Archived Information

School Finance: Charter Schools

2006-2007 Pre-Enrollment and NSS Near-Cap Information

The deadline for submitting the Charter School Pre-Enrollment Report for the 2006-2007 school year is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 17, 2006. The Charter School Pre-Enrollment Report is used by the Department of Education to collect projected enrollment data in order to determine each charter school's first quarter tuition payment for fiscal year 2007. This report represents the maximum number of students on which each charter school's tuition calculation will be based for the upcoming fiscal year. It is also used to notify sending school districts by April 1^st, as required by law, of the number of students enrolled in charter schools for the upcoming school year.

Information included in this memorandum includes:

1. A description of improvements made to the Charter School Pre-Enrollment web application and a web/phone conference training opportunity

2. A reminder regarding "New" and "Significantly Expanding" charter school special populations enrollment projections for FY07 federal entitlement grant funding

3. Regulatory notification of sending districts approaching the 9% Net School Spending cap ("near-cap")

1. Improved 2006-2007 Charter School Pre-Enrollment web user interface and training opportunity

   The web user interface for the Charter School Pre-Enrollment application has been improved this year to reduce data-entry error. Major changes from the 2005-2006 school year are described below:

   • No sibling data will be collected this year

   • Schools will be unable to submit pre-enrollment data for fewer than an estimated minimum number of students or more than the maximum number of students allowed by each school's charter

   • Summary information by town/city of residence, grade, and enrollment status will be available for review by the user prior to the final submission of data

   Complete instructions will be located within the Charter School Pre-Enrollment web application itself, which will be accessible through the DOE Security Portal beginning March 1, 2006. In addition, a web/phone conference training on the use of the Charter School Pre-Enrollment online application will be conducted on Tuesday, March 7, 2006, at 12 noon. If you would like to participate in this training, please register at
   http://www.doe.mass.edu/conference/?ConferenceID=178.

   Finally, please remember that all charter schools will be required to submit pre-enrollment data for the 2006-2007 school year by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 17, 2006.

2. "New" and "Significantly Expanding" Charter School Selected Populations Enrollment Projections

   Federal entitlement grant formulas usually rely on prior year data. For new or significantly expanding charter schools, this data is often very inaccurate and does not generate a revenue stream that serves the school's current year population. The Charter School Expansion Act of 1998, Public Law No. 105-278, addressed this issue by amending section 10306 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 20 U.S.C. 8061-8067, to require that the Secretary and State educational agencies (SEAs) take measures to ensure that charter schools receive the Federal-to-State formula funds (e.g., Title I, Title II, and IDEA funds, among others) for which they are eligible within five months of opening or expanding their enrollment. This is required "notwithstanding the fact that the identity and characteristics of the students enrolling at that charter school are not fully determined until that charter school actually opens" (20U.S.C. 8065a(a)). (http://www.uscharterschools.org/pdf/fr/sea_guidance_main.pdf  ).

   In order for the Department to ensure that there are funds available to calculate accurate allocations for entitlement grants, new or significantly expanding charter schools must provide the following projected enrollment data for the 2006-2007 school year:

   • The aggregate projected number of "Limited English Proficient" students (SIMS Data element DOE025), by town of residence, who will attend your charter school in 2006-2007.

   • The aggregate projected number of Special Education students (SIMS Data element DOE034), by town of residence and by age, who will attend your charter school in 2006-2007.

   • The aggregate projected number of students with "Low Income Status" (SIMS Data Element DOE 019), by town of residence, who will attend your charter school in 2006-2007.

   New or significantly expanding charter schools can make these projections based on data from their sending districts, or they may also choose to collect this information via enrollment forms, after offers of admission have been extended to prospective students. This data will be collected via the Charter School Sig. Expansion web application, which will be accessible through the DOE Security Portal in late March and will be due to the Department by 5:00 PM on May 1, 2006. Instructions will be available within the web application itself. Please note that FY07 final allocations for these schools may be adjusted to reflect actual enrollment data collected in October 2006 via the Student Information Management System (SIMS).

3. 2006-2007 "Near-Cap" Sending Districts

   Charter school regulations state "the Department of Education shall notify each Commonwealth charter school no later than February 15 of any limitation on the number of students from a district that may be enrolled in charter schools for the upcoming year," (603 CMR 1.06(4)(c)).

   The charter school statute stipulates that no school district's total charter school payments shall exceed 9% of the district's net school spending (NSS cap). Using projected FY07 enrollment numbers for charter schools, projected FY07 tuition rates, and required FY07 NSS figures, the School Finance Unit has calculated preliminary projections of each sending district's FY07 enrollment against the 9% NSS cap, which is contained in the attached Preliminary Projection of FY07 FTE Remaining under NSS Cap spreadsheet. .

   Based on the Department's understanding of charter school growth plans for FY07, the attached analysis projects the number of "seats" that will remain for charter school enrollment in each sending district, after the FY07 enrollment process has been completed. Based on this analysis, the Department has determined that the following school districts are "near-cap" districts (projected to have either less than 10 FTE seats remaining or to have charter tuition assessments above 8.25% of NSS):

   LEA #	Near-Cap Sending District
   221	OAK BLUFFS
   253	ROWE
   263	SAVOY
   296	TISBURY
   774	UPISLAND

   As described in the November 7, 2005 Department memorandum entitled "Managing Charter School Enrollment and the Net School Spending Cap," for these districts-and only these districts-charter schools may exercise the option to skip over students who apply for enrollment in accordance with 603 CMR 1.06(4)(d). Please be reminded that after charter schools have submitted their pre-enrollment data, the Department will release FY07 tuition projections in mid- to late April. At that time, the Department also will update the "FTE remaining under NSS Cap" analysis presented above, as well as the "near-cap" district list. As seats become available, charter schools should enroll students from the waitlist-some of whom may have been previously skipped-if a particular sending district is no longer on this "near-cap" list.

   In the event that a sending district's tuition assessment exceeds the 9% NSS cap, the Department will prorate equally that district's tuition assessment among all charter schools that enroll students from the district.

Please feel free to contact me at 781-338-3228 or cchuang@doe.mass.edu with any questions or concerns regarding the information contained in this memorandum.

Attachments: Preliminary Projection of FY07 FTE Remaining under NSS Cap