Due Dates

All end-of-semester and mileage reimbursement documents are due on the dates listed below:

May 1, 2013 - January through May mileage

October 1, 2013 - August mileage

December 4, 2013 - September through December mileage

*If you have school visits beyond the due date, you must contact the Education Services Office to receive an extension for submitting your mileage reimbursement.

End-of-Semester Requirements

A complete Mileage Reimbursement Worksheet and screenshots of the Web site used to calculate distances must be submitted by the appropriate deadline in order to receive reimbursement. Once Education Services receives the documents, the mileage is verified and the individual notified of any corrections.

The following items are due at the end of the semester.  Mileage reimbursements will not be processed until these are complete.

CT Evaluations – CT evaluations are completed online via SurveyMonkey.  Click on the link below to submit your reviews.  All coordinators and facilitators must evaluate the cooperating teachers with whom they worked during the semester.

Spring 2013 CT Evaluations

Summative Assessments - These evaluations are completed online using the Online Evaluation System, which may be accessed using the link below.  Summative Assessments must be completed for every student teacher by both the facilitator and cooperating teacher, and then reviewed by both the student and coordinator before being routed to the Education Services Office for final approval.

Online Evaluation System

Submission

The following documents must be submitted in order to receive a mileage reimbursement payment:

• Mileage Reimbursement Worksheet containing point-to-point distance calculations of trips to schools for student observations

• Maps Word Document containing screenshots from the Web site used to calculate distances (The screenshot must include the origin and destination point, a map of the route, and the same distance calculation used on the Mileage Reimbursement Worksheet.  Click here to see an example.)

Documents should be e-mailed to field.mileage@austin.utexas.edu.  Paper copies of the maps may be submitted, but the Mileage Reimbursement Worksheet will only be accepted electronically.

All questions regarding mileage reimbursement forms, policies, and payments should be directed to Claire Closmann at cclosmann@austin.utexas.edu or (512) 471-1511.

Policies

• Inter- and intra-city claims must be clearly listed as daily point-to-point trip segments with mileage noted for each individual segment. To calculate these distances, please use Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest, or Google Maps.

• The following address should be used for the UT campus: 1950 Speedway, Austin, TX 78712.

• Trip segments should be reported in chronological order. It is acceptable to use multiple lines for a single day should a large number of trip segments make it necessary. However, multiple days should not be combined on a single line.

• The daily and total mileage cells in the pre-formatted spreadsheet are self-calculating and should not be modified.

• Mileage reimbursement materials for each claimant (including all contact information) are due in the Education Services Office no later than 5 p.m. on the Wednesday during the last week of classes.

• Any travel taken between August 1 and August 31 must be submitted on a separate mileage worksheet by 5 p.m. the first working day in October.  (Travel taken September 1 through December must be submitted by the December due date.)

• Mileage worksheets that do not include daily reports of segmented travel detail or are submitted with any daily mileage segments left uncalculated will be returned to the claimant for completion, which may delay processing.

• It is strongly suggested that all mileage claimants retain some form of travel record at least up to the point that payment is received in the event that a claim should require resubmission or verification.

• Mileage reimbursement may be claimed:
  • For supervisory and conferential visits to schools with PDS students and cooperating teachers during regular instruction days
  • To establish or confirm new field placements by coordinators

• Daily mileage involving trips taken solely for the purpose of teaching courses in the field will not be reimbursed.

• The number of visits to be reimbursed should be commensurate with a facilitator's field supervision load for that semester. For the first and second semesters when students are in the field for 1.5 - 2 days, the 20 hour-per-week facilitator (appointed to a cohort to facilitate 22-25 students) typically visits one-third to one-half of the students each week; the number of trips claimed for reimbursement should reflect this, and each cohort should claim a total number of trips based on a 20-hour course load for one facilitator or 10 hours each for two facilitators.

• Segment mileage should be calculated for the shortest direct route between any two points in a day's travel (except in cases where the shortest route requires the use of a toll road).

• Toll road fees are a consideration in the state's determination of the per mileage rate, and therefore, are not reimbursed separately.

• The state expects regularly “clustering" visits, avoiding daily visits to the same campus, as well as repeated visits to a campus in the same day, in order to minimize travel.  Schedule visits to a particular school(s) on a specific day(s) knowing that there will be flexibility for exceptions.

• Mileage from home may only be claimed if the distance is shorter than the distance from the UT campus.  If home is closer, it must be claimed as the starting point if you did not come to the UT campus that day.
  

  Example:  Franklin HS is 8.2 miles away from the UT campus. If a facilitator lives 10 miles away from Franklin HS, he/she can only claim 8.2 miles (UT to Franklin HS). If the facilitator lives 5 miles away from Austin High School he/she may claim 5 miles (Home to Franklin HS).  (Section 4.06(B) of the Texas Travel Allowance Guide)
  

• Mileage from home to the UT campus (or UT campus to home) may not be claimed at any time. (Section 4.06(C) of the Texas Travel Allowance Guide)

Texas Travel Allowance Guide

Section 4.06(B):  "...a state agency shall reimburse a state employee who travels between the employee's residence and the employee's duty point for mileage. If the travel occurs during working hours, the amount of the reimbursement may not exceed the amount that would have been reimbursed had the employee traveled between the employee's place of business* and the duty point.**" 

Section 4.06(C):  "A state agency may not reimburse a state employee for mileage when the employee travels between the employee's residence and the employee's place of employment except as discussed above (extraordinary circumstance: threats to public health or safety, causes or threatens to cause damage to public property, or when travel occurs during non-working hours*).

* Working hours for supervisors (facilitators and coordinators) include all hours that public schools are in session, and M-F 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

** For our purposes, the "duty point" is the school where supervision is taking place or any location other than the UT campus where a seminar is held.  The "place of employment" is the UT campus.

If you have any questions about the mileage reimbursement policies, please call (471-1511) or e-mail (cclosmann@austin.utexas.edu) Claire Closmann.