Electronic Submissions

Charter schools, regional education service centers (ESCs), and school districts must submit their annual financial report (AFR), district improvement plan for school districts and charter schools), campus improvement plan(s) (for school districts and charter schools), and local evaluations (for school districts and charter schools) in electronic format to the Financial Compliance Division. This page provides information about

• the documents districts and ESCs must submit,
• the documents charters must submit,
• instructions for submitting the required documents, and
• additional information related to submitting the AFR and related documents.

Important Reminders

• The Texas Education Code (TEC), §44.008, does not provide for any extension when the date falls on a holiday or weekend. The AFR is not required to be submitted earlier.
• A complete, board approved, and signed AFR in PDF format must be received through the AUDIT application in the TEA Login (TEAL) secure environment to meet submission requirements.
• Emailing of the required AFR files does not meet submission requirements.
• The AUDIT application in TEAL is open 24 hours, seven days a week to accept electronic AFR submissions.

Annual Financial and Compliance Report Submission—Districts and ESCs 

A school district or an ESC must send the AFR (as a PDF) and related data feed text file to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

• For instructions for submitting the AFR PDF document, see Electronic Report Submission Standards (PDF, 1,057 KB).
• For instructions on submitting the data feed text file, see
  • Annual Financial Report Data Feed Standards (Word, 328 KB) and
  • Brief Overview of the Audit Data Feed Finalization Process (PDF, 916 KB)

A district or ESC submits its AFR through the AUDIT application in the Texas Education Agency Login (TEAL). See the appropriate link in the TEAL section below to set up an account. 

Annual Financial and Compliance Report Submission—Charter Schools 

There is a new process for Charter Schools beginning with their FY2021 annual financial audit report data submission. This new process replaces the submission of the financial data on the Excel data templates which were emailed to TEA in previous years. This new process also requires that at least one person at the Charter School has TEAL Audit application access to close and finalize the submission.

The Audit application is currently open and can accept the data feed submission of the annual financial report information for the Charter Schools (with non-profit holders) and Governmental Charter Schools (with a Governmental Entity or an Institution of higher Education as their charter holder). Submission instructions can be found below.

A charter school must send its AFR (as a PDF) and related data to TEA.

• For instructions for submitting the AFR PDF document, see Electronic Report Submission Standards (PDF, 1,057 KB). 
• For instructions on submitting the Charter School - Financial Data Feed
  • Charter School Annual Financial Report Data Feed Standards (Word 938KB)
• For instructions on submitting the Governmental Charter School - Financial Data Feed
  • ​​​​​​​Governmental Charter School Financial Data Feed Standards (Word 931KB). 
• Overview of Charter School financial audit report data submission process (PDF 2,393 KB) other than some of the schedules being different, the process is the same for Charter School and Governmental Charter Schools. 

A charter school submits its AFR through the AUDIT application in TEAL. Refer to the appropriate link below to set up an account. 

District and Campus Improvement Plans Submission—Districts and Charter Schools 

A school district or charter school must send in the district improvement plan, campus improvement plan(s), and local evaluations as a PDF to TEA.

• For instructions for submitting the PDF documents, see Electronic Report Submission Standards (PDF, 1,057 KB).

TEAL Applications 

Submit the electronic reports through the AUDIT application in TEAL. Refer to the appropriate link below to set up an account.

Application for TEAL AUDIT Account — District Users: TEAL Logon Page

Application for TEAL AUDIT Account — CPAs only (PDF, 120 KB)

Instructions for setting up AUDIT Application access for CPAs in TEAL (Word, 33 KB)

TEAL Audit Application Roles

The AUDIT application user roles for submitting the AFR, State Compensatory Education (SCE) files, and depository contract information are listed below.

When working with both AFR and depository contract submissions, request the appropriate role:

• Charter AFR and Depository Contract User,
• ISD AFR and Depository Contract User, or
• Governmental charter school personnel will need to request the two roles below:
  • Governmental Charter User - Submits AFR, and
  • Depository Contract User - Submit only depository contract

Users who will be submitting SCE files (that is district and campus improvement plans) must apply for a role which includes: “Submits AFR." 

• Charter AFR User - Submits AFR
• Charter AFR and Depository Contract User - Submits AFR and depository contract
• Governmental Charter User - Submits AFR 
• ISD User - Submits AFR
• ISD AFR and Depository Contract User - Submits AFR and depository contract
• Depository Contract User - Submit only depository contract
• CPA Personnel - Submits AFR (CPA firm users only)