Principal Responsibilities in Student Counts

By Glen Abshere, OAESP Executive Director, and Will Parker, OASSP/OMLEA Executive Director

If you are an educator, specifically a public school administrator, then you know the importance of October 1 of every year. This is the day that every child in public schools is counted, otherwise known as Child Count Day in Oklahoma.

As the annual Child Count Day approaches in Oklahoma on October 1, let’s take a look at the weights that affect child count and the funding for school districts. Principals have a responsibility to make sure their data is correct in their school information system with validity and reliability.

Students are given certain weights when calculating the state aid for school districts based on their grade and any of their category identifications (listed in the chart found on page 44 of this issue of Better Schools Magazine). The weights assigned to students show the importance of making sure your data is correct in your student information system. A few areas for principals to review at the beginning of school include:

■ Free/Reduced Lunch Forms: Try to get as many of these forms completed and turned in to child nutrition as possible. Explain to parents that having these forms turned in, even when breakfast and lunch are provided free to everyone, is important to additional funding for your school. These have been rather difficult to obtain during the pandemic since the federal government allowed for all students to eat free.

■ Economically Disadvantaged Forms: These forms help your district funding through the State Aid Funding Formula. This is the not the same as a lunch status form. This is an easy form with samples on the Oklahoma State Department of Education website. Some districts will use this form to determine if there is anybody that would most likely qualify for F/R lunch.

■ Home Language Surveys: These forms are probably included in your enrollment packets. If they are not or it has been a year since your families have completed them, send them home again. Having families mark if English is spoken “more often” or “less often” is important for additional funding if they qualify as a bilingual student.

■ Special Education Referrals: If you have a student that has begun the process of testing for any learning disability, work with your special education department to complete these PRIOR to October 1. Try to have those meetings with parents of identifying students for special education services early. Waiting until October 2 or later will leave money on the table.

■ Gifted Education (GT) Referrals: Just like referrals for special education, the process for testing and identifying students for GT services must be completed by October 1. GT student count data is pulled from your district’s Student Information System (SIS) via the Wave. The student count page of your Gifted and Talented Education Report (due October 15) will be automatically populated with this information.

■ Enrollment centers or enrollment taken at the building sites is a great place to try to gather this information while parents are filling out forms.

As your superintendents are asking for a count of students physically in your classrooms, remember they not only want to know how many students are in your building but the categories of students as well. Accurate student counts mean appropriate funding and subsequent appropriate services for students during the school year ahead.

Find a breakdown of the weights for students and their categories on page 44 of the full issue of Better Schools Magazine. It is important for school building administrators to ensure their data is correct to make sure dollars are not left on the table.