Running head: A SAMPLE FTE CALCULATION (KEY ASSIGNMENT A)

Calculating a Sample FTE Student Population

Andrew V. Silbaugh

The University of West Florida

A SAMPLE FTE CALCULATION (KEY ASSIGNMENT A) 2

Growing up in Pennsylvania I always remember hearing the yearly complaint from my

mother. “The school tax this year is way too high!” While I was rather immune to this

conversation, it was an important point with my exposure to school funding. When I moved to

Florida in 2016, the Florida Educational Finance Program was not even a thought in my mind. I

just assumed that school taxes were “normal” in every state. It was not until my program at The

University of West Florida that I understood what the “FTE” count actually meant. This paper

will showcase the process of calculating a sample FTE as well as my reflection of the process.

The Calculation

In this example, the calculation is for an elementary school with students in kindergarten

through fifth grade. The student population consists of some students in ESE Service Levels 4

and 5, plus a few students who are in ESOL. The end goal is to calculate the FTE count for one

semester. The data for this calculation is provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1
Sample School Population Data
Grade Basic Students ESE Level 4 ESE Level 5 ESOL
K 94 6 4 5
1 91 3 3 1
2 101 5 2 3
3 103 2 3 2
4 97 4 5 1
5 94 5 3 4

Based upon the data, my first step was to calculate the FTE count for all of the basic

students. In order to do this, I multiplied the number of basic students per grade level by the

program cost factor. According to the Florida Department of Education’s guide, Funding for

Florida School Districts (2018), the program cost factor for K-3 Basic students is 1.108 and the

program cost factor for 4-5 Basic Students is 1.000. Based upon this, my calculation was
A SAMPLE FTE CALCULATION (KEY ASSIGNMENT A) 3

622.012 for basic students. My calculations are noted in Table 2 below.

Table 2
Calculation of Basic Students
Grade Basic Students x Cost Factor Calculation
K 94 1.108 104.152
1 91 1.108 100.828
2 101 1.108 111.908
3 103 1.108 114.124
4 97 1.000 97.000
5 94 1.000 94.000
Next, I Total 622.012 calculated the

ESE Service Level 4 and 5

students per grade level. I multiplied the number of students in each service level by the program

cost factor as provided in the Funding for Florida School Districts (Florida Department of

Education, 2018) guide. The program cost factors for Level 4 are 3.619 and 5.642 for Level 5.

Based upon my calculations, my calculation was 90.475 for Level 4 and 112.84 for Level 5. My

calculations are in Table 3 below.

Table 3
Calculation of ESE Support Levels 4 and 5
Support Level 4 Support Level 5
Grade Students Cost Factor Calculation Grade Students Cost Factor Calculation
K 6 3.619 21.714 K 4 5.642 22.568
1 3 3.619 10.857 1 3 5.642 16.926
2 5 3.619 18.095 2 2 5.642 11.284
3 2 3.619 7.238 3 3 5.642 16.926
4 4 3.619 14.476 4 5 5.642 28.210
5 5 3.619 18.095 5 3 5.642 16.926
Total 90.475 Total 112.84

Next, I calculated the number of students in an ESOL program by grade level. I

multiplied the number of students in the ESOL program by the program cost factor as stated in
A SAMPLE FTE CALCULATION (KEY ASSIGNMENT A) 4

the Florida Department of Education’s Funding for Florida School Districts (2018). The program

cost factor for ESOL is 1.185. Based upon my calculations, the ESOL total is 18.96. The

calculations are listed in Table 4.

Table 4
Calculation of ESOL Students
Grade ESOL x Cost Factor Calculation
K 5 1.185 5.925
1 1 1.185 1.185
2 3 1.185 3.555
3 2 1.185 2.370
4 1 1.185 1.185
5 4 1.185 4.740
Finally, after all of my
Total 18.960
calculations, I totaled all FTE

counts from basic students, ESE Support Levels 4 and 5, and ESOL students, which gave me a

grand total of 844.287. I then divided this in half to get 422.1435, to which I rounded to 422.144

following rounding rules. The calculations are listed below in Table 5.

Table 5
Final FTE
Count
Basic Students ESE Level 4 ESE Level 5 ESOL Total
622.012 90.475 112.84 18.96 844.287
Divide in Half
422.144
Reflection

Overall while I thought this was an easy assignment, I could see how this would be more

complicated for larger schools and for additional support levels. I do believe that the Florida

Educational Finance Program provides funds more evenly for Florida’s schools. Is the system

perfect? Probably not, but I think it is fairer than what I am used to in Pennsylvania. This
A SAMPLE FTE CALCULATION (KEY ASSIGNMENT A) 5

assignment solidified my understanding of the FTE process and the importance of it. As a result

of this assignment, my principal may have me do more practice FTE counts in the future.

Reference

Florida Department of Education (2018). 2018-2019 Funding for Florida school districts [PDF

File]. Retrieved from http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7507/urlt/Fefpdist.pdf.