Program cost accounting in education provides a method to determine the total costs for instruction, support and central administration. Not all of these costs are directly charged to the program. Costs that are not directly charged to programs are totaled at year-end and allocated to each program using a set of factors. 

This cost accounting feature may have a significant impact on the special education program. The amounts not directly charged to special education, but included in the program cost report allocation, or PCRA, may be included in the LEA's special education maintenance of effort. Therefore, a strong understanding of the cost accounting functions and activities is critical for both the LEAs finance and special education areas.

The following YouTube video, slides, and CSAM procedure may provide an understanding of program cost accounting and the components of PCRA:

YouTube Video: What is PCRA
PCRA Slides
CSAM Procedure 910, with notes

Charter Member LEAs can utilize the PCRA in the appropriate tab of the Fresno County Charter SELPA's "Charter MOE Alternative Form". The PCRA is illustrated here: 

In this example, the charter school recorded school administration expenditures of $100,000. These expenditures were undistributed to any program. For SACS users, these are expenditures coded to Goal 0000 as they were for services that benefited many, if not all, of the programs in the charter school. In other words, these expenditures were not directly charged to the special education program, although special education benefited from these services.

Since they were not directly charged to special education, but they benefited the program, charter schools may allocate a proportionate share of these undistributed costs to the special education program. The proportionate share of the cost is calculated using factors. In this example, Teacher FTE factors are used. Of the charter school's 17 Teacher FTEs, 2.0 serve the special education program. As the amount per factor is $5,882.36, and 2 of the 17 factors are special education, the charter school may allocate $11,764.72 of the $100,000 to special education.

Please note that these allocations increase the charter school's MOE amount, and cannot be removed once used. A higher MOE threshold might be difficult for the charter school to meet its MOE requirement in subsequent years. Therefore, calculate the PCRA accurately and correctly.