Florida Teachers Classroom Supply Assistance Program Overview (Formerly Teacher Lead) Board Workshop, Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Transcription

1 Florida Teachers Classroom Supply Assistance Program Overview (Formerly Teacher Lead) Board Workshop, Tuesday, October 11, 2016

2 History of Program F.S The Teacher Lead Program Stipend, was created in 1997, to provide reimbursement to certified, full-time, K-12 classroom teachers, media specialists, and guidance counselors to provide reimbursement to teachers for purchases of classroom material and supplies. Eligible teachers must sign an affidavit acknowledging receipts of the funds and agreeing to use for the purchase of classroom supplies only. Funds were not distributed directly to teachers, but to each school s internal account and teachers could spend until funds were fully expended In 2000, the program was amended to provide direct compensation to teachers. In 2007, the program was again amended to include Pre-K teachers, charter teachers, and job share teachers

3 History Continued In more recent years, the term guidance counselors was changed to certified school counselors. Teachers are required to keep at least 4 years of receipts in case they are personally audited by the IRS Any funds not used must be returned to the district and deposited in the school s SAC Committee in 10 years, only 1 teacher returned funds Classroom supplies bought for a particular classroom must stay in the classroom Governor Scott changed the name from Teacher Lead to Florida Teacher Supply Assistance Grants for a couple of reasons, but one intent was to move toward a debit card system to avoid transfer of cash

4 2015 Changes To Program In 2014, a Florida district was audited by the Internal Revenue Service and the IRS classified the program as an accountable plan. This changed the entire program. Details can be found at This classification requires adequate accounting for allowances or reimbursements paid to employees for job-related expenses that are excluded from wages and are not subject to withholding. As such, the schools were required to collect and retain receipts for the expenditure of funds. Un-allowable items could not be submitted. If the employee did not provide receipts to document the expense or return excess funds, the funds are includible as wages and subject to income and employment taxes

5 Problems with the Process Teachers did not know what was allowable vs. unallowable items Secretaries were asked to keep an envelope for each teacher for all receipts and to keep a spreadsheet tracking expenses so that payroll could tax unspent and unreturned funds by the May paycheck. This information had to be kept for at least 4 years. The secretaries were not asked to be finance experts, but were given a guide to what items were considered non-allowable and asked to monitor the teachers. This was a very big burden on the secretaries and several quit due to the varies issues An enormous amount of man hours among teachers, secretaries, principals, payroll, and finance were spent trying to comply for 0.001% of the budget.

6 Results of the SY15/16 Polk received $1,621,177 in Teacher Lead Funds $30,000 was returned or rejected by teachers that was distributed to school SAC committees $327,666 was never accounted for by teachers $73,000 was paid to the IRS as income taxes instead of going to classrooms (in addition, PCSB had to pay it s share of employer taxes on this income ) 5,500 staff received checks. 1,200 turned in receipts for all $262. 1,100 did not turn in any receipts. 3,200 teachers turned in a portion of the receipts.

7 Changes for SY16/17 Since 15/16 was such a disaster in many ways, I sent a survey to all teachers in late May 2016 after researching many options. One vendor, ClassWallet offered an online system to digitally track and keep receipts and allowed principals and administrators to pull reports to see what items were purchased and should end up in their classrooms. I asked if teachers would like to keep the old system or try the new online system. 1,700 responded. 41% said they would like to try the new system. 59% stated they would like to keep the old system. I received many s and reached out to many teachers to find out why they wanted to keep such a problematic system. I only received one reason from the hundreds I spoke to: They wanted to be able to buy locally and not just online I worked with ClassWallet and they developed a new application that would allow teachers to take pictures of their receipts or scan in the receipts and get reimbursed directly to their bank account of choice

8 Changes Continued When I reached out to the teachers who wanted to keep the system the same, they were very excited about this new option and said they would change their vote with this new information With the new system there are options to buy locally and online. If they purchase online, the items are shipped directly to the school and every purchase is tax exempt. This would provide an extra $112,000 in buying power to the teachers. Many vendors are offered on the service. If a vendor (including a local vendor) is not on the list, they offer a concierge service that will buy the items for them from any vendor

9 Changes Continued If a purchase is made locally (not online) there is a $1 fee that is reduced from their teacher lead funds to cover the ACH fee into their bank account. This charge is for each ACH. However, the teachers could wait and upload all receipts at once and only lose $1 of teacher lead funds. This is only a convenience fee to cover the ACH charge, not a profit item for ClassWallet. Principals and any administrator can now pull reports to see what items are being bought for their classroom All unsused funds will revert back to each school s SAC committee avoiding any funds being taxed and giving each SAC committee more funds for school improvement This program is much more financially and operationally efficient and will allow more supplies for our students to use

10 ClassWallet and other Districts Other districts are doing a combination of programs. Hillsborough is using a debit card and forcing teachers to use Office Depot as the only vendor Orange county offers a debit card but still has to collect physical receipts, and the debit cards come with their own issues ClassWallet is a nationwide company. Polk was the first district in Florida to sign on, but after we did, Alachua and Martin also signed on They are the sole-provider for the State of Arizona s and Newark, New Jersey s program and they also work with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

11 Questions?