Strategic Plan Guidance
BUDGET AND FINANCIAL PLANNING
Dedicating sufficient resources to implement a summer program with quality and fidelity is critical to its success. Careful resource planning and allocation can also ensure that the program is spending precious funds on the things that matter the most.
Key Findings from RAND
Approximately 20% of students who signed up for the program did not attend. Those who did show up attended approximately 75% of the summer program days.
Academic and enrichment instructors are the largest cost driver for the program, accounting for approximately 55% of the total program cost. District and site management account for approximately 25% of the total.
Planning Tips
Engage the finance team in the budgeting process.
Revisit and revise the program budget as plans solidify. Once costs are identified, teams can begin to test out options and plan for different scenarios.
Hire staff based on projected daily attendance rather than the initial number of enrollees.
Create cost efficiencies by partnering with community-based organizations for enrichment.
Best Practice: Engage the finance team in the budgeting process.
In the early fall, meet with your district’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or other business office staff
Discuss early budgetary considerations for operating an ADSY program
Lay out your LEA’s process and timeline for developing the budget
Gather information that will inform your program budget development. Consider the following questions:
What kinds of summer programs has your district offered in the past and what did they cost? How many and what grade students were served?
Will some or all of those programs be offered next summer? If not, will those resources be available to cover/help cover the costs of your summer program?
What other funding might be available to fill your funding gap?
Revisit and revise the program budget as plans solidify.
Best Practice: Create a timeline and process for developing the budget
Together with your CFO or other district business official(s), develop a timeline and process for developing and getting approval on the summer program budget. Some key questions to discuss include:
What is the school/district decision-making process regarding the summer budget?
Who in the district needs to approve the budget and when? What level of budget detail is needed and by when?
How would the CFO or other business office staff like to be involved in the summer program budget development process?
Who will be responsible for developing the line-item budget?
Planning Tips
November: estimate program costs and revenue. Work with your CFO to determine a rough estimate of the ADSY funding your LEA can expect to receive. Begin identifying funding to cover program costs that exceed expected ADSY funding.
December / January: review staffing and other plans to begin to develop your draft budget
February: review draft budget with CFO and financial team
March / April: review final budget with CFO and financial team
May - July: document budget and revenue actuals against the program budget
August: compare program actuals against budget to identify priorities for budget development
Best Practice: Develop a comprehensive program budget
Your budget is a translation of your program plan into dollars. It should accurately reflect all the decisions made about your program design and implementation.
Planning Tips
Budget only for the added costs of running the summer program. Costs that are already covered elsewhere in the LEA budget as part of running the regular school-year program should not be included here.
For example, principals may be supporting your summer programs. However, if the principals at your summer program sites are already 12-month employees, you would include costs for them only if you are providing them with additional pay for their summer duties. If not, you would not include any costs for them. Whether you need (or want) to provide additional pay/stipends are questions you may want to discuss with your HR department and/or CFO.
Hire staff based on projected daily attendance rather than the initial number of enrollees.
Create cost efficiencies by partnering with community-based organizations for enrichment.
ADSY Funding and Requirements
As a prerequisite for receiving ADSY Funding, all campuses attended by students participating in the ADSY summer program must have an ADSY approved calendar (currently 180 instructional days* and 75,600 minutes, not including staff development waivers).
The 180-day requirement applies only to campuses attended by students participating in an ADSY program.
LEAs can choose to have multiple calendars. For schools that do not serve any students participating in ADSY, the calendar can have fewer than the ADSY requirement for instructional days.
If the ADSY program is targeted to the subset of grades on a campus, the whole school must be on the ADSY approved calendar.
LEAs can choose to consolidate their ADSY programs so that the students from multiple schools attend the summer program at a single campus
In this case, student’s home campuses must have an approved instructional calendar that meets the ADSY requirement (currently 180 instructional days and 75,600 minutes)
Planning Tips
Four ways to add days to your Instructional Calendar:
Convert PD Days
Split days between PD & instructional time
Convert vacation days
Add instructional days
For LEAs in Cycles 1-3, TCLAS Decision 8C provides funding to help LEAs transition to or maintain 180 days.
LEAs must have a board approved 180-day calendar for their first and all subsequent years in ADSY PEP.
TEA encourages LEAs to have calendars approved by the school board each year by February.
Internal and external stakeholder engagement is critical as LEAs consider and plan for transition.
TEA strongly encourages districts to include two make-up days in their calendar for weather or safety-related closings.
Beginning in the 2023–2024 school year, participating campuses are eligible for up to five days of ADSY waivers for missed instructional days throughout the year due to weather, health, or safety reasons. More information about the ADSY waiver request through TEA can be found in the TEA 2023-2024 State Waivers Guidebook.
Resources
TCLAS Program Guidelines (Allowable Activities and Use of Funds, pg. 12-13)
ADSY Requirements and Funding Video (Fall 2022). For more information, review this 13 min video to ensure your program meets requirements for ADSY Funding
ADSY Requirement and Funding Slides
ADSY Funding Mechanisms
Identify Associated School Year: LEAs must choose whether to attach their ADSY summer program to the preceding or following school year for PEIMS reporting. Attached years must have an ADSY approved calendar (currently 180 instructional days and 75,600 minutes)
Understand Which Students Qualify for ADSY Funding: The associated school year determines which student cohorts qualify for funding.
Plan for Reporting and Settle Up: ADSY funding is based on average daily attendance (ADA). Disbursement timelines vary depending on the year to which a program is attached.
Biennial Attendance Projections Can Help Smooth ADSY Payments
As part of the biennial Legislative Planning Estimate (October 2022), LEAs had the opportunity to estimate their ADSY attendance so they could receive payment for ADSY throughout the school year.
ADSY attendance projections can be made again in October 2024.
Planning Tips
Daily attendance tracking is critical to ensuring that LEAs receive proper ADSY payment.
Attendance must be entered into the LEA student information system / PEIMs as part of the August PEIMS Extended Year submission for the associated school year in order to receive ADSY funds.
LEAs may need to do some prep work with your student information system vendor to make sure you are set up to report attendance for summer.
Resources
ASDY Funding Mechanisms Video (Fall 2022). For more information, review this 8 min video for guidance on ADSY funding mechanisms including reimbursement timing and biennial attendance projections.
ADSY Funding Mechanisms Slides
Accessing ADSY Funding: Reimbursement Timing and Mechanics
Funding and Sustaining an ADSY Summer Program
Infographic | Accessing ADSY Funding: Reimbursement Timing and Mechanics
fourpoint_illo_ADSY Funding.pdfInfographic | Funding and Sustaining an ADSY Summer Program
fourpoint_illo_ADSY Summer Program.pdf
