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Accountability Reports: Who Has Those Online?

Posted On Mar 21 2014
By : Trisha Powell Crain
Comment: 0
Tag: Accountability, School Safety

AccountabilityDefAs Sunshine Week 2014 comes to an end, I want to share the results of one more search for reports on Alabama’s school district web sites: the set of reports known as the “Accountability Reports”.

Each year, pursuant to Alabama Act 1995-313, every Alabama school district is required to produce “Accountability Reports”, comprised of three reports: financial statements, achievement results, and the Student Incident Report (SIR) for the prior fiscal year (FY).

Here is the mandate from the Code of Alabama. I wrote about those reports here. And here.

Here is the memo sent by Dr. Craig Pouncey, Chief of Staff for the ALSDE, dated December 5, 2013, letting superintendents know that the reports are required to be made available to the “media, parent organizations and your legislators” prior to the end of the calendar year. A certification must be sent to the ALSDE confirming the district has followed the law.

No word on what the penalties are if a district doesn’t lawfully comply.

Curiously, there is no mandate to post these reports online, even though all districts have web sites. But hey, if you have a web site, and you’re already posting all sorts of other stuff online, why wouldn’t you post these reports on your web site?

In April 2013, I searched for the FY12 accountability reports and found only 27 of the then-134 school districts had all three reports online.

Accounting for all three reports got a little more complicated this year, as the ALSDE launched a new web site a few weeks ago, and most of the districts that did have something labeled “Accountability Report” had this broken link to the ALSDE’s accountability system. [Here’s the current link.] The ALSDE has told districts that providing a link to the Accountability portal on the ALSDE site would suffice for the achievement report.

Bottom line: I didn’t indicate in the results whether the achievement reports were available. Having struggled with a respiratory illness all week, I am feeling rather generous. Either that, or the lack of oxygen has gotten to me.

About the Actual Reports

Truth be told, the reports themselves really aren’t very useful to the school community.

The financial reports are summative, with no descriptions of the categories.

The SIR report is a simple tally of what kind of incident was reported and what the punishment was. (The Office of Civil Rights data gives a bit more insight, but is less current.)

In other words, just because the reports are mandated to be made available doesn’t mean they offer any substantive information to the public.

Efforts to improve financial reporting continue to be met with resistance at local and state levels, even with tremendous financial pressure facing most local school systems.

One would think that if school district officials wanted to prove their pleas for more money were justified, better financial reporting would be at the top of their list.

Not so, sadly. (The classic Journey song “Don’t Stop Believing” is now playing in my head. And no, I won’t stop believing better financial reports are possible.)

For example, look at this information on the Texas Tribune site. Not only financial data, but “fiscal peers”. Fiscal peers? Wow. Though this data, too, is fairly dated. (Pssst: If you’re a data guru and want to help improve financial reporting for school districts in Alabama and have some time to donate, please contact me!)

Results of the Search

Of the 135 Alabama school district web sites:

  • 34 districts had both the required financials and the 2012-2013 SIR report posted,
  • 14 districts had only the required financial reports posted,
  • 3 districts had only the SIR report posted, 
  • 83 districts had neither report posted,
  • 1 district (Alabaster City) was not in operation during FY13.

The table below indicates which districts have the reports online. The link takes you to the page where the “Accountability Reports” were found.

In the “Reports on Site” column, a “y” means both reports are online, “SIR” means only the SIR report is online, and “Financial” means only the financial reports were online.

Where a link to the Accountability Report Page is given, but I have indicated no reports are online, it means either the district did not have FY13 reports or only a notice was posted stating that the public was welcome to visit the Central Office or to a specific school to view the reports.

School District Web Site LinkReports on SiteAccountability Reports Link
ALABASTER CITYn
ALBERTVILLE CITYnAccountability Report Page
ALEXANDER CITYyAccountability Report Page
ANDALUSIA CITYFinancialAccountability Report Page
ANNISTON CITYyAccountability Report Page
ARAB CITYnAccountability Report Page
ATHENS CITYn
ATTALLA CITYyAccountability Report Page
AUBURN CITYyAccountability Report Page
AUTAUGA COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
BALDWIN COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
BARBOUR COUNTYSIRAccountability Report Page
BESSEMER CITYn
BIBB COUNTYSIRAccountability Report Page
BIRMINGHAM CITYyAccountability Report Page
BLOUNT COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
BOAZ CITYn
BREWTON CITYn
BULLOCK COUNTYn
BUTLER COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
CALHOUN COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
CHAMBERS COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
CHEROKEE COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
CHICKASAW CITYn
CHILTON COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
CHOCTAW COUNTYn
CLARKE COUNTYn
CLAY COUNTYn
CLEBURNE COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
COFFEE COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
COLBERT COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
CONECUH COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
COOSA COUNTYn
COVINGTON COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
CRENSHAW COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
CULLMAN CITYn
CULLMAN COUNTYn
DALE COUNTYn
DALEVILLE CITYnAccountability Report Page
DALLAS COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
DECATUR CITYyAccountability Report Page
DEKALB COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
DEMOPOLIS CITYn
DOTHAN CITYyAccountability Report Page
ELBA CITYn
ELMORE COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
ENTERPRISE CITYyAccountability Report Page
ESCAMBIA COUNTYn
ETOWAH COUNTYn
EUFAULA CITYn
FAIRFIELD CITYn
FAYETTE COUNTYn
FLORENCE CITYyAccountability Report Page
FORT PAYNE CITYFinancialAccountability Report Page
FRANKLIN COUNTYn
GADSDEN CITYn
GENEVA CITYnAccountability Report Page
GENEVA COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
GREENE COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
GUNTERSVILLE CITYn
HALE COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
HALEYVILLE CITYn
HARTSELLE CITYn
HENRY COUNTYn
HOMEWOOD CITYFinancialAccountability Report Page
HOOVER CITYn
HOUSTON COUNTYn
HUNTSVILLE CITYFinancialAccountability Report Page
JACKSON COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
JACKSONVILLE CITYyAccountability Report Page
JASPER CITYn
JEFFERSON COUNTYn
LAMAR COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
LANETT CITYn
LAUDERDALE COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
LAWRENCE COUNTYn
LEE COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
LEEDS CITYFinancialAccountability Report Page
LIMESTONE COUNTYn
LINDEN CITYn
LOWNDES COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
MACON COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
MADISON CITYyAccountability Report Page
MADISON COUNTYn
MARENGO COUNTYn
MARION COUNTYn
MARSHALL COUNTYn
MIDFIELD CITYn
MOBILE COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
MONROE COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
MONTGOMERY COUNTYn
MORGAN COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
MOUNTAIN BROOK CITYnAccountability Report Page
MUSCLE SHOALS CITYn
ONEONTA CITYn
OPELIKA CITYn
OPP CITYn
OXFORD CITYn
OZARK CITYn
PELL CITYSIRAccountability Report Page
PERRY COUNTYn
PHENIX CITYn
PICKENS COUNTYFinancialAccountability Report Page
PIEDMONT CITYn
PIKE COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
RANDOLPH COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
ROANOKE CITYn
RUSSELL COUNTYn
RUSSELLVILLE CITYn
SARALAND CITYn
SATSUMA CITYnAccountability Report Page
SCOTTSBORO CITYn
SELMA CITYn
SHEFFIELD CITYn
SHELBY COUNTYn
ST CLAIR COUNTYn
SUMTER COUNTYn
SYLACAUGA CITYn
TALLADEGA CITYyAccountability Report Page
TALLADEGA COUNTYn
TALLAPOOSA COUNTYn
TALLASSEE CITYn
TARRANT CITYnAccountability Report Page
THOMASVILLE CITYn
TROY CITYFinancialAccountability Report Page
TRUSSVILLE CITYyAccountability Report Page
TUSCALOOSA CITYn
TUSCALOOSA COUNTYyAccountability Report Page
TUSCUMBIA CITYyAccountability Report Page
VESTAVIA HILLS CITYyAccountability Report Page
WALKER COUNTYn
WASHINGTON COUNTYnAccountability Report Page
WILCOX COUNTYn
WINFIELD CITYn
WINSTON COUNTYn

About the Search

The search was conducted on Sunday, March 16, 2014. As each school district’s web site is organized differently, a number of methods were used to locate Accountability Reports online. As a last resort, I searched for “accountability” and/or “accountability report” using the search function on each web site.

If you find reports online where I was unable to do so, please forward a link to asc(at)alabamaschoolconnection.org and the table will be updated.

 

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