Fiscal:
Attendance Data

Compliance
Indicator

The program has submitted fiscal attendance and accounting reports to the CDE consistent with the laws for state or federal fiscal reporting and accounting, including the set-aside for enrollment of children with disabilities.

Regulations/Reference

EED Program Instrument: V. Fiscal EED 23
Education Code: 8202, 8208, 8231, 8232 & 8247
Title 5: 17821
Fiscal Handbook: Enrollment, Attendance, & Fiscal Reporting, & Reimbursement Procedures for Early Education Contracts

Monitoring Review Evidence

• Child Development Fund

• Fiscal Attendance & Accounting Reports

• Set-Aside for Children with Disabilities (Exceptional Needs)

California Preschool Accounting Reporting Information System (CPARIS)

Attendance data is submitted online within the California Preschool Accounting Reporting Information System (CPARIS). CPARIS is the web-based system through which state preschool programs, submit required attendance & fiscal reports.

To support contractors with entering fiscal & attendance data into CPARIS, the user manual provides instructions on how to navigate the web-based platform.

Prior to submitting the first Enrollment, Attendance & Fiscal report of the fiscal year, contractors must submit the certification of assurances.

Attendance reports applicable to your contracts may be found on CPARIS within the reporting tab that is broken down into two subcategories:

• Current Forms: reports that are currently due

• All Report Forms: reports that are open, available for editing, have upcoming deadlines, are certified, and/or overdue for being certified

The Enrollment, Attendance & Fiscal Report is separated into three sections:

1. Enrollment & Attendance: Report data by county

2. Fiscal: Report at contract level

3. Finalize Calculations: Summary

Reconcile Attendance Records

Attendance should be reconciled monthly using the following steps:

1. Take original sign in & out records

2. Along with certified attendance as documented on the Notice of Action & Application for Services

3. Reconcile into a monthly attendance report that is broken down by child, room, program, adjustment factor code & days of attendance, along with any absences. The data is then rolled up to reflect the total enrolled days for the month.

NOTE: All 3 of these documents will serve as your back-up documentation for the attendance & fiscal report that will be submitted to Fiscal Services.

Attendance Reporting

Contractors are required to submit monthly or quarterly attendance depending upon their contract. Monthly reporting is required for “Contractors on conditional or provisional status” For all other contractors, attendance reports are submitted quarterly. Reports are due by the 20th of the month following the end of the reporting period.

Once at least one service county-level report has been certified, cumulative prior period data from that report, by service county and category, will auto-populate in the Enrollment & Attendance Section.

Certified & Non-Certified Children

Within CPARIS, Data for both certified & non-certified children must be entered into different tables. Within the certified tables, report only children who have been certified as eligible for California Department of Education subsidized services. 

A family is considered to be certified for enrollment when the application for services & certification forms have been completed, information has been verified, and forms have been signed. 

If the program does not serve non-certified children, select NO to turn off the table. If no is not marked, you must complete & submit this section of the report or it may be considered incomplete & delinquent.

Special Criteria Factors

Special criteria factors recognize that different categories of children require special care or services and that the costs for these services vary. 

Adjustment factors are used to change actual enrollment to Adjusted Days of Enrollment, which will result in higher service earnings.

NOTE: Children that age from one category to another must be reported in their proper age category.

Special Criteria Adjustments include:

• Exceptional Needs

• Dual Language Learner

• At Risk of Abuse or Neglect

• Severely Disabled

• Mental Health Consultation Services (MHCS)

Note: To claim the special criteria adjustment factor for an exceptional needs child or “severely disabled”, the child must have an active Individualized Educational Program (IEP) or Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP)

Once the correct category is determined, each category is further broken down based on the number of hours a child is enrolled for. There are 3 different time based designations that determine the adjustment factor:

• Full-time: Child’s certified schedule is 30 hours total or more per week

• Part-time: Child’s certified schedule is less than 30 hours total per week

• Full-time Plus: Must be reported for any individual day child is enrolled more than 10.5 hours

What this might look like in a program:

If a child is enrolled in preschool at three years 7 months, their days & hours of enrollment are reported within the three year category. When the child becomes 4 years of age, they are then reported as a four year old.

Data Inputting

Once attendance records have been reconciled, within CPARIS input the data into the applicable category. 

For the first report of the fiscal year, use only the Current Period column to enter enrollment data & beginning with the second report and those thereafter, cumulative prior report data will automatically be carried forward into the Cumulative Prior Period column.  

Note: Do not use negative figures in any of the columns.

For all categories entered, the total days of enrollment will automatically calculate.

Child days of enrollment, is the total of every child’s enrollment for the days the contractor is open to provide services.Enrollment for each child depends on certified enrollment which is reflected on the Notice of Action.

In a typical year, child days of attendance, known as CDA are the total days that certified children are present in the program for any part of a day for which they are enrolled or if they have excused absences.

For this fiscal year, child days of attendance are only counted for enrolled children that are expected to physically attend the program. In addition to not counting unexcused absences, do not report the days of attendance for any children participating in distance learning activities.

NOTE: It is important to keep an eye on the difference between your child days enrollment & attendance. There is a five percent flex factor for attendance. Child days of attendance below 95% of the child days of enrollment will affect your service earnings.

After reviewing the video lesson & sketch pad notes, it’s time to check for understanding by completing a Knowledge Check. Note that Individual Knowledge Checks will conclude with a Certificate.

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