Authority
34 CFR 300, Appendix A
Purpose
Except as otherwise provided, amounts provided to an LEA under Part B of the Act may be used only to pay the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities. Excess costs are those costs for the education of an elementary school or secondary school student with a disability that are in excess of the average annual per student expenditure in an LEA during the preceding school year for an elementary school or secondary school student, as may be appropriate. An LEA must spend at least the average annual per student expenditure on the education of an elementary school or secondary school child with a disability before funds under Part B of the Act are used to pay the excess costs of providing special education and related services.
Section 602(8) of the Act and §300.16 require the LEA to compute the minimum average amount separately for children with disabilities in its elementary schools and for children with disabilities in its secondary schools. LEAs may not compute the minimum average amount it must spend on the education of children with disabilities based on a combination of the enrollments in its elementary schools and secondary schools.
Procedure
The procedure described will be for the calculation of excess cost for the LEA’s elementary program, on the left hand side of the sheet. The procedure for the secondary program is identical.
The user enters data into the blue colored boxes. Values outside the blue colored boxes are calculated automatically.
At the top right, just over the first box, click the “Grades:” drop-down menu and select the grade range included in the LEA’s elementary program.
First box: In the first two blue cells, enter the amount expended during the previous school year from all fund sources (local, state and federal, including IDEA-B) for the education of the district's elementary school students, including students with disabilities. Include all expenditures associated with campus level operations. Exclude non-campus-based expenditures such as central office, district administrators, central transportation facility, etc. A recommended method for identifying appropriate expenditures is to include any expenditure with a “campus.org” code.
In the second two blue cells, enter the amounts from the above expenditures that were for Capital Outlay and Debt Service (i.e. Class/Object Codes 6500 and 6600).
Second box: Enter the amounts included in the above expenditures that were from the sources listed.
Third box: In the first blue cell, enter the student count as indicated. In the second blue cell, enter the number of children with disabilities as indicated.
Fourth box: These two figures are automatically generated, and show the previous year’s average expenditure per student, and the minimum amount the LEA must spend in the current year for the education of elementary students with disabilities before using IDEA Part B funds.
Division of Federal Fiscal Compliance and Reporting
1701 N. Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: 512-463-9127
E-mail: compliance@tea.state.tx.us