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July 2015

School District State Aid Designees
BOCES District Superintendents (For Information)

Andrea Hyary, Bureau Chief
Office of State Aid, STAC & Medicaid

Release of 2015-16 State Aid Management System (SAMS),
including the ST-3 Annual Financial Report

The ST-3 Annual Financial Report and State Aid Claim Form Sets A, FT and FB are due Wednesday September 2nd, 2015.

Important Changes for the 2015-16 SAMS Claim Year Reporting


Form Set A – Attendance

  • Moved Big 5/non-component computer administrative and occupational education expenses from Form FB entries 157a, 157b and 158 to Form A entries 88, 89 & 90.

Form Set FB – Building and Misc.

  • Added Form FB entries 138 and 139 for reporting Building Condition Survey Aid square footage and expenditure data.
  • Moved Big 5/non-component computer administrative and occupational education expenses from Form FB entries 157a, 157b and 158 to Form A entries 88, 89 & 90.
  • Added a new Form FB schedule for applying for assumed amortization interest rate reduction waivers.

Form Set FT – Transportation

  • Added Form FT Schedule I entries 22 and 22a for reporting BOCES Operation Contracts (Shared Services on District Operated Buses).

Form Set ST-3

Important Reminders

  1. If you issued debt between 7/1/14 and 6/30/15, for purchasing school buses, please complete and certify Form set F6 by September 1, 2015 even if none of your other SAMS forms are complete.
  2. Please check that all contact information on the SAMS entity screen is up-to-date, including extension numbers and email addresses.

Less than Eight Teacher Districts

If your district is currently classified as a "less than eight teacher" district but you anticipate the possibility of claiming State Aid and/or becoming a "major district" at any time in the near future you should begin submitting state aid claim forms now. This is because many aid calculations depend upon data from two to three prior years.

SAMS General Instructions & Passwords

SAMS can be accessed from the State Aid Web site at http://stateaid.nysed.gov or from the main New York State Education Department home page at http://www.nysed.gov (look for the Portal Login at the upper right of this page).

Districts should use SEDDAS (State Education Department Delegated Account System) to create, disable accounts or reset passwords. For procedures for a new superintendent's account/password go to http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/sedrefupdate.htm

For detailed SAMS operating instructions/training materials go to the SAMS Information Tab on the State Aid web site. The SAMS Training Manual, Frequently Asked Questions about SAMS, "Introduction to State Aid Management System" slide show and other important tips for working in SAMS can be found there.

Certification Requirements

An electronic certification forms for each form set must be completed by the Superintendent to submit State Aid claim forms. By certifying a form set, the Superintendent’s action constitutes his or her official submission of that data to SED. The electronic signature is the legal equivalent of a handwritten signature. The Office of the State Comptroller also requires the ST-3 Annual Financial Report certification page to be completed and mailed to the address shown below. Please do not send this form to the Education Department. This form should be signed by the treasurer and returned to the Office of the State Comptroller at the following address:

State of New York
Office of the State Comptroller
Division of Municipal Affairs
Albany, NY 12236
Attn: Anthony J. Dolan

Timely Submission of Claim Data: INITIAL CERTIFIED SUBMISSION

  • All SAMS Form Sets must be certified by September 2nd. District superintendents and public school superintendents are requested to supervise the completion and timely submission of the aid claim and projections by the school districts for which each is responsible. Since late filing of required forms will delay payment of State Aid, every effort should be made to meet the specified due date.

  • Payments can take a week to prepare and are required to be submitted to the Office of the State Comptroller two weeks prior to the mandated payment date. Therefore, claims should be submitted three weeks prior to a mandated payment date (e.g., claim data must be submitted by September 24th for a payment to be made on or before October 15th in order to ensure that the payment due will be received in October).

  • If all required reports are not received by September 2nd, the school district will receive automated reminders that State Aid apportionments payable to the school district, other than payments to the Teachers Retirement System on the district's behalf, will be withheld pursuant to Section 3604(11) of the Education Law pending receipt of all reports due. Automated reminders will be sent to the State Aid Designee first. Subsequent reminders will also include the school superintendent, the district superintendent, and the president of the board of education.

  • Please do not wait for completion of your independent audit in order to submit your ST-3 and other claim forms! All form sets can be submitted separately and all data can be revised multiple times after submission.

Timely Submission of Claim Data: REVISIONS AFTER CERTIFICATION

Throughout the legislative cycle each year the Governor and the Legislature use districts and BOCES State Aid claims and projections to predict the fiscal impact of various legislative proposals affecting school aid formulas. The resulting predictions of fiscal impact are only as accurate as the data that has been filed with the Education Department.

School districts and BOCES should review and revise SAMS data as necessary. Review should be timed to be consistent with Section 305(21)(b) of the Education Law which requires the Commissioner of Education to update that data used by the Governor and the Legislature on November 15, February 15 and May 15. In order for the Education Department to process all data revisions and corrections prior to each of these data updates, revisions and corrections should be submitted no later than the following specified dates.

Table of Dates for Electronic Data File Updates
Date of Electronic Data File Update for the Governor and Legislature Principal Purpose of the
Data File 		Revisions in the Education Department by:
November 15 Executive Budget Proposal November 1 *
February 15 Budget Negotiations and Enacted Budget January 15

May 15		 Updated Enacted Budget projections and June current year aid payments.
April 15

*This is a deadline for revisions to already submitted claims, not the deadline for original submission, which is Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015. In addition, due to lengthier processing time, revisions to capital project costs, SA-139 forms and STAC data should be submitted by mid-October to affect the November 15th data file.

Submission of the Independent Audit Report

The report of the annual audit of the school district's records by an independent certified public accountant or an independent public accountant (Independent Audit Report) is due in the Department on October 15, 2015 for districts other than the five large dependent city school districts. Please note that upon receipt of the Independent Audit Report, the district must reconcile its financial reports and implement any audit recommendations. Any resulting revisions to the ST-3 or the State Aid forms must be submitted via SAMS to the State Education Department.

The Independent Audit Report should be sent to the following address or Electronic submission of financial statements to FSandA133@nysed.gov

New York State Education Department
Office of Audit Services
89 Washington Avenue, Room 524 EB
Albany, NY 12234

To verify that receipt of the independent audit has been logged into SAMS, select the "SED Only" form set from the menu, choose the Independent Audit Form and confirm that the date independent audit received has been entered by SED Audit Services.

CONTACTS FOR QUESTIONS
Questions Regarding Please Call or email
SAMS/SAMS Problems State Aid Office: (518) 474-2977
RSU Rate Setting Unit (518) 474-3227
CPSE STAC Unit (518) 474-7116
Login/User Id Help SEDDAS Help Desk (518) 473-8832
Other Questions State Aid Staff Assignments Functional Directory
State Aid Unit at (518) 474-2977

 

Last Updated: April 14, 2017