BOR #1 Initial Allocations 2001-2002, Section I

Absent an Adopted State Budget, the Part 154 appropriation presented in this section is based on the Governor's proposed budget. His proposal reduces our Part 154 aid by $4.5 million. The distribution of Part 154 resources appears in the Spending Plan, Table I:1.

Community School Districts

Beginning in FY'90, the State Legislature mandated that program plans, budgets and expenditures of funds under Part 154 be reported separately for individual districts and for the High Schools. In FY'91, SED further required that this information be maintained for individual schools.

Part 154, Bilingual Aid is used to provide mandated services to Limited English Proficient (LEP) children, i.e., pupils scoring at or below the 40th percentile on the Language Assessment Battery (LAB) test. In the community school districts, some of these services are provided through the Module 2 formula allocation. Additional services are funded via the per capita allocation, which is $86 per LEP entitled pupil. In order to respond to reporting requirements, it is necessary to segregate the portion of the tax levy allocation that is supported by Part 154 appropriations and transfer those amounts into the reimbursable budget.

The Module 2 allocation will be adjusted by prorating a portion of the Part 154 aid according to the number of base teachers generated by LEP pupils. The base teacher count appears in the LEP Basic/Transitional Program calculations (see Section H) PCEN Allocations.

The entire $86 per capita of the LEP Basic/Transitional Program allocation is funded by Part 154 aid (see Section H).

The teacher and per capita amounts pertain to salary costs. Consequently, reimbursable roll-ups -- health, welfare, FICA, unemployment insurance, pension, sabbatical leaves, early retirement, termination pay and pension assessment, retiree health and welfare, and indirect costs -- need to be added.

Table I:2 shows each district's Part 154 amount. Funds listed in Column 4, "Module 2 Part 154 Amount," are subtracted from the district's Module 2 allocation (see Section B Module 2 Instructional Services). The per capita amount is in Column 5. Reimbursable roll-ups on the Module 2 and per capita amounts are displayed in Column 6. The total amount of Part 154 Bilingual Aid that should appear in the district's grant appears in the last column, Column 7.

Two grant numbers have been established for scheduling Part 154 funds:

Grant No. 28480, for teacher resources identified on Table I:2, Column 4.

Grant No. 28481, for the supplemental per capita identified on Table I:2, Column 5..

Roll-ups listed in Column 6 of Table I:2 are to be scheduled in both grants. Teacher positions should be budgeted at the district's average teacher salary. Since bilingual teachers tend to have less time in the school system, accruals may be generated on the teacher lines. For expenditure analysis, the accrual resulting from differences between actual salary and average teacher salary will be applied to the tax levy budget (where a shortage equivalent to the accrual should be). As a consequence, districts may not have use of accruals resulting from differences between actual and average teacher salary. Additionally, funds identified for teacher salaries (Table I:2, Column 4) must be scheduled on the teacher line and may not be modified.

Part 154 program accruals on non-teacher lines may be used by the district to provide additional LEP support consistent with their proposal. BOR Circular No. 1. 2001-02, "Cost Factors for FY 2002 for All Reimbursable Programs," should be consulted for grant numbers and rates. Budget scheduling procedures are found in the "District Schedulization" circular, to be issued shortly.

High Schools

Part 154 LEP aid is provided to support the educational needs of pupils identified as English Language Learners (ELL). These pupils score at or below the 40th percentile on the Language Assessment Battery (LAB) test. High school Part 154 allocations are displayed on Table I:3.