The Fresno County Superintendent of Schools ("FCSS") developed a tool to help gauge an LEA’s status with meeting the Special Education MOE threshold. 

The SACS Web application contains a process and includes forms to aid LEAs in this goal. However, it contains the SEMAI forms at First and Second Interims (as of October 31st and January 31st) and then it does not prompt an LEA to review progress again until the Unaudited Actuals ("UA") reporting period. 

This gap from January to August may be a weakness in LEAs’ ability, and possibly an obstruction in their visibility, to accurately gauge progress toward meeting MOE.  

The MOE Tool is an Excel spreadsheet meant to be used after the next year’s budget work is done and after June payroll, about when Year End "YE" Closing begins. By spending a few minutes inputting the LEA's data into this spreadsheet, the LEA may benefit from the following:

• Gaining a clearer picture of the LEA's current MOE status based on projected actual expenditure data (as opposed to budget data such as at first and second interims)
• Obtaining greater advantage of making Year-End Closing entries with an eye toward MOE implications rather than waiting till the end of August when filling out SACS forms
• Gaining additional time to make adjustments so the LEA can avoid an MOE failure and potential financial penalty
• Reviewing any MOE tests that exceed the threshold by a large amount. This may allow the LEA time to identify and reclassify any potential non-special education costs. 
• Exploring the application of exempt reductions to adjust an MOE benchmark for future years, even in a year when the LEA meets MOE in one test (but maybe not in others)

This tool has been tested and refined multiple times, and may present the user with a helpful aid in monitoring the LEA's MOE progress. FCSS will provide the MOE Tool on or around June of each year for Fresno County SELPA Member LEAs.