With any State instruction, clarification is needed, so it should come as no surprise that the minimum instruction requirement for State Aid is still being discussed. Let’s address the clarification requested during the public comment period following the April 2018 proposed amendments (see our synopsis in Lesson Plan Vol. 18):
- The amount of instructional time that can be credited for superintendent’s conference days.
The number of hours that can be credited toward annual instruction time for superintendent’s conference days will be based on the average scheduled school day including time spent in homeroom, lunch, recess, and/or passing time. This means that if your district has a bell schedule longer than 5 hours at the elementary level and 5.5 hours at the secondary level, you could receive more instructional time credit on superintendent’s conference days.
- The State Aid calculations for districts that are deficient in the number of instructional hours provided.
Based on the revised Section 175.5, effective August 11, 2018, “in the event that a school district has a total deficiency in hours that equals a fraction of hours per day…such deficiency shall be rounded up to the next whole day” for State Aid deduction purposes.
- The amount of instructional time that can be claimed during a Regents or Rating day.
Based on NYSED’s Instructions for Using the 2018-2019 School Year Model Calendar, a district can “claim the greater of [its] regular instructional day or six hours.” In addition, based on conversations with NYSED and the proposed changes in how minimum instruction time is being interpreted and calculated, days on which instructional time is provided will count as session days so long as some amount of instructional time is provided, including the last day of school.
Just a Reminder:
- Lunch, recess, and passing time should be excluded from the hours counted toward “actual instructional or supervised study.”
- All proposed regulations and amendments will be in effect for school years beginning with 2018-2019 and the existing regulation will still apply for the 2017-18 school year calendars.
All proposed amendments were adopted as a permanent rule at the September 2018 Board of Regents meeting.
=This article was also featured in our newsletter The Lesson Plan Vol. 19
Written by Nicholle Mezier, CPA, MBA. If you would like to learn more about this topic, please contact:

Shari Diamond, CIA
Partner
Shari has been with Cerini & Associates, LLP since 2008 where she works primarily with the firm’s school district clients providing internal audit and claims audit services. She has over twenty years’ experience performing internal audits, risk assessments, and compliance reviews, as well as recommending processes to strengthen the internal controls environment while increasing efficiencies. Her prior experience at PWC and Northrop Grumman included performing Information Technology audits.