High Cost Child Claims

High-Cost Child Claims

High-Cost Child claims

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) allows states to use 10% of their Part B funds reserved for state-level activities to establish and make disbursements from a high-cost fund to public education agencies (PEA) for students meeting the criteria of high risk.

ADE/ESS has determined that any student with disabilities whose cost exceeds three times the per-pupil average is eligible for High-Cost funding. A student whose costs exceed $35,004 per year would meet the minimum threshold to be considered for HCC funding.  $194.47 per day for a 180-day calendar, approximately $3,500 per month.

The PEA must be eligible for IDEA grant funding in order to apply for HCC Claims. Any programmatic holds, fiscal holds, or items of non-compliance with IDEA will cause claims to be delayed for approval or rejected completely.

Please ensure your PEA staff have been given the appropriate role to access the application: ESS High Cost: PEA User

Public Education Agencies (PEA) will be limited to submitting only one claim per submission round.  Please note, if your PEA submits more than one claim per round, the additional claims will be returned without review by the HCC Specialist.

Claims must be submitted before each deadline listed below for funding consideration.

 

Submission Deadline Dates

HCC Round for Funding Approval

Submission Deadline 

1st

Friday, October 30, 2026

2nd 

Friday, January 29, 2027

3rd

Friday, March 26, 2027

4th

Friday, May 28, 2027

 

Main documents needed for HCC claim

  1. Current IEP that covers the dates in the submitted claim
  2. Invoices or accounting documentation
    1. If submitting accounting documents, you must include a crosswalk that breaks down the amount being reimbursed
    2. items being requested for reimbursement must be reflected in the students IEP
  3. A narrative on PEA letterhead explaining the obligation and how it affects the special education funds
  4. Summary Template

Before submitting the HCC claim, PEA must ensure that the AzEDS data has no integrity errors and aligns with the students’ IEP.  The Sped categories for primary and secondary should reflect what is in the student’s IEP along with the LRE.

 

Reasons claims are returned

  • Items not listed in students IEP
  • Integrity errors in AzEDS
  • Invoices that fall outside of claim date, not readable, don’t align with claim summary template, or don’t calculate up to the HCC claim request amount
  • Claim documents do not match student name listed on claim

The ESS HCC Specialist may return claims for edits or corrections, and those edits must be submitted within five business days. 

 

Not allowable for reimbursement 

  • Special Education Teachers or Administrators salaries/benefits
  • Office equipment or Office supplies
  • Claim amount does not meet the Monthly average of $3,500.00

Training Videos COMING SOON!

Resources

 

ESS HCC claims Program Specialist Contacts

Carol Bush                Program Specialist (602) 542-0709

Tanya Rodriguez      Program Specialist (602) 542-4610

Abby Sanchez,         Finance Director     (602) 542-2975