Every Michigan charter school runs on two calendars. The first is the one families see: first day, conferences, winter break. The second is the compliance calendar, and it is far less forgiving. Miss a date on the first and you reschedule an assembly. Miss a date on the second and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) can hold back state aid until the paperwork arrives.
This guide walks through the 2026-27 year by season, using dates published by MDE for this school year. Treat it as a starting point for your own calendar, and check it against your charter contract, since your authorizer may add reporting requirements of its own.
Why a public school academy’s calendar is different
Michigan charter schools, formally public school academies (PSAs), operate on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year and follow the same governmental accounting rules as traditional districts. They also answer to more parties than most leaders realize: the authorizer that holds the charter, MDE and its Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI), the Michigan Department of Treasury, the independent auditor, and federal grant monitors. Many deadlines sit where two of those systems meet. The audit, for example, feeds the state financial database and then the public transparency page on your website.
Summer: budget and fiscal-year start (July-August)
Your board must adopt a budget before July 1, and Michigan law does not allow a PSA to adopt or operate under a deficit budget. Once the board approves a budget or an amendment, the transparency rules call for posting it to your website within 15 days.
Schools that did not hold a general fund balance of at least 5 percent of revenues in each of the past two years face an extra step: budgetary assumptions go to CEPI before July 7. On the federal side, MDE opened the 2026-27 Consolidated Application in June, and August 26 was the date to receive a July 1 obligation date for those funds.
Fall: the busiest stretch of the year (September-November)
MDE’s Financial Information Database (FID) opens for submissions in early September. Schools in their first or second year of operation, or adding a grade, also complete a preliminary headcount during the September window, with the data due September 25. Then the year’s biggest date arrives: Fall Count Day, Wednesday, October 7, 2026.
November 1 is the date to circle in red. Your independent financial audit and your FID data are both due, and the pupil accounting audit report is due to the department as well. A late audit is not a minor irritation: MDE’s auditing manual says it must withhold 100 percent of a district’s annual state aid until the audit is received, and late FID data holds up the November and later payments. November 1 is also the due date for the Section 31a At-Risk Intent to Use form.
Two more fall items follow close behind. The Final Expenditure Report (FER) for your 2025-26 federal grants is due November 28. And the audited financial statements, expenditure pie charts, and check register that belong on your transparency page are due within 30 days of submission, no later than December 1.
Seven dates in eight weeks
Between October 7 and December 4, a Michigan charter school faces at least seven compliance dates:
- Count Day, October 7
- The financial audit, November 1
- FID data, November 1
- The Section 31a Intent to Use form, November 1
- The federal FER, November 28
- Transparency page postings, December 1
- The original Consolidated Application, December 4
Put them on one page and assign an owner to each.
Winter: grants and the second count (December-February)
The original 2026-27 Consolidated Application, which covers Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV funds, is due December 4, 2026. MDE notes that funding may be lost after that date. Amendments, including final allocations and carryover, close January 15, 2027. The supplemental count follows on Wednesday, February 10, 2027, and it is worth preparing for in January rather than the week before.
Spring: compensation, amendments, and next year’s budget (March-June)
Transparency rules require the total salary and fringe benefit cost for your top administrator, and for any employee earning over $100,000, to be posted within 30 days of W-2 issuance and no later than March 1. April 27, 2027, is the last day for any Consolidated Application or amendment for 2026-27. In May, the Section 31a final report (APFR) becomes available in NexSys. Then the cycle closes where it begins: the board adopts next year’s budget before July 1, and any final amendments to the current budget should land before June 30.
Dates that depend on your school
The calendar above applies to every PSA. A handful of other dates depend on your circumstances, and they are the ones most likely to slip because no one sends a reminder.
- New and growing schools. First- and second-year schools, and schools adding a grade, complete the September preliminary headcount. A brand-new charter school also must be set up as a reporting unit with the Office of Retirement Services before it can report staff.
- Schools that work with an education service provider. If your school submits an ESP file with its FID data, additional expenditure pie charts belong on your transparency page, and the Revised School Code adds posting requirements for ESP financial information.
- Schools spending $1,000,000 or more in federal funds. A single audit applies, and the reporting package goes to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse within 30 days of the auditor’s report or nine months after fiscal year-end, whichever comes first.
- Schools with a deficit, or heading toward one. Projecting a negative general fund balance or adopting a deficit budget requires a deficit elimination plan, and a deficit that has occurred starts a 30-day clock for an amended budget and a board-approved plan.
- Your authorizer’s own requirements. Many authorizers set reporting dates for site visits, board documents, academic data, and facility or insurance certificates. None of these appear on a state calendar, so ask your authorizer for theirs and merge the two lists. For example, quarterly financial reports are typically due within 30 days of the end of the quarter.
When a school misses a date, the reason is usually one of three things. Either the task sits between two systems, and no one owns it, or the date moved and no one rechecked the schedule, or the task is larger than the deadline suggests. The Final Expenditure Report may be due November 28, but reconciling it to the ledger could take weeks. Build your internal dates around the work, not just the deadline.
Turning the calendar into a system
A list of dates does not prevent a missed deadline. Ownership does. Three habits make the difference:
- Name one owner per date. Shared responsibility usually means no responsibility. Pair each owner with a backup.
- Work backward. Set an internal deadline two weeks ahead of every state or federal one, so an auditor’s question or a system outage does not turn into a late filing.
- Put board-facing items on the board’s calendar. The audit presentation, budget adoption, and annual review of the transparency page belong on the board’s annual agenda plan, not in someone’s memory.
If your school is managing this with a patchwork of spreadsheets and reminders, you are not alone. It is also the kind of work where a second set of eyes pays for itself.
EdOps supports Michigan charter schools with finance, HR, and compliance operations. If you would like a second look at your 2026-27 compliance calendar, contact the Michigan Regional Director for EdOps, Brian McMillan, at bmcmillan@ed-ops.com and we will walk through it with you.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Requirements depend on your charter contract, your authorizer, and current law. Confirm specifics with your authorizer, independent auditor, and legal counsel. Information reflects Michigan requirements as of the publication date.
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