Hello, this presentation is
about our new online claim form
for high cost special education.
My name is Roselynn Bittorf and
I'm a consultant on the School
Financial Services team, mainly working
with the special education aids.
There are three categories of cost,
the first being Child Specific,
second, Program cost and lastly
Specified Services cost.
What is a child specific cost?
These are costs of salary and
fringe benefits, purchase services,
placement, transportation, supplies,
depreciation and extended school
year that are particular to a child.
Program costs are salary and fringe benefits,
purchase services,
transportation, supplies and depreciation
that are particular to a program.
A program is a set of special education
and related services for the child
and other children identified with
the same disability related needs.
Some examples include cross
categorical instruction,
transition services,
and early childhood special education.
But the applicant could also identify other
sets of services such as speech and language,
or specialized transportation or
other types of IEP driven programs
the LEA provides.
Specified service costs include
salary and fringe benefits,
purchase services and supplies for
the provision of specified services,
which are nursing, social work,
psychology guidance counseling,
speech and language pathology,
and audiology.
This data is pulled from your PI-1505-SE.
So getting started, to access your high
cost special education claim form,
you need to sign into the Wisconsin
School Finance Portal (WiSFiP) using
either your WAMS ID or Google password.
Select the High Cost Special
Education report.
This should bring you directly to
the home tab of the application.
Make sure to select the 2020-2021
year from the dropdown.
The application process begins
with identifying your high cost
special education students.
You should have some idea who these
students are as you can quickly
identify costs like tuition,
1:1 aid,
special transportation arrangements,
or need special equipment.
Select the student tab at the top
and select add new student option.
You will need the students WISE id
for your entries as the application
is linked to WISEdata.
Once you enter a student WISE id
the application will populate
with the students name.
You will also need to identify
the Medicaid revenue and/or open
enrollment statement revenue if
your district used the actual
cost open enrollment option.
If your district shows the
basic open enrollment option,
you do not have to report that amount.
There's more detail under the
Student tab but first we will
continue reviewing the other tabs.
And we will return to the Student tab later.
Next,
navigate to the Program tab to
identify the programs your high
cost students participate in by
selecting Add New Program option.
When you select Add New Program option,
it asks you to identify if you're
adding Instruction/Support Services,
program or Transportation.
In this example,
I am adding Instruction/Support Services.
Make sure your program title
is something meaningful as you
will need to reference it later
when you link the student to it.
In this example I used the word Westside,
but you could also have used
SL1 or by teachers last name,
anything that would have meaning to you.
The program description field is optional.
In addition, on the screen is where
you identify the unit of service
for the program: caseload, days,
minutes, or periods. I'm going to pause
a minute here as there is always
questions about unit of service.
There are four units of service
to choose from minutes,
which is most appropriate for
programs where IEP's usually specify
the amount of service in minutes,
such as speech & language and OT or PT.
Periods, which is most appropriate
for programs delivered in a self
contained classrooms, such as
transition or cross categorical class.
Days is most appropriate when the program
isn't varied from one IEP to another,
like specialized transportation service.
And caseload, which simply allocates
cost evenly by student. With caseload
beyond identifying the cost,
the only other program questions
are the number of students served
and the total days of instruction.
Based on the unit of service you choose,
you get different follow up questions.
In this example, I am choosing minutes
which prompts the following questions.
I am also adding transportation.
When you select transportation,
a unit of service will default to "days".
You can see on our program tab
we have two programs entered.
Note the arrow expands the program
to identify cost by selecting
the Add Program Specific cost,
I can enter specific costs for the program,
such as salary/benefits or supplies.
I can also select the Add Program
Specific Equipment here or add it
when I get to the Equipment tab.
By selecting the Add Program
Specific Cost option,
I can add costs for the program.
Here I am entering salary/benefits for
one of the instructors in the program.
You will need the instructors license
EFN and name as the application is not
yet linked to WISEstaff. A future upgrade
to this online application will be a
connection with WISEstaff verifying staff
license and assignment in real time.
The Cost Description is an optional field,
but if there is detail you can add
here that is meaningful to you,
you may want to consider doing it.
Earlier when I identified this program,
I identified two instructors with the program.
So now I am and identifying
the second instructor.
You can see what costs are entered
for the speech/language program.
You can also see why completing the
Cost Description field may be helpful.
Now you are going to complete the
cost for the Transportation program
we added. Again by expanding
the arrow and selecting the Add
Program Specific Cost option,
I am adding a cost for our
bus route for 20 students.
When you do enter Transportation,
the Cost Type ID defaults to Transportation
and the WUFAR code defaults to 256000.
The next tab is the Equipment tab.
The Equipment must have been purchased by
the applicant within the last five years
of the fiscal year being claimed and used
exclusively for special education services
during that time. A depreciated
amount equal to 20% of the purchase
cost is eligible to be claimed.
Equipment can be Child-Specific or Program as
you will always be asked to identify which
when entering the detail.
The applicant must provide a serial
number or VIN and purchase date.
The system now has checks in
place to verify equipment entries.
You can see here
I tried entering a total cost of
$4,000 and it alerts me that my entry
does not meet the $5,000 threshold.
In addition,
I tried entering a date older than
five years and the system alerts me
that is not a valid date.
The check is within five years
of the fiscal year being claimed.
For example, this year's fiscal year 22.
The application is collecting
costs for fiscal year 21,
which means an equipment purchase
can go as far back as July 1, 2016.
As an example, I am entering a
Child-Specific Equipment cost for a
changing table with a unit cost of
$8,000 and a purchase date of 2017.
But what if the item is less than $5,000;
does that mean it is not eligible
for high cost special education aid?
No, it means that it can be entered as
a supply for either the program or child
specific and must be current purchased
within the fiscal year being collected.
So this year, fiscal year 22,
we are collecting data from fiscal year 21.
If the supply purchase was in fiscal
year 21 to meet a student IEP,
it can be claimed.
Specified Services tab is calculating
daily rates for non-administrative
pupil service functions based on
expenditure data reported in your
agency's PI-1505-SE and enrollment
data from the WISEdata submission.
An applicant does not have
to do anything on this tab.
Before we move on to the Finalized tab,
we need to return to the Student tab
and link students to programs. Again by
clicking the arrow next to the student,
it expands the information.
When the individual student is expanded,
it looks like this.
Right now it shows all zeros because while
we have entered programs and equipment,
we have not yet linked anything
to the individual students.
By selecting a Link Student
to Program option,
you are able to link the individual
student to programs you have entered.
Here is why you want your
program title to be meaningful,
as that is what appears in the dropdown
when linking the student to the program.
In this example,
if you had entered speech & language for
every speech & language program,
it makes connecting the right
student to the right speech &
language program later challenging.
Also note you could have added a
new program from this screen too.
When I identify that I am linking
the student to the speech/language
Westside program,
it automatically defaults to minutes as
the program was entered, and the follow
up questions are pretty straightforward;
asking the number of days the student
was served by the program and number
of minutes per day student attends.
So how did I come to 108
days for this student?
For example,
I decided to have the student attend the
speech and language class three times a week.
I earlier identified the speech and language
program operated for the year, 180 days
which translates to 36 weeks.
Therefore,
if the student attended three times a week
for the year 3 x 36 weeks is 108 days.
This would mean that if the
student only attended one semester
of the program three times a week,
the number of days the student
is served is 54.
Next I'm going to link the student
to the Westside Bus program
we entered. Again, it defaults to Unit
of Service identified with this program,
which was days and a follow-up
question is straightforward,
simply asking number of days the student
was served by the program or rides the bus.
While the bus route we entered ran all year,
the student you are identifying may
or may not have rode every day.
As you may recall,
we entered 20 students on the bus.
You could be linking multiple students
on this claim to the same bus route.
Some may have rode all year,
others may have rode half a year,
or some may ride only two
or three days per week.
Now let's add something child-specific by
selecting the Add Child-Specific Cost option,
it brings up the fields to enter
a child specific cost.
In this example,
I have entered a 1:1 program aid.
Child specific means exactly that,
it is without a doubt only a child
specific cost for this student.
By entering this program aid
as child specific,
I am saying the aide, S. Hope only serves
this student and that this student
is not served by a group of aides,
but only S. Hope.
If the student was served
by two program aides,
maybe one in the morning
and one in the afternoon,
then it should be entered as a program,
perhaps titled "Aid Program" with two
aides identified and two salary/
benefits entered for the program.
This will be strictly enforced this year.
We do not want LEA's entering
everything is child specific and deciding
how much they think student one uses
speech & language versus student two.
It should be entered as a program,
linking both student one and student
two to it and determining the days,
periods, minutes
each student uses of the program
based on their IEP's.
Next we will link equipment to
the student by selecting the
Add Child-Specific Equipment.
Recall earlier we added a changing
table under the Equipment tab,
so that is the only piece of equipment
that shows as the option from the dropdown.
If we had added other equipment on
the Equipment tab, those options
would also appear in this dropdown.
You can also see I can add equipment
from this screen as well.
You can see here when I select
the changing table it gives me the
automatic 20% depreciation amount.
The changing table total
was $8,000 and 20% is $1,600.
Now here is the expanded
data for this student.
We have our child-specific
cost of the 1:1 aide,
the speech & language program
and the specialized bus route
and the changing table.
At the top
we have a student cost summary for
each cost bucket, as well as an
overall total for this student.
When you have completed entering
all of your data,
you move to the Finalized tab.
Your Finalized screen will include
your student's name and other personal
information that I have intentionally
removed from the screenshot here.
Here you can see the Specified
Services getting pulled into the cost.
The student we have entered together
is giving an aid eligibility of
$34,134.46. This does not mean this is
what will be received for this student.
It means if DPI is able to pay at the maximum
90% rate the LEA could receive that.
However with special education costs
increasing, DPI has not been able to
pay at the 90% rate for a few years.
And I'm going to take a few slides
here to explain the calculation as
it seems to be an area of confusion.
Applicants are eligible for additional
aid if the applicant incurred in
the previous school year more than
$30,000 of non-administrative costs for
providing special education and related
services to a child and those costs
were not eligible for reimbursement
from other sources of revenue received.
So what are these student
deductible revenues?
Cost reimbursed under the state
special Education and school
aged Parents aid program;
the federal Individual with Disabilities
Education Act or other grant programs;
Federal Medicaid or revenue from an open
enrollment transfer based on exact costs
of special education and related services.
So, as previously stated,
for student to be eligible,
the applicant must have spent more
than $30,000 of non-administrative
costs for providing special education
and related services to a child.
But your revenues count towards
meeting that $30,000. If your
revenues are less than $30,000,
the difference is made up by pulling
it out of your eligible cost.
If the revenues are more than $30,000,
the total amount of revenues
must be deducted out,
and the aid eligibility is based
on 90% of the eligible cost.
So going back to our student
that we enter together,
you see the deductible revenues total
$21,999.36. Since the students
revenue did not total $30,000,
we need to meet that $30,000
by pulling the difference out
of the eligible cost which is
$8,000.64. The amount left is
$37,927.18 but state statute states only
90% of that is eligible for aid, and you
see that we get to the eligible amount of
$34,134.46, if DPI is able
to pay at that maximum made rate.
There is never a guarantee with
sum-certain appropriations.
Like the special education categorical aid,
we cannot pay more than what is allocated
for the high cost special education program.
Returning back to your finalizing your
high cost special education claim.
If you are satisfied with your data,
you can proceed to submit your claim.
The next part of the Finalized tab is
comparing your claim to your PI-1505-SE data.
Your claim can match or be lower
than your SE by function.
For example, you cannot claim private
tuition on your high cost special
education claim form when you have
nothing coded to function 436000 in
your PI-1505-SE or claim a 1:1
program made for $50,000 when you have
only $25,000 coded to function
159000 in your PI-1505-SE
These will be clear disconnects
to what you are reporting.
No high cost special education claim can
be submitted with these errors. Highlighted
orange disconnects like you see here will
prevent you from submitting your claim.
I hope you found walking through the high
cost special education claim form helpful.
Please contact me if you have any questions
or concerns as you work through the form.