Budget categories and fiscal policies
The Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service Outdoor School program expects participating districts to adhere to standard accounting, procurement, and contracting policies.
Information for 2024-2025 Reporting
All of the information on the webpage below pertains to 2025-2026 reporting. Click the button below to review budget and fiscal policies for current 2024-2025 reporting.
Outdoor School Costs
School districts will report costs for activities or items associated with the Outdoor School program within five categories that correspond to the Oregon Department of Education’s Expenditure Objects:
- Salaries and associated payroll costs (ODE Categories 100, 200)
- Provider costs (From ODE Category 300)
- Reimbursable transportation costs (From ODE Category 300)
- Supplies and materials (From ODE Category 300)
- Other purchased services (From ODE Category 300)
HERE is a detailed overview of updated budget categories and the new alignment with ODE Expenditure Objects.
We provide examples of allowable and prohibited costs for each of these budget categories in the tabbed sections below.
- Provider Costs
- Salaries and Associated Payroll Costs
- Reimbursable Transportation Costs
- Supplies and Materials
- Other Purchased Services
This cost is located within ODE budget category 300. In this field, insert the total amount that was invoiced from the contracted outdoor school provider.
Provider costs are fees paid to an outdoor school provider if the school or district contracts a provider-based outdoor school experience. For example, this can include lodging, food, instruction, activities, or any other invoiced costs. The district should also include costs that the provider may bill for chaperones to attend outdoor school in the provider costs category.
In this budget category, combine all outdoor school costs from both ODE budget categories 100 and 200. For example, this can include reimbursement for district staff who are supporting outdoor school outside of their regular work and sleeping hours as well as substitute costs required to cover teachers attending outdoor school.
A reasonable adult-to-student ratio should be designed in collaboration with the district and the provider, and consider the needs of students. If a school anticipates a ratio higher than 8:1, they should provide details for this need in their application or contact their regional program manager. The personnel expenses and stipends are the district or school's costs to pay in-house staff (employees that the district pays payroll taxes for) or contractors who help with the outdoor school program set-up and attendance. This could include college students, teacher’s aides, translators, nurses, or one-on-one aides.
The OSU Outdoor School program will reimburse pay that is:
- not covered by other sources, or
- for outdoor school work-time outside of normal school and sleeping hours.
For example, within a 24-hour day, we subtract
- seven hours for the school day,
- and eight hours for sleep
- leaving nine hours as the largest possible reimbursement requested
Of those nine hours, the district should invoice only the hours worked supporting outdoor school programming. This also assumes the district funds the seven-hour school day through other sources.
The district's personnel expenses and stipends can include:
- gross wages,
- payroll taxes,
- health insurance,
- retirement benefits,
- accrued leave liability, and
- workers' compensation insurance.
The district's invoice can include staff time spent on planning and attending outdoor school and preparing the final Outdoor School program report when these tasks are performed outside the seven-hour day paid by the district.
The district's invoiced costs can include pay for substitutes if the substitute:
- oversees students who did not attend outdoor school.
- covers the classes of a teacher attending outdoor school.
- attends outdoor school as a required chaperone or educator.
The salaries and associated payroll costs category does not cover the cost of:
- volunteers,
- parents,
- personnel who perform the function of bookkeepers, accountants, or administrative service staff,
- audit services,
- tax preparation, or
- tax/corporate filing fees.
In this field, provide transportation costs that are not covered by the ODE State School Fund Transportation Grant. Districts should include Outdoor School transportation into their annual transportation budgets, anything not covered for bussing to and from Outdoor School, is reimbursable in this category.
Reimbursable transportation costs are the district’s costs for bussing to and from outdoor school. They are only the costs that are not covered by other sources such as:
- Title 1,
- Title 9,
- State of Oregon funds, etc.
The OSU Outdoor School program will also reimburse districts for all costs related to taking students/parents/families from your school to an outdoor school facility. You or your partner organizations might want to do this as part of a school-sponsored outdoor school orientation or information event. Reimbursable transportation expenses can include bus fees, fuel, mileage, driver, or charter costs.
Districts should include costs associated with personal vehicle use in the personnel and stipend category. This is only if the district approved the personal vehicle use as a reasonable outdoor school expense.
In this field, include expenses for all purchased materials. For example, this can include supplies retained for future outdoor school use, such as sleeping bags, raincoats, science equipment, etc., or consumables such as art supplies or bus snacks. This cost is located within ODE budget category 400.
These include but are not limited to:
- Portable equipment less than $1,000 (such as digital cameras, GPS units, science kits)
- Emergency and/or first aid kits and kit refills
- Office supplies (purchased for outdoor school) (e.g. write-in-the-rain paper)
- Direct mail/postage (purchased for outdoor school)
- Menstrual products as required in OAR 581.121
- Equipment and clothing for staff or students including:
- Outdoor clothing,
- outdoor gear, or
- safety gear.
- Restoration activity supplies: tree protectors, grass seed, plants, shrubs, trees
- Miscellaneous tools/hardware, shovels
- Food or snacks for the outdoor school program (not for classroom activities)
- Prizes that are educational in nature. For example: leaf or tree identification cards, magnifying glasses, etc.
Prohibited program costs
These include, but are not limited to:
- Individual apparel/gear purchased for or used only by one individual (e.g., work pants, hiking or work boots). OSU will reimburse the cost of T-shirts if they are part of an outdoor school activity.
- Flower bouquets, greeting cards, gifts, and gift cards.
- Office supplies for administrative use. For example: paper, pens, folders, toner, office furniture, etc.
- Office equipment costs. The school/district cannot include the cost to buy or depreciate, lease or maintain copiers, faxes, printers, and scanners.
- Technology (computer, IT service, maintenance, software, etc.) for administration.
- Costs associated with the ownership of equipment including depreciation, storage, maintenance, and insurance.
OSU will not pay districts for supplies they already own, without documented approval from OSU. This would include items like:
- Science materials
- T-shirts
- Materials purchased for something other than outdoor school but used for outdoor school.
In this field, include any costs incurred by the district that do not fit into one of the previous categories. For example, include costs for other contracted services including guest speakers or translation services. Costs entered into Other Purchased Services may come from several ODE budget categories.
Allowable program costs
These include, but are not limited to:
- Supplemental Accident Insurance1
- Storage for equipment/material
- Contractor fees (e.g. background checks and fingerprinting), stipends, and travel costs. These could also include folks working outside of their job description and presenting as:
- speakers,
- master naturalists,
- visibility experts,
- college students
- Translation costs for outdoor school printed material
- Equipment and clothing cleaning costs (sleeping bags, apparel, boots, etc.)
- Hotel costs for staff/chaperones
- The school/district must verify the staff/chaperone is necessary. And they must verify that the accommodations are a necessity, not a preference.
Prohibited program costs
These include, but are not limited to:
- Donations to programs or individuals.
- Occupancy, rent, utilities, property insurance, janitorial.
- Communication, telephone, internet, fax, cell phone.
- Copying and printing costs associated with grant administration.
- Legal expenses.
- Solicitations and announcements for contract bid postings and job postings.
- Banking and fiscal transaction fees.
- Grantees insurance (risk, bonding, liability, D/O, and other).
- Overdrafts, late fees, finance charges, penalties, or interest (accountability of public funds).
District is expected to ask parents (as part of the standard permission slip) to verify that they do or do not have medical/accident insurance that would cover their child if the child were injured at outdoor school.
The OSU Extension Service Outdoor School program will reimburse the district for the premium costs of an appropriate supplemental accident insurance policy (up to $2.00 per student per day) for those students whose parents indicate they are not covered and would (without coverage) not send their child to outdoor school.
Each district is required to have basic liability insurance to cover student injury/illness.
Also note, the Outdoor School program will not pay any deductibles or other fees/expenses related to this supplemental insurance or any injury/illness experienced by students. Each district is required to have basic liability insurance to cover student injury/illness while at school or under the care and supervision of the school.
As indicated in prohibited program costs, the cost of liability insurance will not be reimbursed by the OSU Outdoor School program.
Receipts and records
OSU does not require the participating district to submit a full accounting of expenses with your reported costs, however, OSU may request the district produce copies of receipts or other documentation as part of an audit.
The district must retain all documents related to outdoor school costs in support of your Outdoor School reported costs. These documents include, but are not limited to:
- A roster of the students who attended outdoor school to support the number of students claimed in the district’s payment request.
- Documents that support service and supply payments submitted as outdoor school costs (e.g., invoice/payment documents).
- Documentation of transportation costs.
- Payroll records associated with teacher stipends or other personnel related expenses.
Matching or in-kind funding requirements
There is no requirement for districts or schools to have or to document matching or in-kind funds for OSU Outdoor School program awards.
Prohibited actions
ORS 244.040 prohibits every public official from using or attempting to use the position held as a public official to obtain a financial benefit if the opportunity for the financial benefit would not otherwise be available but for the position held by the public official. The financial benefit prohibited can be either an opportunity for gain or to avoid an expense.
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