Idaho Falls finance director briefs Senate committee on school funding: 'funding is attendance‑based, not enrollment‑based'

Boise — Lynelle Farmer, director of finance for the Idaho Falls School District, told the Senate Education Committee that school funding in Idaho is driven by a “support unit” model and average daily attendance (ADA), and she warned that post‑COVID attendance patterns and rising insurance costs have put new pressure on district budgets.

“Funds stay within a bucket or a ledger and are audited separately,” Farmer said, describing Idaho Financial Accounting Reporting Management System (IFAMS) fund codes and the common categories—general operating fund (IFAMS 100), special revenue funds, debt service and capital funds. Farmer said the general fund covers salaries, benefits and limited capital while federal, state and local revenues feed special revenue programs such as Title funds and CTE.

Why this matters: The session offered a technical primer on how state law converts student counts into support units, how those units translate into staffing allocations under Idaho’s career‑ladder model, and why attendance (ADA) rather than simple enrollment continues to affect district revenues.

Key points from Farmer’s presentation

- District profile and IFAMS: Farmer said Idaho Falls School District serves about 10,000 students with roughly 1,800 employees and explained the key IFAMS fund buckets.

- Support units and funding math: She explained that a support unit behaves like a classroom and described divisors used by grade: for example, 40 kindergarten pupils equals 1 unit (kindergarten funded as half‑day); grades 1–3 use a 20‑pupil divisor; grades 4–6 use 23; grades 7–12 use 18.5; special education 14.5; alternative secondary schools 12. She said one support unit yields about $43,622 in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2025, of which she said roughly $20,150 is designated to insurance costs and about $23,004.72 is for other discretionary uses.

- Career ladder and salary apportionment: Farmer described Idaho’s career ladder as the state’s revenue distribution matrix (residency/professional/advanced professional rungs) and explained how administrator and classified staff allocations are calculated from support units and statutory bases ($44,446 base for administrators in FY25; $39,966 base for classified staff in FY25 were cited as funding references).

- Protection and ADA: Farmer described the “protection” mechanism (a self‑funded pool that cushions districts when ADA drops) and showed the cost to districts rose sharply in 2024 because many districts returned to ADA funding after pandemic enrollment measures ended.

- Special distributions and reserves: Farmer reviewed several special distributions coded to the general fund—professional development ($449 per instructional/pupil service FTE plus an $8,000 base), college and career advisers, literacy funding, remediation and math & science allocations—and emphasized some funds are “use it or lose it.”

Farmer also warned that while federal IDEA funds support special education, districts must match federal dollars with state and local funds (maintenance‑of‑effort), and she illustrated that Medicaid reimbursement and levy dollars do not close the full gap.

Questions and context

Committee members asked about how protection works, whether salary schedules match the career ladder, and how post‑COVID attendance patterns continue to reduce state funding for many secondary schools. Farmer said attendance remains below pre‑COVID levels in some secondary grades and the change has reduced apportionment tied to ADA.

Ending

Senators thanked Farmer for the technical briefing. No formal action followed; the committee proceeded to the next agenda item.