School-Based Expenditure Reports

School Based Expenditure Reports 

School Year 2010-11 (Fiscal Year 2011)

For prior year reports, please click here.

This report presents fiscal year 2011 (FY11) expenditures for the New York City Department of Education (DOE).  The fiscal year runs from July 1st through June 30th.  The financial data in this report were extracted from the DOE’s accounting system of record (FAMIS) and represent the DOE’s 2011 year-end audited spending condition.  Pupil enrollment data is based on audited October 31, 2010 (School Year 2010-11) registers.

Please note that in order to maintain comparability to prior year School-Based Expenditure Reports (SBERs) the format of the FY11 SBER has remained unchanged. However, this format - which divides expenditures into five primary areas: Direct Services to Schools, Field Support Costs (formerly called Regional Costs), System-Wide Costs, System-Wide Obligations (i.e., debt service, pension), and Pass-Throughs – is no longer reflective of the operational structure of the DOE. While Field Support Costs and System-Wide Costs remain as separate sections within SBER tables, any related analyses or discussions (including the FY11 School-Based Expenditure Overview) correctly combine these sections as “Central Support Costs.”


FY11 SBER Spending Summary

What is the School-Based Expenditure Report?

The DOE publishes an annual School-Based Expenditure Report (SBER) which estimates per-pupil spending based on all DOE expenditures in a given fiscal year. The SBER provides several ways of looking at the distribution of annual expenditures at the DOE, including:

• By purpose or function; e.g., amounts for classroom instruction, textbooks, instructional supplies, or administration;
• By location, at the school, district, and system-wide levels; 
• By student service type (general education versus special education); and
• By source, including city funds, state operating aid, and federal or private grants.

Categories of spending are classified according to the following “buckets:”

• Direct Services to Schools: Services provided directly to public school students which take place primarily in the school building during the school day and school year. As noted above, these direct-to-school services include food, transportation and facilities not paid for out of a school’s own Galaxy budget.
• Central Support Costs: Dollars spent to support system-wide support functions and obligations not directly associated with any specific district or school. This includes School Support Organizations, Integrated Service Centers, Children First Networks and the Citywide Special Education district office, as well as functions including enrollment, payroll, human resources, etc.[3]
• System-Wide Obligations: Non-administrative costs including debt service and pension contributions for DOE employees.
• Pass-Throughs: Funds administered by the DOE for children who are served in non-public schools (general and special education), charter schools and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Please note that the SBER is not a financial audit. To view a copy of the DOE’s FY11 Audited Financial Statements, please visit http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/608AB94C-519C-4F7E-8143-17DB0BBDFE09/0/2011AnnualFinancialStatements.pdf

Accessing School-Based Expenditure Reports

You may access FY11 SBER data in a variety of ways.

1.     Search by individual school: On the FY11 landing page, enter a school’s BN (e.g., M015) into the search box labeled “Sch:” and hit “Search.” After the page refreshes, choose the school you would like to view from the dropdown menu “School List” and hit “Go.”

2.     View citywide summary reports: On the FY11 landing page, there is a series of tabs across the top of the SBER data table. You may click those tabs to view the following citywide reports:

a.    By total dollars spent: Displays the expenditures for the entire school system by major functional category.  It is the sum total of all school expenditures, field and central offices expenditures, and pass-through funds not directly benefiting public school students.  The expenditures are categorized into five (5) major functions: Direct Services to Schools, Field Support Costs, System-wide Costs, System-wide Obligations, and Pass-Throughs, each of which is listed on the left side of the report along with sub-functions.  For each function and sub-function, the report shows (from left to right):

• Total amount spent; The percent of the total expenditures for each function (i.e., the amount for an individual function divided by the total expenditures);
• The percent of total public school expenditures represented by each function (i.e., the amount for an individual function divided by the amount listed as “Subtotal Public Schools”); and
•  The estimated dollars expended for each student (i.e., dollars expended divided by total enrollment shown at the top of the page).

Continuing to the right, the total amount expended is further broken down into Personal Services (PS), which includes salaries and fringe benefits, and Other Than Personal Services (OTPS).  The PS total is the sum of all personnel expenditures (including per session and per diem payments) plus fringe benefits and represents the total employee expenditures for each category.

b.    By student type: Estimated per capita expenditures on general education versus special education students. 

c.    By instructional level: Estimated per capita expenditures by school type (Elementary, Middle and High Schools, and Citywide Special Education/D75). 

d.     By DOE account: Estimated per capita expenditures by “spending authority.” “Spending authority” is the entity that controls the dollars being spent-schools versus central.[3]

e.    By funding source: Estimated per capita expenditures by fund type: city funds/state operating aid versus federal, state and other categorical (i.e., restricted) aid.

f.     By district: You may also view the same reports listed above summarized by district rather than functional categories. On the FY11 landing page, click “District/HS Overview” at the top of the page. You will now see the same series of tabs across the top of the SBER data table as you did for the citywide functional reports. You may click those tabs to view district summary reports.

3.    View district-specific reports: On the FY11 landing page, click “Downloads” at the top of the page. You may choose an individual district to view a detailed report of estimated per capita spending by functional category.