Reporting of Textbook Expenditures Ineligible for Textbook Aid
The New York State Comptroller's Office conducted an examination of Textbook Aid payments made by the New York State Education Department. The examination found that the sampled textbook expenditures claimed for Textbook Aid complied with Department Textbook Aid guidelines in all material respects. However, all of the examined districts had claimed some ineligible textbook expenses in some or all of the following areas:
- Teacher editions
- Testing materials
- Equipment/supplies/software
- Reference/library materials
- Periodicals without receipt of minimum 33.3% discount
- Materials in kit-form
- School agendas - daily planners
Therefore, it is requested that districts review their actual
and projected textbook expenditures reported to State Aid on the ST-3 at
items A2110.48, A2280.48 and A2330.48 and make any necessary revisions via
SAMS to exclude textbook expenditures that may have been improperly claimed
for Textbook Aid.
Note: For the five large city school districts, only expenditures
reported at A2110.48 and A2330.48 are used to calculate Textbook Aid.
Additional information regarding the textbook loan program, including the definition of eligible and non-eligible textbooks, may be found at State Aid website: http://stateaid.nysed.gov/tsl/html_docs/txtbk03.htm.
Additional References:
NYS Education Law Section § 701
Commissioner of Education Regulation § 21.2
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.