Personnel Reporting

School District Personnel Report S-275 – Background

The S-275 reporting process is an electronic personnel reporting process that provides a current year record of certificated and classified employees of the school districts and educational service districts (ESD’s) of the state of Washington.

Developed during the 1970’s, this report initially provided an annual staffing snapshot picture of Washington State school districts. The snapshot concept has been retained for the most part, but actual salary and benefit information is now updated through the end of the school year, fitting a more dynamic reporting concept. This dual nature has evolved to meet expanding needs and uses for certificated and classified staff data.

All school district and ESD personnel employed as of October 1 of each school year are reported to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) on the S-275 report.

S-275 Personnel Reporting Handbook

Purpose

The data collected by the S-275 reporting process are either mandated by state law, necessary for calculation of state funding, or are needed for responding to requests by the federal government, the Legislature, or other organizations. S-275 personnel data are used by OSPI to calculate staffing mix factors used for apportionment of state funding.

Staff Mix Factors

The staff mix factor is a five-decimal number between 1.00000 and 1.88482 that quantifies the varying education and experience level of certificated staff. Mix factors are taken from LEAP Document 1 and are assigned to certificated employees through the S-275 reporting process. The staff mix factor for certificated instructional staff reported on the S-275 is used to determine state salary allocations to school districts for basic education, special education, and other educational programs.

Staffing Ratios

The number of full-time equivalent (fte) staff repported on the S-275 are used in calculating staff/student ratios that determine:

School district complilance with maintaining a minimum ratio of 46 certificated instructional staff per 1000 FTE students
(K-12).
The monetary penalty for not maintaining this ratio.

Prototypical funding comparison

The S-275 information collected in the 2011-12 school year will be used to provide a school-level, web-based comparison between the prototypical funding model and the actual school level staffing provided by the district.

Data for the Legislature, National Organizations, and the Public

S-275 data is provided to the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program (LEAP) Committee, a research arm of the Legislature. Each year the LEAP Committee provides information and analysis to the Legislature on request. The state legislature uses this information in setting policy, including state funding for school employee costs.
Selected statewide data are provided to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Education Association (NEA), and other national organizations for state comparison and analysis nationwide.
S-275 data are provided on request to other organizations and other individuals. S-275 information is public information except for; social security numbers, which are exempt from disclosure per RCW 42.56.250(3); and a very limited number of records where personal information of crime victims is protected per Chapter 40.24 RCW.
Because of the use and impact of the S-275 data, care must be taken to be as accurate and complete as possible in following S-275 instructions.