ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Fifty-seventh Legislature First Regular Session
	Senate: ED DPA 4-3-0-0 | 3rd Read 17-11-2-0

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SB 1625: school transparency portal; reporting; requirements

Sponsor: Senator Werner, LD 4

Committee on Education

Overview

Directs a school district or charter school to annually post on its website a copy of its general ledger for the previous fiscal year.

History

The Arizona Auditor General (OAG), in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Education, establishes the Uniform System of Financial Records (USFR) for all school districts to use each fiscal year. The USFR prescribes the minimum internal control policies and procedures to be used by school districts for accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, attendance reporting and other compliance requirements. Furthermore, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in conjunction with the OAG, must prescribe a budget format to be used by all school districts. Specifically, the school district budget format must contain distinct sections for maintenance and operation, debt service, special projects, capital outlay, adjacent ways and the Classroom Site Fund (CSF) (A.R.S. §§ 15-271 and 15-903) (USFR).

The charter of a charter school must ensure that it is subject to the same financial and electronic data submission requirements as a school district, including the USFR, procurement rules and audit requirements. The OAG must review and revise the USFR to ensure that the provisions of the USFR that relate to charter schools are in accordance with commonly accepted accounting principles used by private business (A.R.S. § 15-183).

Statute requires the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) to contract with a third party to create the School Financial Transparency Portal that contains the following school-level data for public schools: 1) detailed total revenues generated by weighted student count; 2) total allocated federal, state and local revenues; 3) allocation of CSF monies; 4) amounts allocated for teacher pay and benefits, classroom supplies, student support and other expenditures; 5) a comparison of funding information for each school in relation to the funding information for other schools in the same local education agency; and 6) any other information necessary for a transparent comparison between schools (A.R.S. § 15-747).

Provisions

1. Instructs each school district and charter school, by October 1 annually, to post on its website a copy of its previous fiscal year's general ledger, including receipts of revenues, expenditures and disbursements. (Sec. 1)

2. Requires the copy of the general ledger to list:

a) the manner of payment, including check, warrant or purchase card;

b) the funding source, including categorical codes and the accounts from which the expenditure is appropriated;

c) a description of the type and purpose of each transaction;

d) the date and amount of each payment; and

e) the name of the person or entity receiving the payment, including to the extent practicable a parent entity of the recipient if the recipient is owned by another entity. (Sec. 1)

3. Excludes, from the copy of a general ledger, specified confidential, individual or identifying data or information that is also prohibited from being included in the ADOA database of receipts and expenditures of state monies. (Sec. 1)

4. Makes technical and conforming changes. (Sec. 1)

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8.                   SB 1625

9. Initials CH/ML    Page 0 Education

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