Texas school districts with a fiscal year that ends August 31st must submit their annual financial report (AFR) in PDF format AND a finalized data feed to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) by January 28th. Texas school districts with a fiscal year that ends June 30th make these submissions by November 27th.
Texas school districts with a fiscal year that ends August 31st must submit their annual financial report (AFR) in PDF format AND a finalized data feed to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) by January 28th. Texas school districts with a fiscal year that ends June 30th make these submissions by November 27th. The AFR PDF and the finalized data feed are submitted via the TEA’s AUDIT application in Texas Education Agency Login (TEAL).
Texas Education Code (TEC), §44.008, does not provide for any extension when the deadline falls on a holiday or weekend. January 28, 2023, falls on a Saturday so unless you plan on working over the weekend, plan ahead!
For the AFR PDF to be successfully accepted by the TEA, please ensure that the following are included:
- The Certificate of Board is signed and dated by the Board President and Board Secretary.
- The Independent Auditor’s Report is signed and dated.
- The Independent Auditor’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting and on Compliance and Other Matters Based on an Audit of Financial Statements Performed in Accordance with Government Auditing Standards is signed and dated.
- If your school district expended $750,000 or more in Federal awards, include the complete Federal single audit report.
- If Schedule L-1, Required Responses to Selected School FIRST Indicators, is not included as part of your AFR, this must be uploaded as a separate PDF.
- If your external auditor issued a management letter, this must be uploaded as a separate PDF.
The PDF files must be uploaded using the file names prescribed by the TEA. Their Electronic Report Submission Standards provide guidance on the file name conventions as well as submission procedures.
The data feed submission can be performed via uploading a text file in the correct format or via manual data entry. If your accounting software does not generate the data feed text file, you likely are going to have to enter the data manually. The TEA has data feed finalization procedures posted on their website that walk you through this process. Their data feed standards outline the format to be used to upload the electronic data through the AUDIT application in the TEAL.
REMINDER: Do not forget to include Schedule J-4, Compensatory Education Program and Bilingual Education Program Compliance Responses in your AFR. This was required beginning with fiscal year 2022. Schedule J-4 will also be part of the finalized data feed.
Late or incomplete submissions could negatively affect your school district’s Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) rating.
Recall that Critical Indicator #1 asks following:
“Was the complete annual financial report (AFR) and data submitted to the TEA within 30 days of the November 27 or January 28 deadline depending on the school district’s fiscal year end date of June 30 or August 31, respectively?”
Submission of the complete AFR in PDF after 30 days of the due date would cause the school district to fail Critical Indicator #1 and School FIRST.
If either the AFR PDF or finalized data feed are submitted late, the school district will receive a comment in the AFR review letter concerning the late submission from the TEA’s Financial Compliance Division. This letter will be addressed to the Board President, the Superintendent, the Chief Financial Officer, and the External Auditor.