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Leadership isn’t about a title. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration.

–Susan Lytle Gilmore, Ph.D., Director of Adult Education, Sacramento City Unified School District
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AEP Questions and Answers

This is a collection of questions that are most frequently asked of the AEP Office. They are organized by topic area and will be updated as needed.

Fiscal Reporting

If you are a college, you can use the CCFS-320 Reporting System or TOPSPro or your local attendance system. (K12 & COEs can use TOPSPro or their attendance system). If these systems do not report minor increments (like 30 minutes) or did not track services, then you would not report these in NOVA as you have no system verification. Please remember that all hours must be verifiable.

Yes – this is the total hours of instruction or service by program area collected by our systems between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.

Yes. Please report any of these instructional hours based on the distance-learning model (where students accrue hours without necessarily being in the classroom or being with the teacher).

Your attendance system should be able to do this. TOPSPro has this capability by program area.

Then you would not be able to report any hours for those services. Keep in mind, your hours reported in NOVA must reflect verifiable data. Since this will become an annual process, we hope that next year’s report will capture all of these services and reflect a truer picture.

Yes. There would be zero hours for that member. But they could still report operational costs and leveraged funds.

Services can be any assessment, counseling, intake, placement, orientation, support service, transition services, etc. a student may receive at the agency school site. Students can receive services outside of the classroom instructional hours. However, this will vary by how each agency sets up their program and tracks hours in their systems.

We are reporting dollars received and spent/expensed between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018. For example, if you collected $100,000 dollars in fees for an adult education program, we are assuming those fees were expended. In general, all collected fees, during the period, should be reported in NOVA for this exercise. Note: community education, community services, and contract education are fee-based programs, but are outside of the California Adult Education Program.

Please report the seven adult education noncredit program areas regardless of funding. So. any expenses related to noncredit ESL, ABE/ASE, AWD, K12 Success, CTE, Workforce Reentry, and/or Pre-Apprenticeship courses must be submitted in NOVA for this exercise.

At a minimum, we will be required to report state funded expenses for the prior state fiscal program year by program area. Estimates would be due in September, with actuals to be certified in December. More details later this year.

If Q4 has been certified, no changes for last fiscal year are possible. If Q4 has been certified and a member overspent last year, they will start the next fiscal year with reduced available funds. If Q4 has not been certified, the member will need to adjust their Budget and Work Plan by moving money from one budget category to the overspent category. To do this, the consortium lead will need to uncertify the Budget and Work Plan. The member will then go and make the changes and resubmit. Then the consortium lead will recertify the Budget and Work Plan.

As long as Q4 has not been certified,Q3 can be uncertified and the correction can be made. Once it is made, the member will resubmit and the consortium lead will re-certify.

There must be a correlation between hours of instruction and expenses. So if they report hours of instruction in ESL, there must be a dollar amount associated with ESL in the expenses table. They cannot report X amount of instructional hours in the Program Area, and leave the expenses for that Program Area blank (or vice versa). This is what we mean by no zero entries. If you report hours of instruction in a program area it must be matched by a dollar amount in that program area on the expense table. For example – last year an adult school reported hours of instruction in ESL, but no expenses. Also, they reported expenses in pre-apprenticeship, but no hours of instruction. This skews the statewide data, and hampers the ability to get an accurate hourly cost.

If the consortium can make the connection from hours of instruction to other non-teaching expenses that contributed to that cost of offering the instruction – than they can include supports, counseling, overhead, etc. However if they have zero hours of instruction in a program area– than there should not be any expenses associated with that program area reported (and vice versa). For example – 500 hours of CTE instruction cannot be reported and no expenses reported. Likewise, $60,000 in CTE funds cannot be reported and no hours of instruction.

We advise consortia and members to complete budget revisions to correct any negative remaining balances prior to certification. NOVA will technically certify negative remaining balances however we strongly encourage budget revisions prior to certification.

Since the indirect costs were not reported in 2019-20, they will be carried over to your 2020-21 available funds in the budget and work plan. Go ahead and budget for double the indirect costs so that you can report the indirect costs in the 2020-21 program year. In the budget and work plan, in the budget summary, please notate the doubling of the indirect costs for 2020-21 since the costs were not reported in 2019-20. In the first quarter expenditure report, please report the 2019-20 indirect costs. In the summary of activities for the expenditure report, please notate the inclusion of the 2019-20 indirect costs.

Reducing next year will work. Please document this action in the summary of activities since the Q4 expenditure report is still open. Additionally, please document this action in the 2020-21 budget and work plan and ensure the member includes the reduced amount prior to certifying.

Fees are not part of NOVA expenditure reporting – only CAEP state allocated funds. You may show these fees in the Program Area report. Interest is also not tracked in NOVA.

"NOVA is programmed to require all agencies who fall below their expected expenditure target to complete a corrective action plan. The corrective action plan is a concise explanation of how you plan to ensure you meet the target in future quarters.

The only workaround to take immediate action is to revise your expenditure targets in your budget and work plan. This would require uncertifying and unsubmitting the budget and work plan to include targets that align with where you are at this time."

The previous years' budgets are embedded in the previous years' fiscal reports. Each member's budget, by object code, is provided in column four. The last column provides the budget remaining.

You can access these reports in the Supporting Documents section in NOVA. This section is located on the Consortium Details page. The documents are titled, Quarter 'X' Fiscal Report Certification.

We are tracking all reportable individuals one or more hour of services and/or instruction. If you entered the student record and hours in TOPSPro, then you can report that in NOVA for this exercise.

Use the student update record to report service hours in TE just like you would for class hours. It would be helpful to identify a program area by creating a class.

This is Year 1 of tracking this information. We will continue to provide technical assistance on student data reporting. If you did not report the hours, you will not be penalized.

This may capture the service hours, but it still does not align them with a program area. If you know the program area, please indicate that in TE. If not, then we cannot use that information for this exercise.

That is correct. And if it is a support service class for CTE, ESL, etc. – please indicate the program area in TOPSPro.

CASAS has provided a separate report for “hours of instruction” in TOPSPro.

That is fine to set it up that way; we just do not have any way to track the hours you spent on that student.

Yes – we are tracking all operational costs regardless of fund source. Therefore, this goes beyond AEBG/AEP. This would include any student fees, apportionment, LCFF, grants, donations, etc.

Yes – please include all revenue sources even if they exceed AEBG/AEP funding. We are hoping that your true operational costs will exceed the amount of adult education program funding, as it will show how much leveraging of other fund sources our members are doing with their program.

Yes, we want you to include all non-AEP funds that are used in AEP program areas.

If they are providing services to other members assisting adults in any of the program areas, they should report those funds.

If the funds are used to serve adults in the seven program areas, please report that in NOVA.

Although the hours might not be able to be reported, if you know how much funding is used to support / serve adults in the seven program areas, please report these funds for this exercise.

Correct. This is what was expensed in 17-18. Meaning the cost of running your programs in 17-18. Sometimes you do not spend all of your annual allocation.

Please estimate how much of the funds were used to cover operational costs in 17-18.

The 17-18 budget bill requirement is to report on those seven program areas that fall under adult education as defined by AB104. This would mean the adult education program area has credentialed teachers, follows existing education code and regulations, and is NOT a community education, community service or contract education program. These fee-based programs are outside of the California Adult Education Program (formerly known as AEBG). Finally, to clarify, K12 or County Office CTE fee-based programs that have credentialed teachers and follow all applicable education code would be considered part of this reporting exercise.

Yes – that’s fine. If you didn’t receive the funds during the time period July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, then please do not report those expenses.

No, please do not include them. Only included expenses for the 7 AEP program areas.

Indirect can be prorated among your program areas.

Because in-kind is determined by the MOU or local agreement, the estimating process may vary. You can check what you reported in your WIOA II financials (if you are a grantee), or check with your business/accounting office on a basic calculation to estimate in-kind services. Just be sure the in-kind is related to the AEP program areas and its operation. According to federal guidelines: for in-kind, you should generally determine the cost using the fair market value and it should be based on standard objective sources rather than best guesses. You should document the basis for determining value of personal services, material, equipment, building, and land.

You can prorate your allocation by enrollment percentages or any other methodology recommended by your accounting/business office.

An in-kind contribution is a non-monetary contribution. Goods or services offered free or at less than the usual charge result in an in-kind contribution.

It includes any non-monetary contribution – goods or services.

Please use your district methodology for in-kind. You should be using an agreed upon standard that your district uses for in-kind.

Yes – there should be some supporting documentation. If you are estimating or pro-rating expenses, please make sure your business / accounting office is comfortable with your methodology (and it is explainable).

Yes – if you already produce reports like this for other programs or grants – and they cover the seven program areas, feel free to use those numbers. WIOA II only covers some of the seven program areas, so you would need to cover all program areas for this exercise.

Yes. Please account for all expenses in the seven program areas regardless of fund source. If noncredit apportionment is paying for the cost of faculty, and they are teaching in an of the seven program areas, please include their salary costs for the AEP courses.

We know this is not an exact science. Please work with accounting staff or your business office to come up with an in-kind amount.

Please work with your accounting staff or business office to come up with a fixed overhead cost that you can use for all 30 sites.

This will be an annual process starting this year, which will continue each year.

Yes – make sure you have used the drop down menu to report on 17-18 only.

For FY 18-19, estimates are due by September 2019, and actuals are due by the end of the year (December 2019).

For FY 17-18, estimates & actuals are due together on February 15, 2019. Usually the estimate and actual reporting is separate in NOVA, but for this initial effort (for FY 17-18), we are combining those process and having them due 2/15/19.

Starting in FY 18-19 (reporting for next year), we will have two separate processes, which include the reporting of estimates in September 2019, and then the reporting of actuals in December 2019.

If monies were moved from Q3 after it was reported, the Q3 fiscal report will need to be updated. NOVA is cumulative. No quarter can be less than the previous quarter. The Consortium Lead will have to un-certify the Q3 expenditure reports. The member would then un-submit, make their adjustments, and re-submit. The Lead would then re-certify. Once the Q3 expenditure reports are re-certified, members will be able to submit Q4.
Please note - after changes have been made to Q3, if there are still exclamation points, a budget revision will have to be completed.

Members will enter the info/data into NOVA under the program area reporting tab.

Yes – please include those on the table in the “Other” drop down box.

No, this should not affect the process. For members who did not receive funding in that fiscal year, reporting will be optional.

The Program Area Report only needs to be certified by the consortium lead after the actuals have been submitted. The consortium lead can un-certify the reports for revisions if necessary.

Yes, this is correct. We are currently working with productOps to allow member contacts to enter and edit information in the report, however only the member representatives can submit the report.

Yes, member districts can have more than one member representative in NOVA.

Please see the drop-down menu in NOVA and include other grants. If the drop down is not an exact match, please pick one that is closest.

You cannot delete an added fund, but you are not required to enter any data for it either. Just leave it blank.

No. Please choose the fund source that most closely fits.

Yes, changing the amounts would cause a problem in previous quarters. The Budget & Workplan would have to be changed to match where the reporting will be.

Here are the steps:

Consortia Lead uncertifies the Budget & Workplan.
Member moves money from the 6000 category to the 4000 category in the amount of the reporting change.
Member submits Budget & Workplan
Consortia Lead recertifies Budget & Workplan.
Once the Budget & Workplan is certified, the consortia lead now needs to uncertify the expense reports for the quarters needing changes (in this case Q1 and Q2)
Member makes necessary changes in Q1 and submits.
Lead will need to certify Q1.
Member can then submit changes for Q2.
Lead will need to certify Q2.
Please note that actions in NOVA are sequential. Changes to Q2 are not able to be made until Q1 is certified.

That should be all that is needed to correct this.

The Primary Contact is unable to submit the Q3 expenditure reports because they are not the first Member Representative listed for the agency. Only the first Member Representative listed has the authority to submit reports. This can be fixed by the Consortia Primary Contact removing all Member Representatives until the authorized Member Representative is listed first. Once the authorized Member Representative is listed first, the Consortia Primary Contact will add the other Member Representatives back to the agency contacts.

As long as the fiscal year is still open, the member will need to go back and fix the quarter that was wrong. It will require the Lead to uncertify the entry before changes can be made.

Please have the member check to make sure the email address showing in NOVA under their Member Representative account is the email address they are using to sign in. In some cases people have multiple email addresses and may be signing in with the incorrect email. The second thing to check is that they are the first Member Representative listed. Only the top Member Representative listed has the authority to submit on behalf of their agency.

For Q4, there is a small checkbox under the totals that members must click certifying that they did not exceed the allowed indirect rate as directed in the Adult Education Program Guidance. This is only required for Q4 submissions. Please check to make sure that box is checked. Once it is checked, the Submit button should be available.

Because NOVA is cumulative, no quarter can be less than the previous reported quarter. If your previously reported expenses for Q3 were reduced due to an error in reporting or a credit, you will need to have the consortium lead uncertify Q3. Once Q3 is uncertified, you can go in and make the corrections, then re-submit. The consortium lead will have to re-certify Q3.