Maine Department of Education - October 1st Enrollment Letter to Private Schools

TO: Private School Administrators

FROM: Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

DATE: September 18, 2006

RE: October 1st Resident Enrollment Reporting – MEDMS Student Information System and EF-M-13 Form

Beginning with the October 1, 2006 enrollment count, all private schools with publicly funded students must report all “publicly funded students” in the MEDMS Student Information System as well as complete the EF-M-13 October 1st Resident Enrollment report. This will be a parallel test to ensure accurate reporting. The private schools that receive publicly funded students must report these students in the MEDMS Student Information System in order for the public school administrative units to receive a subsidy count for these students in their future State subsidy. The State subsidy to a public school unit is often the source of funding that a school administrative unit uses to pay the tuition for these students to attend the private schools.

For most private schools, especially those that have small numbers of publicly funded students, reporting student information into the MEDMS Student Information System will be as simple as logging onto the MEDMS site and inserting the required student personal information (demographic data) and enrollment information (attending school). See attached copies of the MEDMS screens for Student Personal and Student Enrollment data entry.

For the “Town Academies” reporting student information into the MEDMS Student information System will be the same as last year – uploading data from the local Student Information System.

Student Personal Fields:

In many cases the student personal data, including the individual State student I.D. number, may already exist. If updating is required, changes can be made to the student personal data fields after entering the student first name, last name and state student I.D. in the search criteria. If the student is new and there is no previously entered student personal data, a new record must be created using the Add function. The required fields are shown on the attached example and include:

First Name
Last name
Date of Birth
Gender
Ethnicity
City / Town of Birth
English Proficiency
Native Language
State of Birth

Note: If City /Town of Birth and/or State of Birth is not known you may enter the town of residence for City/Town of Birth and Maine for State of Birth.

Student Enrollment Fields:

Student enrollment data will need to be entered for the current school year. Most but not all of the data fields are identical to those traditionally submitted to the Department on the EFM-13. The required fields are shown on the attached example and include:

Enrollment Type
Resident Town
Resident SAU
Attending SAU
School (Name of your private school)
Grade Level
School Entry Date
School Lunch Eligibility
Fiscal Responsibility

The following Program Data fields may require information from the student’s resident school administrative unit and superintendents have been notified to provide you the necessary information to insure that private schools have all the information on each student for accurate information in the MEDMS Student Information System:

Home School / Equivalent Instruction
Special Education
LEP (Limited English Proficiency) 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. Detailed step-by-step instructions are available from the MEDMS Online User Guide at https://www.medms.maine.gov/MEDMS/usermanual/unit6.htm.

Private schools that do not have any publicly funded students may complete only the EF-M-13 October 1st Resident Enrollment report but have the option to also enroll their non-publicly funded students in the MEDMS Student Information System.

For future reporting, the MEDMS Student Information System will replace the EF-M-13 “October 1st Resident Enrollment Report” and the EF-M-14 “April 1st Resident Enrollment Report”; after the October 1, 2006 count, the October 1st and April 1st Resident Enrollment “forms” (EF-M-13 and EF-M-14) 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. In the MEDMS Student Information System, if a student has moved from one 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. The private school must enter the student in the correct “resident” school administrative unit to ensure accurate subsidy counts.

A “publicly funded student” is defined as a Maine resident student whose educational cost (such as tuition) has been paid for by public funds from a public entity such as the following:

Municipal school unit
School administrative district
Community school district
Education in the Unorganized Territory
Maine Indian Education
State Funds from a State Agency such as the Maine Department of Education
Federal Funds from a State or Federal Agency

MEDMS Student Information System:

Private schools with publicly funded students must enroll “publicly funded 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

Private school 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”, select “All Attending Student Data” for an Excel file of your unit’s attending students.
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.

Superintendents will be able to review their “resident” students that have been enrolled in the MEDMS Student Information System by the private schools.

Private School – October 1st Resident Enrollment Report (EF-M-13):

The October 1st Resident Enrollment Report (EF-M-13) should be completed as of October 2, 2006 and returned no later than October 15, 2006 by email to GPA.DOE@maine.gov or faxed to (207) 624-6791 or mailed to the following:

MIS Team
Department of Education
23 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0023

These reports are also available for your completion from our website. The EF-M-13 is an MSOffice 95, Excel version 5.0 file that can be downloaded from the Department of Education’s Reporting Forms page at the following address:
http://www.maine.gov/education/forms/mis.htm#enroll

This site includes the report, completion instructions and the necessary definitions. If you have difficulty downloading these reports, please email GPA.DOE@maine.gov for assistance.

For those using the Microsoft Excel program, the formulas have been embedded in the reports to automatically calculate the sub-totals and totals. Supplemental pages providing additional space for certain items are included in the reports. These are clearly marked in the Excel workbook. If you need to use a supplemental page, please be sure to use the correct page for the appropriate section.
I encourage you to file the EF-M-13 report via the electronic Excel version of the report; this method improves speed and accuracy by performing many of the calculations for you.

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

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.maine.gov/education/data/tuitionrates/tuitrate.htm

More information on the requirements for a private school to be approved for the receipt of public funds is available at:
http://www.maine.gov/education/forms/misteam/efm240/efm240menu.htm

cc: Superintendents of Schools