____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
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
INCREASING THE QUANTITY AND IMPROVING THE
August 2, 2005
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
Virginia Gentles, 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
Welcome to the 2005-06 school year. We look forward to working with you to improve the
accountability measures within the scholarship programs in support of our mission to increase the
quantity and improve the quality of educational options for Florida’s parents. The following verification
process was introduced in April 2005 to ensure that scholarship payments were issued only to students
participating in eligible private schools. This process will occur for each scholarship payment in the
McKay and Opportunity Scholarship Programs, and your assistance is needed to make this happen.
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 September 1 scholarship payments will be available August 8, 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, August 19, 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. August 19, 2005.
VIRGINIA GENTLES
Executive Director
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Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice
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325 W. GAINES STREET • SUITE 522 • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0502 • Fax (850) 245-0875
District Superintendents
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
September scholarship payment period covers July 1 – September 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.
________________________________________
DISTRICT CERTIFICATION FOR SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 SCHOLARSHIP PAYMENTS
ATTENTION: MIKE CARPENTER
Due Date: August 19, 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
Florida Department of Education
John M. McKay and Opportunity Scholarship Programs
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District Enrollment Verification Instructions
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For September 1, 2005 Payments
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The list of students in your district for whom McKay and/or Opportunity Scholarship
payments will be issued for September 1, 2005 will be available for download at
North West Regional Data Center (NWRDC) beginning
August 8, 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., August 19, 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
.
