Overview

Florida Department of Education collects each survey at a specific time each year. For FTE reporting, the surveys cover the following time frames:

Survey 1 (July) covers the period from the beginning of the fiscal year (July 1) to the beginning of the defined 180-day school year.
Survey 2 (October) covers the first 90 days of the 180-day school year.
Survey 3 (February) covers the second 90 days of the 180-day school year.
Survey 4 (June) covers the period from the end of the 180-day school program to the end of the fiscal year (June 30).
Survey 5 (August) covers reporting of entire school year data (due in August).

Survey Membership for Survey 2 & 3

During Surveys 2 and 3, PK-12 students are eligible to earn FTE if the class meets or is scheduled to meet during the survey week and the student meets both program membership and attendance requirements. For a student to be eligible to earn FTE, they must meet the following criteria:

Student must be enrolled for at least one day during the survey week.
Students must be in attendance at least one day during the survey week or the preceding 6 scheduled school days. If a district does not schedule school one of the days during Survey week, the district loses a day from the 11-day attendance window for the attendance requirement. However, if a school day is not scheduled the week prior to FTE survey week, you will still have an 11-day window; counting the 6 "scheduled" days prior to FTE week.

Regular School Year Reporting

Year-round schools should report the first 90 days of their regular 180-day school year in Survey 2 and the second 90 days of their regular 180-day school year in Survey 3.

A full time equivalent student membership equals 1 FTE. Half is Survey 2 and half is Survey 3. We report everything but the cap per survey is 0.5. Some Student Course format errors can cause you to lose FTE. Your district can also earn less FTE if a student goes to another district. Whatever is left is the recalibrated FTE.

Funding Calculations

There are a number of different funding categories districts receive. In this article, we are focused on Base Funding which is made up of the components circled in red in the example below:

The Weighted FTE is calculated by multiplying the Reported FTE by the Program Weights.

The amount of FTE reported is based on the Class Weekly Minutes on the student schedules.

The Program Weights are as follows:

FEFP Codes	Weights
Basic, Grades K-3 (101)	1.122
Basic, Grades 4-8 (102)	1.000
Basic, Grades 9-12 (103)	0.988
ESE, Grades K-3 (111)	1.122
ESE, Grades 4-8 (112)	1.000
ESE, Grades 9-12 (113)	0.988
ESE, Level IV (254)	3.706
ESE, Level V (255)	5.707
ESOL (130)	1.208
Career, Grades 9-12 (300)	1.072

Note: Although some of the Basic and ESE weights are the same, there is an Exceptional Student Education Guaranteed Allocation which provides for the additional services needed for exceptional students. Starting in 2023-24 this is funded at an additional $1,951.26 per FTE minimum or more depending on other factors.

The Base Funding is then calculated by multiplying the Weighted FTE by the Base Student Allocation, Comparable Wage Factor, and Small District Factor.

The Base Student Allocation (BSA) is the dollar amount set annually by the Legislature to provide FEFP base funding. For the fiscal year 2023-24 it is $5,139.73.

The Comparable Wage Factor (CWF) is an adjustment that recognizes differences in the cost of living among the school districts. The CWF does not penalize districts for lower cost of living, it only provides a bonus for districts with a greater cost of living. For all our districts except FAU (1.0442) this is a value of 1.

The Small District Factor (SDF) is an adjustment that recognizes school districts with less than 20,000 FTE and are designated as fiscally constrained districts as described in s. 218.67(1), F.S. The SDF is set at 1.0277 for the 2023-2024 year.

PAEC SDS Districts who do not receive an SDF are: Nassau, Walton and FAU & FAMU Lab Schools

Additional or Add-on FTE

There are several ways that additional FTE can be earned:

Survey 4

Students who pass EOC without course enrollment (1/6 FTE)

Survey 5

Advanced Placement (AP)
International Baccalaureate (IB)
Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE)
Industry certified career and professional academy programs
Early Graduation
Student receives an associate degree through a dual enrollment program with a grade point average of 3.0 or better
Dual enrollment general education course with a grade of “A”
CTE Pathway Concentrator Completion

Virtual FTE

Virtual courses eligible for FTE reporting in Survey 4 are those with a school of instruction set as 7001, 7004, 7006, 7023 OR if the Location of Student is set as T on the schedule for a course with any other school of instruction.

Survey 4 Virtual FTE requires successful completion of the virtual course; receiving a grade of a D or higher. For virtual FTE to be reported correctly, the course must be on the student's schedule and have a matching grade.

Only virtual courses reported in Survey 2 or 3 can be reported for FTE funding beyond the 180-day school year and before the deadline for amending Survey 4.

If a student already has a full schedule in the brick & mortar school, the district will not earn additional funding for virtual classes students take on-top of that.

For instruction on setting up the master schedule for virtual courses, please refer to our virtual data entry guide in the data entry end-user help center here.