Summary

Summary of Examination Report

Except for the instances of material noncompliance involving Limited English Proficient (LEP), Exceptional and Vocational students, and student transportation, as discussed in the following two paragraphs, the Escambia County District School Board complied, in all material respects, with the requirements of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) regarding the determination and reporting of full-time equivalent (FTE) students and the number of students transported for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003.

• We noted exceptions involving 23 of the 80 students in our ESOL student sample; 75 of the 325 students in our Exceptional student sample for ESE Support Levels 4 and 5; and 18 of the 56 students in our Vocational student sample.  These exceptions included reporting errors and records that were not properly and accurately prepared or were missing and could not be located.

• Our examination procedures for student transportation disclosed instances of material noncompliance with the District’s reported student ridership data.  The District’s reported number of students transported was overstated by 2,186 students due to various data compilation errors, and 114 of the 789 students in our detailed student sample had exceptions involving either their reported ridership category or their reported term length, or both.  The net impact of the reporting overstatement and sample student exceptions was a negative 2,239 students.

Total instances of noncompliance related to FTE resulted in 47 findings affecting 25 of the District’s schools.  The resulting audit adjustments to the District's reported, unweighted FTE totaled to a negative 15.6455, but have a potential impact on the District's weighted FTE of a negative 76.4894.  Total instances of noncompliance related to student transportation resulted in 11 findings and a net audit adjustment to the District’s reported student ridership of a negative 2,239 students.

Weighted FTE adjustments are presented in our report for illustrative purposes only; they do not take special program caps and allocation factors into account and are not intended to indicate the weighted FTE used to compute the dollar value of audit adjustments, which is the responsibility of the Department of Education (DOE).

However, after consideration is given to the caution expressed in the above paragraph, the gross dollar effect of our FTE audit adjustments may be roughly estimated by multiplying the net weighted FTE audit adjustment by the base student allocation amount.  For the Escambia County District School Board, the gross dollar effect is a negative $270,551 (negative 76.4894 times $3,537.11).  We have not presented an estimate of the potential dollar effect of our student transportation audit adjustments because there is no equivalent method for making such an estimate.  The ultimate resolution of our FTE and student transportation audit adjustments and the computation of their financial impact is the responsibility of the Department of Education.

Escambia County District School Board

The Escambia County District School Board was established pursuant to Section 1001.30, Florida Statutes, to provide public educational services for the residents of Escambia County.  Those services are provided primarily to students attending kindergarten through high school, but also to adults seeking vocational-type training.  The District is part of the State system of public education under the general direction and control of the State Board of Education.  The geographic boundaries of the District are those of Escambia County.  The governing body of the District is the District School Board, which is composed of five elected members.  The executive officer of the Board is the elected Superintendent of Schools. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, the District operated 80 schools, reported 42,943.01 unweighted, full-time equivalent (FTE) students, and received approximately $131.4 million in State FEFP funding for those FTE.

Florida Education Finance Program

Florida school districts receive State funding through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP), which was established by the Florida Legislature in 1973.  It is the intent of the law "to guarantee to each student in the Florida public school system the availability of programs and services appropriate to his educational needs which are substantially equal to those available to any similar student notwithstanding geographic differences and varying local economic factors."  To provide equalization of educational opportunity in Florida, the FEFP formula recognizes (1) varying local property tax bases, (2) varying program cost factors, (3) district cost differentials, and (4) differences in per student cost for equivalent educational programs due to sparsity and dispersion of student population.  The funding provided by FEFP is based upon the numbers of individual students participating in particular educational programs.  A numerical value is assigned to each student according to the student's hours and days of attendance in those programs.  The individual student thus becomes equated to a numerical value known as an unweighted FTE (full-time equivalent student).  For example, one student would be reported as one FTE if the student was enrolled in six classes per day at 50 minutes per class for the full 180-day school year (i.e., six classes at 50 minutes each per day is five hours of class a day or 25 hours per week, which equals one FTE).

Student Transportation

Any student who is transported by the District must meet one or more of the following conditions in order to be eligible for funding under FEFP:  live two or more miles from school, be physically handicapped, be a Vocational or Exceptional student who is transported from one school center to another where appropriate programs are provided, or meet the criteria for hazardous walking specified in Section 1006.23, Florida Statutes.  The District received approximately $11.2 million in State FEFP transportation funding.

The Superintendent's written response to the audit findings is included in audit report No. 2004-188.