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September 2018

District Superintendents of BOCES
BOCES State Aid Designees

Office of State Aid


Release of 2018-19 BOCES State Aid Management System (SAMS)



SAMS BOCES Aid Claim is due Monday October 1st, 2018

SAMS Changes for 2018-19 Claim Year Reporting

  1. New Schedules in SAMS
    1. Schedule 5 – Collects all the information from the 700 level PSNs including Operations and Maintenance on the SA-111.
    2. Schedule 8 – Collects all the information that is recorded in the Special Aid Fund (PSN level 800 – 999) for expenditure and revenues
  2. New Facility Form Set – This will increase the transparency of the Capital and Rent expenditure claims, not only for NYSED but also for BOCES, giving us the ability to have comments completed by project/lease, but with the communication recorded in the SAMS system.
    1. SA-109 – Collects the aidable Capital Project Expense by Project for the aid claim.
    2. SA-116a – Collects the aidable Rental Expenses by Lease.
  3. New EPE Expenditure Form Set – This will create a streamlined process for the EPE expenditure check with the verification occurring in the SAMs system rather than a paper process.

Important Reporting Instructions & Reminders

  1. Pursuant to NYS General Municipal Law 6-p (11), NYS Education Law 1950 (5), and previous SED direction to impacted BOCES, excess OPEB funds returned to school districts by BOCES, where such funds generated BOCES Aid at the time they were originally collected, must be deducted from allocated expenses for current year BOCES Aid to avoid overpayment of State Aid.
  2. District expenses funded with Smart School Bond Act (SSBA) funds are not BOCES aidable. BOCES should include any component expenses funded by SSBA in the MISC_DED_REV_CMP data area, along with any other deductible grants/funds.
  3. District expenses for Pathways in Technology (P-TECH) – related services funded with P-TECH grant funds are not BOCES aidable. BOCES must ask all districts that purchased P-TECH - related services in 2016-17 and 2017-18, from their own or another BOCES, whether P-TECH grant funds supported some or all of those purchases. BOCES should include any component P-TECH grant amounts used to purchase P-TECH services in the MISC_DED_REV_CMP data area, along with any other deductible grants/funds. (P-TECH funds may be used to support the unreimbursed local share of BOCES costs. A local school district may pay BOCES tuition charged for a P-TECH grant out of district general fund expenditures in the first year, then the non-aided portion of the first tuition can be received in grant funds (during the period of the grant) in the following year.)
  4. District projected 2018-19 expenses to be funded with Community Schools Set-aside funds are BOCES aidable, as long as the expenses are for eligible community schools purposes, and supplement but not supplant the district’s previous community schools expenditures.

SAMS General Instructions & Passwords

BOCES 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 BOCES district superintendent's account/password go to http://www.p12.nysed.gov/sedrefupdate.htm

For detailed SAMS operating instructions/training materials go to the SAMS/Training Material Tab on the State Aid web site where you will find the BOCES SAMS Training Manual and MS PowerPoint presentations from past training sessions.

Certification Requirements

An electronic certification form must be completed by the BOCES District Superintendent to submit the BOCES State Aid claim via SAMS. By certifying the claim, 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. Please check well in advance of certification that the District Superintendent’s password has not expired.

Timely Submission of Claim Data: INITIAL CERTIFIED SUBMISSION

A complete BOCES SAMS State Aid claim must be certified by October 1st. Assistant Superintendent’s for Business and BOCES superintendents are requested to supervise the completion and timely submission of the aid claim and projections. Since late, incomplete and/or inaccurate submission will affect your components’ projections of BOCES Aid in the Executive budget proposal, every effort should be made to meet the specified due date and provide accurate and comprehensive data.

If all required reports are not received by October 1st, the BOCES will receive reminders that the aid claim is due. Reminders will be sent to the State Aid Designee first. Subsequent reminders will also include the BOCES district superintendent, and the president of the Board of Education.

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.

BOCES should review and revise SAMS data as necessary following initial certification, especially to update projected expense and deductions as additional contracts are added. 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 Monday, October 1st, 2018.

Please report problems and questions via email at BOCES@nysed.gov. This link is available on the top right of the SAMS screen. Please include your phone number and extension in the e-mail, and please list your 6-digit BOCES code at the beginning of the subject line. Or contact Ashley Weil at: 518-474-2977, ashley.weil@nysed.gov

Last Updated: August 29, 2019