CLARIFICATION ABOUT INITIAL ON-SITE VISITS
During the Initial Onsite Visits to charter school campuses and charter satellite campuses, all indicators may be reviewed. The focus for bilingual/ESL and special education review will be the indicators discussed in the IOV training sessions, however, TEA visitors may note information in files or hear information in interviews that generate other questions. TEA visitors may review any or all other indicators.

FIRST GENERATION CHARTER RENEWAL WORKSHOP
The TEA Charter School office will host a Charter Renewal Workshop for all First Generation Charters on Thursday, September 7, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in Room 1-104 of the Travis building in Austin. For more information contact Sheryl at 512-463-9575.

DIVISON OF STATE FUNDING--TEA
See attached memo concerning school calendars, deadline changes for new charters, and pre-kindergarten grant funds.

TEACHER ASSISTANT/PARA-EDUCATOR'S CERTIFICATION TRAINING
Palo Alto College will be offering a 36 hour Professional Development Course for Teacher Assistant/Para-Educator's Certification Training every Saturday from September 9th to December 9th, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. The training will be held at Radiance Academy of Learning (West), 1305 SW Loop 410, #210, San Antonio. Call Wanda Perkins at 210-734-5034/5035 or Cheryl Washington at 210-826-8788 to register.

TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Division of State Funding
Reminders

Several charter schools have not submitted their 2000-01 school calendar(s) or corrected calendars. Please be aware that funding will not be processed without this documentation on file.

Only new charters will receive two payments in September. All other charters will receive their first payment on September 25th.

A STATE AID ENTITLEMENT ESTIMATE REPORT AND AN ESTIMATED SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS FOR 2000-01 WILL BE MAILED TO ALL CHARTERS ON SEPTEMBER 7, 2000.

When determining a student's resident district, please keep in mind that the resident district is where the student currently lives and it is not necessarily where he/she attended school last year.

Charters receiving Pre-kindergarten grant funds should remember to code qualified PreK students as ADA code 1- Eligible full day for PEIMS and in your attendance accounting system software. Prior to submitting your software generated six-week attendance reports you will need to manually deduct the half-day grant attendance for these students so that you are not funded twice. This may be done by providing a letter with your attendance reports or by noting and initialing the changes directly on the six week attendance report.

First generation charter schools (1996-97) that will elect not to submit attendance in 2000-01 and will be funded on 1999-00 ADA need to notify the Division of State Funding in writing.

ONLY NEW CHARTERS ARE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT MEMBERSHIP OR ESTIMATE REPORTS.

NEW CHARTERS ONLY: A FAX INDICATING THE FOLLOWING DEADLINE CHANGES WAS SENT TO NEW CHARTERS ON AUGUST 30, 2000. PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DEADLINE CHANGES:

If you opened prior to September 1st please complete the 10-day membership report. Please complete this report even if you have not had 10 days of instruction. If you have had only 4 days of instruction as of September 1st, then complete the report for only 4 days. If, as of September 1st, you have provided instruction for more than 10 days, complete the report for the first 10 days of instruction.

If you did not open prior prior to September 1st, and you will be opening this year, please complete the 2000-01 Estimate State Aid Entitlement Template.

If you have already submitted either of these two reports, please disregard this request.

Automated templates for these reports can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/school.finance/charter/

These reports are due by 5:00 p.m. September 5, 2000.

Please fax reports to Nora Rainey at 512-463-9233. (Bill Fojtasek and Nora Rainey will not be in the office on Friday, September 1, 2000.)