____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
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John L. Winn
Commissioner of Education
F. PHILIP HANDY,
Chairman
T. WILLARD FAIR,
Vice Chairman
Members
DONNA G. CALLAWAY
JULIA L. JOHNSON
ROBERTO MARTÍNEZ
PHOEBE RAULERSON
LINDA K. TAYLOR
March 2, 2005
INCREASING THE QUANTITY AND IMPROVING THE
QUALITY OF EDUCATION OPTIONS
M E M O R A N D U M
TO:
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District Superintendents
FROM:
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Lavan Dukes, Chief
Bureau of Education Information and Accountability Services
Paulette Mainwood, Interim Executive Director
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Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice
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SUBJECT:
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Enrollment Verification of McKay and Opportunity Scholarship Students
The Department of Education is working to improve the accountability measures within the scholarship
programs in support of our mission to increase the
options for Florida’s parents. A new verification process has been added to ensure that scholarship
payments are issued only to students participating in eligible private schools. School districts will play a
key role in this process.
Prior to each payment period, a file will be posted at the Northwest Regional Data Center (NWRDC)
identifying the students in your district for whom scholarship payments will be issued. Please compare
this file to your student enrollment and attendance records and indicate whether or not each student is
enrolled in a public school in your district. If the student is enrolled in a public school, provide the date
the student was enrolled or re-enrolled in your district. If the student is not in a public school in your
district, provide the student’s withdrawal date.
The file for April 1 scholarship payments will be available March 7, 2005, and will use the attached
format and filename. This file must be completed and returned to NWRDC no later than 4:00 p.m.,
Friday, March 11, 2005. The attached form letter, which certifies the attendance/nonattendance
information contained in the submitted file, must be signed by the superintendent or designee and
submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. March 11, 2005.
PAULETTE MAINWOOD PH.D.
Interim Executive Director
Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice
325 W. GAINES STREET • SUITE 522 • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0502 • Fax (850) 245-0875
District Superintendents
March 2, 2005
Page 2
Any students identified as being enrolled in public school will be removed from the payment file, unless
the student has been in attendance at a private school for at least 10 days during the payment period. The
April scholarship payment period covers March 1 – June 30, 2005.
If you have any questions regarding the file, please contact Harold McLeod, Education Information
Services at (850) 245-0400 or harold.mcleod@fldoe.org. If you have questions regarding scholarship
payments or payment periods, please contact the information hotline at 1-800-447-1636.
Thank you for your continued support in improving the accountability of the scholarship programs.
LD/jm
c:
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District Scholarship Contacts
District MIS Contacts
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DISTRICT CERTIFICATION FOR APRIL 1, 2005 SCHOLARSHIP PAYMENTS
ATTENTION: MIKE CARPENTER Due Date: March 11, 2005
Fax Number: (850) 245-0875
Suncom: 205-0875
Date: _______________
Mr. Mike Carpenter
Florida Department of Education
Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice
325 W. Gaines Street, Room 522
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400
Dear Mr. Carpenter:
This letter certifies the attendance/nonattendance of students in file DPSxx.GQ.F70572.Y04053
for students identified as eligible for the April McKay/OSP scholarship payments for
_______________ County School District.
Sincerely,
Signature of Superintendent or Designee
John M. McKay and Opportunity Scholarship Programs
District Enrollment Verification Instructions
For April 1, 2005 Payments
The list of students in your district for whom McKay and/or Opportunity
Scholarship payments will be issued for April 1, 2005 will be available for
download at North West Regional Data Center (NWRDC) beginning
March 7,
2005
. The dataset name is DPSxx.GQ.F70562.Y04053 (where xx is your district
number), and it includes both McKay and Opportunity Scholarship participants if
your district is participating in the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Students
participating in the McKay Scholarship Program have a school code of 3518.
Students participating in the Opportunity Scholarship Program have a school
code of 3818. The file is in the following format:
Column 1
District Number
(2)
Column 2
District Name
(12)
Column 3
Private School Number
(4)
Column 4
Private School Name
(43)
Column 5
Student Identification Number
(10)
Column 6
Student Last Name
(17)
Column 7
Student First Name
(12)
Column 8
Grade Level
(2)
Column 9
Program Level I
(3)
Column 10
Hours
(4)
Column 11
FTE
(2)
Column 12
Program Level II
(3)
Column 13
Hours
(4)
Column 14
FTE
(2)
Column 15
Record Id
(6)
Column 16
School Code
(4)
Column 17 Enrollment/Re-enrollment Date (8)
Column 18 Withdrawal Date
(8)
For each student who is enrolled in a public school in your district, please enter
the student’s enrollment or re-enrollment date as MMDDYYYY. For each student
who is not enrolled in a public school in your district, please enter the student’s
withdrawal date as MMDDYYYY. Each student record should have either an
enrollment/re-enrollment date or a withdrawal date. After all dates have been
entered, submit the file to NWRDC under the filename
DPSxx.GQ.F70572.Y04053 (where xx is your district number).
This file must be submitted to NWRDC
no later than 4:00 p.m., March 11, 2005.
If you have questions regarding this file, please contact Harold McLeod,
Education Information Services at 850-245-0400 or harold.mcleod@fldoe.org.
Questions regarding scholarship payments or payment periods should be
directed to the information hotline at 1-800-447-1636
.
