ESSA Site-Based Expenditure Reporting: Where are We Now?
By Sara R. Shaw
Senior Manager, Fiscal and Academic Solvency
Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)
Last year I wrote in this magazine about school business officials and district leaders having financial responsibilities as leaders for student success. The topic was prompted by the new site-based expenditure reporting requirement within the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which mandates that every school district in the country report school-by-school spending data for the first time beginning with fiscal year 2019 data. I was – and continue to be – inspired by the advisory group that joined the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) in designing the implementation of this new requirement. The advisory group’s business officials, superintendents and other statewide representatives told ISBE that they believed site-based expenditure reporting could:
- Make resource allocation more readily accessible to schools and stakeholders.
- Empower districts and communities to assess and improve equity.
- Enable districts and communities to gain a better understanding of the relationship between student outcomes and financial resources.
- Enable districts, schools and the state to identify evidence-based best practices and opportunities to foster innovation between peers.