New Hampshire receives $4 million grant to improve school finance data collection and access

CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Department of Education (NHED) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance its school finance data collection, which will immensely improve its transparency.

“NHED has gradually made incremental progress towards improving our school financial data capabilities and limiting the reporting burden on school administrators. This $4 million investment in NHED will accelerate our ongoing efforts to improve data quality and analysis, and decrease administrative reporting burdens on state and local officials,” said Mark Manganiello, Bureau of School Finance Administrator at NHED.

The Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grant has been awarded to address three major components of school finance data collection, reporting and analysis:

• Better integration of school finance data to increase the depth of finance analytical tools, including the creation of dashboards with unique capabilities and full transparency.
• Build a robust and flexible financial data collection system that will streamline the effectiveness of the review process and allow for more granular data collection that better matches and links to general ledgers for local education agencies. 
• Utilize resources to fully modernize and revamp the New Hampshire Chart of Accounts and ensure all stakeholders using education financial systems are consistent in practice and implementation. 

“We know the importance of full transparency and consistent reporting of taxpayer money. This grant will not only boost access to school finance data, but also improve its transparency and allow individual schools and districts to compare their finances,” said Frank Edelblut, education commissioner. “This essential project will enable school officials and community members to use the finance data in tandem with other already available education data such as enrollment and performance assessments to help make smart, strategic decisions. This truly is the next evolution of transparency for school finances,” said Frank Edelblut, education commissioner. 

In a letter of support to the U.S. Department of Education, Business Administrator Debbie Thompson from Shaker Regional School District in Belmont said the three-phased project will “create the opportunity to better improve outcomes for both students and taxpayers through the use of high-quality data and transparency,” adding the existing collection process is both labor intensive and impractical when searching for granular statewide data.

NHED anticipates issuing a Request for Proposals to contract with a certified public accountant firm and a data visualization company to accomplish this work; the RFP is expected to be released this winter.