Sept 27 -- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Department of Education, invites comments by November 28, 2022 regarding the Common Core of Data (CCD) School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) 2022-2024.
NCES annually publishes comprehensive data on the finances of public elementary/secondary schools through the Common Core of Data (CCD). For numerous years, these data have been released at the state level through the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS) (OMB#1850-0067) and at the school district level through the Local Education Agency (School District) Finance Survey (F-33). (OMB#0607-0700). There is a significant demand for finance data at the school level. Policymakers, researchers, and the public have long voiced concerns about the equitable distribution of school funding within and across school districts. School-level finance data addresses the need for reliable and unbiased measures that can be utilized to compare how resources are distributed among schools within local districts. Education expenditure data are now available at the school level through the School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS).
The School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) data collection is conducted annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education (ED). In November of 2018, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved changes to the SLFS wherein variables have been added to make the SLFS directly analogous to the F-33 Survey and to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provisions on reporting expenditures per-pupil at the local education agency (LEA) and school-level. A previous package cleared in October 2021 approved data collection for FY 2021, 2022, and 2023 (OMB#1850-0930 v.3).
This request includes considerable modifications to the previous package and will allow NCES to conduct in 2023 through 2025 the SLFS for fiscal years 2022 through 2024 (corresponding to school years 2021/22 through 2023/24) and to continue the collection of data that is analogous to the current ESSA expenditures per pupil provision. As an important new addition that is part of this request, the Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) proposes to engage NCES to assist OCR with collecting school level finance data as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Pursuant to its authority under the DEOA, as well as its regulations, OCR has determined that the CRDC is necessary to ascertain or ensure compliance with the civil rights laws within its jurisdiction, and therefore established it as a mandatory collection.
Parts A and B of this submission present the justification for the information collection and an explanation of the statistical methods employed. Part C describes the SLFS instrument, Appendix A provides the SEA communication materials that will be used to conduct the SLFS data collection, Appendix B provides the SLFS data collection form and instructions, and Appendix C provides the survey of SEA's school-level finances fiscal data plan.
School Level Finance Survey (SLFS) Data
https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/data_slfs.asp
Draft survey instruments and technical documentation:
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/ED-2022-SCC-0120/document
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-20838
