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ADMINISTRATIVE LETTER:  4
POLICY CODE:  JF 

 

TO:                 Superintendents of Schools

FROM:            Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

DATE:             September 15, 2006

RE:                 October 1st Resident Enrollment Reporting – MEDMS Student Information System

The October 1, 2006 enrollment for each school and school administrative unit will be collected through the MEDMS Student Information System.  Information on student enrollment from the MEDMS Student Information System will replace the EF-M-11 “October 1st Resident Enrollment Report (Public Schools)” and the EF-M-11E “Reimbursement for Students Enrolled in Equivalent Instruction Programs”.  The October 1st and April 1st Resident Enrollment and the Reimbursement for Students Enrolled in Equivalent Instruction Programs forms (EF-M-11, EF-M-12, EF-M-11E and the EF-M-12E) will no longer be collected.

Note:  Since October 1, 2006 falls on a Sunday, the official October 1st count will be as of October 2, 2006.  If a student has moved from your school administrative unit to another school administrative unit prior to October 2, 2006, the exit date should be the last day they are counted for attendance.

School administrative units must enroll students in the MEDMS Student Information System no later than October 15, 2006.  The MEDMS home page is available at:  http://www.maine.gov/education/medms/

The following information will be available on the MEDMS Student Information website: http://www.maine.gov/education/medms/studentinfolist.htm

  • Student Data Entry Completion
  • Data Fields to Complete Student Data
  • General Definitions Related to Student Enrollment Data
  • Dropout Reporting Instructions
  • Fiscal Responsibility
  • Foreign Exchange Student Information
  • Home School Education
  • State Agency Clients Information
  • Superintendents Agreement Information

Superintendents of schools may review the students that have been enrolled in the MEDMS Student Information System by logging into MEDMS from the MEDMS home page and implementing the following steps:

Step 1. Click on “MEDMS Log In”, type in Username and Password
Step 2. Under “Application”, select “Download Data” then click on “Go”
Step 3. Under “Action”, select “Student Enrollments” then click on “Go”
Step 4. Under “Select a File to Download”, you may choose either “All Attending Student Data” for an Excel file of your unit’s attending students or “Out of District Placement/Tuition Students” for an Excel file of your resident students that are attending other school administrative units or private schools.
Step 5. Under “Select School Year”, choose 2007 for the 2006-07 school year.

At this point a dialog box will appear on your screen with the question “Do you want to open or save this file?”  We recommend that you “save” this file to an appropriate place on your computer or network drive.
                       
In order for the school administrative unit to receive an “accurate” subsidy count, some of the key fields to be completed in MEDMS Student Information System are:

  • English Proficiency
  • Resident Town
  • Resident SAU
  • Attending SAU
  • School
  • Grade Level
  • School Lunch Eligibility
  • Fiscal Responsibility
  • Home School Education and SAU FTE %
  • Special Education
  • LEP (Limited English Proficient) Data
  • State Ward or State Agency Client

Assistance is available from the MEDMS Help Desk via email medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or by telephone at 624-6896.

For questions regarding student residency and enrollment, please email GPA.DOE@maine.gov

Information on Reporting Requirements for Publicly Funded Students that Attend Private Schools:
A recent letter to Private School Administrators (see link below) indicates that beginning with the October 1, 2006 enrollment count, private schools must report all “publicly funded students” in the MEDMS Student Information System.  Accurate reporting by the private schools of publicly funded students in the MEDMS Student Information System is key for accurate public school administrative units’ subsidy counts for these students in their future State subsidies.  Therefore, I encourage you to ensure that the private school has all the necessary information on each student for accurate reporting in the MEDMS Student Information System.

Public schools that contract with private schools should consider including in the contract a provision that the private school must report the unit’s publicly funded students in the MEDMS Student Information System.  Also, I must remind you that contracts with private schools must be approved by the Commissioner pursuant to 20-A MRSA Section 2703, subsection 1, paragraph E.

Note:  In order for a public school unit to pay public funds to a private school, a private school must be approved to receive public funds under 20-A MRSA Chapter 117, Subchapter 2.  Each school year these schools will be listed on the Department of Education’s Tuition Rates website at:
http://www.state.me.us/education/data/tuitionrates/tuitrate.htm
More information on the requirements for private school approval for the receipt of public funds is available at:
http://www.maine.gov/education/forms/misteam/efm240/efm240menu.htm

Link to letter to Private School Administrators