Saving One ADM at a Time
July 31, 2023
Donna wondered what others thought about her in the office but was afraid to ask. Have you ever felt the same way? It’s a rhetorical question. However, one that was recently asked by one of Donna’s Board members, who posed it to her Supervisor. She was quite surprised by the answer. Without effort, her Supervisor stated, “She is passionate about Child Accounting!” “Hmm,” she thought. After a few days, maybe even weeks, she surmised, “Well, you know, this is true. I am passionate about child accounting, but does anyone outside of the field know what child accounting is or what I really do?
Why would anyone care about Child Accounting? It’s all about ADMs or Average Daily Membership. Without this most significant numerical value, no LEA, PRII, or Charter School will ever receive a dime of educational funding. The ADM is foundational to the Basic Education Funding formula used by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to determine each school entity’s share of the allocated education allotment from the State budget.
Let’s look at the Weighted Basic Education Formula:
Now I am not a financial accountant, so I’ll let the business managers dive more deeply into the financials. But hopefully, as you are reading this blog, there is one central theme. Your LEA cannot operate an educational business without accurate ADMs. That makes you a key player in your school’s funding. For example, a District in Monroe County has approximately 7,000 students who are educated in a school year. This district will receive $59,000,000 in Basic Education Funding and Special Education Funding because that child accounting staff member was passionate and cared enough to ensure the LEA received all its proper funding through accurately aggregated Average Daily Membership.
If you work in the field of child accounting, your tireless efforts to ensure your data is accurate is what drives your funding. At A/CAPA, we thank you and celebrate you for a job well done and too frequently undervalued!
As this particular A/CAPA Board member likes to say, “Saving One ADM at a Time!”
A/CAPA is here to assist you. We look forward to seeing you at the conferences and many webinars we offer you throughout the year.
Ann Bauer
Director of Child Accounting
East Stroudsburg School District
A/CAPA Vice President