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Understanding School Finance

Public schools in Indiana, including Hamilton Southeastern Schools, receive support from federal, state, and local tax dollars. Each of these revenue sources is designated for a specific purpose within the district. By Indiana law, these dollars are managed across several funds, with each fund serving a distinct role:

Major Funds

2026 BUDGET

MONTHLY FINANCIAL SUMMARY APRIL 2026

Additional details for all three major funds is available under each fund tab.

Additional Funds

  • Debt Service is funded through property taxes and used to pay for approved debt service obligations, including debt issued by the corporation for building repairs and other facility projects. Issuances include first-lease bonds designed for specific building projects and General Obligation (GO) bonds designed for a variety of projects and recurring maintenance budgets.

  • Debt Service Exempt is funded through property taxes and applies to debt approved by a referendum. The most recent debt service referendum for Hamilton Southeastern Schools was approved in 2018 to fund the construction of Southeastern Elementary.

  • Rainy Day is reserved for unexpected or emergency expenses. It does not receive ongoing tax support and consists of one-time use dollars transferred from other funds.

Transfers Between Funds

School funds are separate by design, and moving money between them is limited by state law. Transfers require formal approval and must follow strict guidelines.

In most cases, funds are not transferred between accounts. The primary exception is the annual transfer from the Education Fund to the Operations Fund. 

This practice began after changes to Indiana school funding in 2019, when certain expenses like utilities, custodial services, and business operations shifted out of the General (now Education) Fund and into the Operations Fund. As a result, many districts, including ours, use a controlled transfer to help cover those costs.

State law (IC 20-40-2-6) limits these transfers to no more than 15% of a district’s Education Fund revenue. Learn more about our annual transfer on our Operations Fund page. 

Auditing

Per Indiana state statute, school districts with 15,000 students are required to use an accrual accounting process that converts their cash accounting records to accrual accounting. This process requires a significant amount of work beyond a traditional audit.

Our annual audits are completed by an outside agency and submitted to the Indiana Department of Education for approval. Hamilton Southeastern Schools’ most recent audit (2024–2025) resulted in a clean opinion with no findings.

2024-2025 FINANCIAL AUDIT