New York State Education Dept. Division of Educational Finance Boards of Cooperative Educational Services Annual Financial and…

Chronological by fiscal year, thereunder alphabetical by county, then numeric by supervisory district number.

During the 1930's, educators envisioned a comprehensive high school that would educate all children for work and life in a democracy. However, most central schools were not big enough to offer a full array of academic and vocational courses. In 1944, a Council on Rural Education, funded by farm organizations, recommended a "new type of rural supervisory district," responsible to school districts and responsive to needs of rural people. The result was the intermediate district law of 1948. While the intermediate districts were to be formed, the act provided for temporary boards of cooperative educational services (now called BOCES), which the New York State Education Department (NYSED) hoped would "get people working together across district lines" and provide shared educational services in rural areas. The intermediate districts never came into existence, but the BOCES proved to be popular with rural school districts and the general public, since they provided a wide range of educational services at reasonable cost, while maintaining a significant degree of local control over the programs offered by the BOCES.

Today there are 37 BOCES, incorporating all school districts except for those in the "Big 5" cities (New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers). A BOCES is formed by the Commissioner at the request of the school boards in one or more supervisory districts. The BOCES is headed by the district superintendent; school board representatives collectively elect BOCES members and approve the BOCES budget; and NYSED approves BOCES service contracts. Concern that this structure insulates a BOCES from public scrutiny prompted legislation requiring the Commissioner, starting in 1996, to submit an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature on BOCES finances and pupil performance. In the early years the typical BOCES service consisted of traveling teachers for specialized subjects. After 1967, BOCES were authorized to own and operate their own facilities, and BOCES now offer vocational and special education programs as well as many administrative services for member districts.

The State Education Department required each BOCES to submit an annual accounting of receipts, expenditures, and staff for the previous fiscal year. These reports were filed with the Bureau of Apportionment through 1954, the Division of School Financial Aid until 1964, and the Division of Educational Finance thereafter.

This series contains annual reports from each BOCES to NYSED offices in charge of educational finance and state aid. Each report consists of a bi-folded cover sheet detailing statements of receipts and expenditures for the BOCES program as a whole, including salaries for BOCES staff. Inside each of the cover sheets are most of the following: program expenditures sheets categorizing expenditures for each service offered; bank certificates of amount of money on deposit; list of services and costs in participating district; list of BOCES staff, giving course taught, type of license held, salary, and number of days in service; and state aid worksheets for each participating school district, used to compute the next year's aid and giving the amount approved.

B0474Series B0474, Boards of Cooperative Educational Services applications for shared services, contains applications from 1948 to 1968

B0473Series B0473, BOCES correspondence and administrative files, contains files maintained by the Bureau of School District Organization documenting the BOCES program

14209Series 14209, BOCES new service proposals, contains proposals for new services from 1975 to 1978.

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