Maine Educational Data Management System - Financial System (MEDMS Phase 3)

Submitted by Bill Hurwitch, Project Director, DOE

The Maine Education Data Management Financial System (MEDMS-FS) is scheduled to be completed by the end of December 2006. The system is designed to provide the data needed for the Essential Programs and Services (EPS) Funding Model, to meet the federal financial reporting requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) and to meet other federal and state reporting requirements. The MEDMS-FS will be used for the calculation of per pupil cost, for the calculation of operating cost, and calculation of EPS subsidy allocation for each public school unit.

The system establishes a means of electronically reporting financial data from local school financial systems to the Department of Education. It will reduce the number of financial reports that are submitted to the DOE, reduce the financial reporting workload, and provide a model chart of accounts so that the reporting of financial data is more detailed and consistent from one school unit to another.

MEDMS-FS is the first DOE system that utilizes the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) specification for data transfer. Schools without SIF compliant financial systems can upload data through secure HTTP or manually enter data through the web front end. MEDMS-FS is a Microsoft.NET application with a SQL Server 2005 back end. Reporting is provided through Microsoft Reporting Services.