendix
FISCAL YEAR 2000 EXPENDITURES
TABLE OF CONTENTS