New iFinance search engine displays financial documents for all New Hampshire school districts

CONCORD, NH — Continuing with its efforts to promote transparency and accountability, the New Hampshire Department of Education (NHED) has once again expanded its iPlatform school data portal to highlight district-specific spending at a more granular level. 

The new iFinance segment of iPlatform now offers a search engine that allows users to explore all DOE-25 financial documents submitted by New Hampshire school districts and public charter schools to NHED. The DOE-25 is a comprehensive financial report required to be submitted to NHED each year by public schools, which includes receipts, expenditures and a balance sheet showing current assets and current liabilities. The data in this report is used for federal and state reporting, most notably calculating the average cost per pupil, as well as for tax rate settings.

“The Department has been working diligently to expand iPlatform, our school data transparency portal. iFinance, our newest addition to the portal, continues our commitment to be fully transparent with important data such as school financial documents,” said Frank Edelblut, education commissioner. “Not only will the iFinance search engine improve accountability, but it will also provide the public with immediate access to information that is often sought by citizens and previously required a tedious data request.” 

The entire iPlatform portal offers the public with easy access to accountability data elements included in the New Hampshire federal accountability plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act (iReport) and an interactive dashboard that highlights various data such as collections, spending information and paid reimbursements by school districts utilizing their Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds (iGrant). Other important information such as assessment proficiency and growth (iAchieve), as well as class size, dropout rates, cost per pupil and graduation data (iExplore) are readily available in iPlatform for comparison purposes, and to stimulate community conversations.