Archived Information

School Finance: School Choice

Final FY03 School Choice Tuition

June 19,2003

The school choice assessment and tuition amounts due to be incorporated into the June 30, 2003 local aid distribution have been finalized. On June 30, 2003 the State Treasurer's office will process the remaining portion of the assessments and tuition, net of the amounts paid in the December, 2002 and March, 2003 quarterly local aid distributions.

Superintendents of sending and receiving districts will receive in the mail printed copies of FY03 School Choice Rosters and Tuition Amounts, June 2003. These lists show each school choice pupil's name, address, enrollment dates, program, tuition and other information.

A district summary shows the number of full-time equivalent pupils and tuition amounts for the 138 receiving districts and 263 sending districts involved in this program. During FY03 there were 8,092 full-time equivalent pupils participating, at a cost of $44,693,338.

School Choice Tuition Rates are calculated for regular, bilingual and vocational programs. FY03 school choice tuition rates are set at the FY02 operating cost per full-time equivalent pupil for the receiving school district.

On November 26, 2002 the Massachusetts Board of Education voted to amend 603 CMR 10.07(3) to change the way that school choice tuition is calculated for the time spent in special education. In this spring's data collection, districts were asked to complete a template that assigned a cost to the specific services that each school choice special education pupil received. That increment was added to each pupil's regular, bilingual, or vocational tuition rate to determine his or her final payment.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact Phyllis Rogers of the Office of School Finance, at (781) 338-6534 or via email at progers@doe.mass.edu.

Our website contains a district summary of the number of full-time equivalent pupils and tuition amounts for the 131 receiving districts and 247 sending districts involved in this program. During FY02 there were 7,558 pupils participating, at a cost of $41,127,701.

The school choice rates used in the calculations on our website. The current list of school districts that have voted to participate in the school choice program in FY03 can be found at http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/schoice/.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact Phyllis Rogers of the Office of School Finance, at (781) 338-6534 or via email at progers@doe.mass.edu.