Deadlines are looming for school districts and other public employers to comply with a new financial-reporting rule on the long-term costs for health and other insurance benefits that have been promised to employees. For the first time, local, state, and federal agencies will have to disclose future benefit costs in current budgets, a requirement that could force policymakers to confront the under-the-radar issue of meeting those costs and explain why such obligations have grown so large. But even as the high stakes become increasingly apparent, many school finance officials are only beginning to wrestle with how to satisfy the new requirement. "At this point, they're not very prepared at all," said Corey Arvizu, a partner at the accounting firm of Heinfeld, & Meech in Tucson, Arizona, whose clients include school districts. "I think the ball is rolling, but there are a lot of districts out there that are not even aware what their policies are regarding their benefits." The changes were set in motion in 2004, when the Governmental Accounting Standards Board--an independent, Norwalk, Connecticut-based organization that sets financial-reporting standards for government agencies--issued what is called Statement 45. The GASG rule requires all cities, school districts, and other public agencies that provide such non-pension retirement benefits as health insurance, and a dental and vision care to recognize and disclose those long-term obligations during the years that an employee is working. If the costs are not "prefunded," they will register as a liability on districts' financial statements.