During April 2016, SED sent its proposed rate methodology to the Division of Budget for approval. Yesterday, at the IAC conference in NY City, Suzanne Bolling announced that DOB approved the following methodology changes:
- School age programs would be receiving a 3.4% increase and preschool programs will be receiving a 2% increase (this is for both SCIS and self-contained)
- DOB approved $8 million for ETTP. The $8 million will be shared among pre-school and school-age programs based upon a weighted teacher FTE. Under the weighted FTE methodology, the regional school district salary will be utilized as a base. Any programs whose teacher’s compensation is at 75% of the base or greater will be weighted at 1, those with teacher compensation at 50% to 75% of the base will be weighted at 1.5, and those that are below 50% of the base will be weighted at 2. The weight factor will be multiplied by the number of teachers the program has. This will be divided by the number of weighted teachers statewide to determine the school’s share of the $8 million ETTP funds. SED will use the average of the 12/13, 13/14, and 14/15 years to determine the weighted FTE’s.
- The addition of a “higher of” provision, similar to what exists for school age, for preschool providers. Under the higher of provision, a provider’s reconciliation rate will be the greater of the prior year’s reconciled rate adjusted for that year’s rate methodology or the provider’s prospective rate. In calculating the prospective rate, it would be the greater of the two-year prior reconciled rate trended for the rate methodology to the current year or the prior year prospective rate trended for the rate methodology to the current year. For example, for the 2018/19 year, the final rate will be the greater of your 2017/18 reconciled rate trended forward (multiplied by 1.02) or your 2018/19 prospective rate. In calculating your 2019 prospective rate, SED will utilize your 2017 reconciled rate trended forward (which is the way they have historically developed prospective rates) or your 2018 prospective rate trended forward to 2019 (2018 prospective multiplied by 1.02 to account for the 2% trend factor).
- Finally, DOB accepted SED’s request to limit SCIS offsetting revenue to the actual revenue earned for the typically functioning children within the SCIS class.
If you have any questions, or need any clarification, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Kenneth R. Cerini, CPA, CFP, FABFA
Managing Partner
Ken is the Managing Partner of Cerini & Associates, LLP and is the executive responsible for the administration of our not-for-profit and educational provider practice groups. In addition to his extensive audit experience, Ken has been directly involved in providing consulting services for nonprofits and educational facilities of all sizes throughout New York State in such areas as cost reporting, financial analysis, Medicaid compliance, government audit representation, rate maximization, board training, budgeting and forecasting, and more.
