American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ARRA

1
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

• ESEA and USDA
• April, 2009
• Nebraska Department of Education

2
Purpose of ARRA

• According to Secretary Arne Duncan
• Protect Children
• Retain or create jobs
• Provide real reform for education
• USDE intends to
• Deliver funds quickly
• Save and create jobs
• Ensure transparency and accountability
• Advance reform

3
ARRA Principles

• Spend funds quickly to save and create jobs
• Improve student achievement through school
  improvement and reform -
• Rigorous college- and career-ready standards and
  high-quality assessments
• Pre-K to college and career data systems
• State efforts to improve teacher effectiveness
  and in the equitable distribution of qualified
  teachers

4

• Intensive support and effective interventions for
  the lowest-performing schools
• Ensure transparency, reporting and accountability
• Invest one-time ARRA funds thoughtfully to
  minimize the funding cliff.

5
Reporting for All ARRA Grants

• Reporting required
• Quarterly reports
• Financial information on ARRA funds
• Program outcomes/results on uses of ARRA funds
• Estimated number of jobs created or retained
• Subcontracts and subgrants (if any) required to
  comply with the Federal Funding Accountability
  and Transparency Act

6
Accounting for ARRA Funds

• New, separate CFDA numbers
• Account codes will be provided for district
  budget Receipts and Disbursements
• Maintain adequate documentation for
• All ARRA expenditures
• All ARRA funded projects and activities
• NDE is working on a common or single reporting
  form for required program information

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Education Grants

• Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
  (ESEA) current authorization is NCLB
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  (IDEA)
• State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF)
• Used for shortfalls in funding in elementary and
  secondary and higher education

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Stabilization Funds (SFSF)

• Governor decides how funds will be distributed
• Any funds that go to districts may be used for
  any activity authorized in ESEA, IDEA, Perkins,
  Adult Ed or renovation
• Impact Aid is one of the ESEA programs
• Provides federal funds for districts with Federal
  land
• Impact Aid allows federal funds to be used for
  general fund purposes

9
ESEA Grants

• Title I, Part A Education for the Disadvantaged
• Title I, Part A School Improvement 1003(g)
• Title I, Part D, Subpart 2 Neglected or
  Delinquent programs in local correctional
  facilities
• Title II, Part D Technology
• ½ Formula ½ Competitive
• McKinney-Vento Homeless Education
• Equipment Assistance for School Lunch (USDA)

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Title I, Part A Grants

• ARRA Title I 47 Million
• Targeted and Education Finance Incentive Grants
  (EFIG)
• Regular Title I - 67 million
• ½ of ARRA Title I now and ½ in October but
  guidance allows applications for total amount
• Estimated allocations, based on 2008-09 data, for
  each district posted on the NDE homepage under
  ARRA

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Title I, Part A Allocations

• ARRA will use the 2009-10 poverty data for
  distributing funds
• New census data
• Nebraska will continue to use the approved
  alternate formula
• Averaging free lunch counts and census poor for
  districts with fewer than 20,000 census poor
• 15 districts with 20,000 census poor will have
  allocations determined by USDE

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Reservations

• Section 1003 (a) requires NDE to reserve 4 from
  the States allocation for school improvement
• NDE has been able, in previous years, to
  reallocate any unused funds from this reservation
  the following year
• We are waiting for guidance on whether there is
  an option for the State to reserve any funds for
  administration

13
Title II, Part D - Technology

• 3 million in ARRA 50 in July, 50 in Oct.
• ½ will be allocated through same formula used in
  previous years
• For comparison, Title II, Part D had only about
  600,000 for formula grants in 2008-09 and ARRA
  will be about 1.2 million
• State has a 5 reservation for administration and
  technical assistance
• ½ competitive grants for districts and consortia
• New priorities and timelines

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Competitive Title II-D

• Competitive ARRA Technology grants proposed
  timeline
• Application open on May 1
• Applications due on June 15
• State Board approval in August
• Regular Title II-D competitive grant timeline
• Applications open April 16
• Applications due June 3
• State Board approval in August

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Title I, Part D Subpart 2

• Allocations to districts that have local, county
  operated correctional facilities
• Based on the data from the October Caseload
  Counts submitted in the Fall 2008
• Omaha, Lincoln, Papillion, Madison and Gering
• ARRA will be a separate paper application in
  addition to the regular Title I, Part D, subpart
  2 application

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Title I, Part A Section 1003(g)

• School Improvement funds to districts with Title
  I schools identified as being in need of
  improvement
• Nebraska will need to submit an application in
  order to receive these funds
• ARRA funds become available in October, 2009
• We should have the new AYP data and a new list of
  identified Title I schools
• Estimated amount for NE is 13 million

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ARRA Homeless Education

• Estimated amount for Nebraska - 166,000
• Competitive grants in the GMS
• Use the same McKinney-Vento application form
• All districts that reported homeless children and
  youth will be eligible
• Proposed timelines will be announced
• Match required with ARRA Title I funds

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Equipment Assistance - USDA

• Nebraska will get 500,000 for grants for new,
  renovation or replacement of equipment used in
  the school lunch program
• Priority to schools with 50 of students eligible
  for free and reduced price meals
• Competitive grants
• NDE must award by June, districts must spend
  within 90 days

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Title I and Title II-D

• ESEA grants under ARRA have the same rules and
  requirements as these programs in regular NCLB
  (unless waivers approved)
• Maintenance of Effort (MOE)
• Supplement, Not Supplant
• Equitable participation for nonpublic schools and
  students
• All set-asides and use requirements (i.e., 25 of
  Title II, Part D used for professional
  development)
• 15 carryover limitation in Title I, Part A

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Maintenance of Effort (MOE)

• MOE for ESEA is different than MOE for IDEA or
  for Perkins
• District level state and local expenditures must
  be maintained (at least 90) in the previous year
  as in the year prior to the previous year
• Determined through aggregate expenditures, ADA or
  ADM (whichever works best)
• ESEA MOE is figured by the State using data from
  the districts Annual Financial Report (AFR)

21
MOE and ARRA Funds

• If the State uses the State Fiscal Stabilization
  Funds (SFSF) to cover shortfalls in state aid,
  the State can (and will) request a wavier from
  the USDE to allow the State consider these SFSF
  ARRA funds to be non-Federal for ESEA and IDEA
  Maintenance Of Effort requirements

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Supplement, Not Supplant

• ESEA requirement that prohibits the use of these
  funds to provide what is required by state law or
  local policy
• Auditors question In the absence of federal
  funds, would the district need to provide this?
  If the answer is yes, federal funds cannot be
  used
• ESEA funds cannot be used to replace local and
  state funding or services with some exceptions

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Supplement, Not Supplant (SNS)

• SNS in Schoolwide projects is financial
• Districts must provide the same level of support
  (finances) to Title I schools as is provided to
  non-Title I schools
• SNS in Targeted Assistance Schools is services
• Title I students must receive the same amount of
  instruction from the regular classroom teacher as
  non-Title I students Title I services must be in
  addition

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SNS Exceptions

• A district cannot provide a service in non-Title
  buildings and use Title I funds to pay for the
  same service in Title buildings
• Schoolwide projects could use Title funds as long
  as the district maintains the same overall
  financial support for Title and non-Title
  buildings

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Using ARRA For Existing Teachers

• Targeted Assistance Projects
• If a district did not receive enough Title I
  funds to fully fund the teacher, and
• If the Title program is full time (serving only
  eligible children, parents involvement, etc.)
• Schoolwide Projects
• Must maintain fiscal and programmatic records to
  confirm that, in the absence of federal funds,
  they would have eliminated the staff or services

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NCLB Consolidated Application 2008-09 (8 formula
programs) July 1, 2008 Sept. 30, 2009 With
Tydings Amendment, Oct. 1, 2009 Sept. 30, 2010
ARRA Consolidated Application 2008-09 (Only Title
I and Title II-D of NCLB) April ? 2009 - Sept.
30, 2010 With Tydings Amendment, Oct. 1, 2010
Sept. 30, 2011 (Open with Title I in April and
add Title II-D in July)
NCLB Consolidated Application 2009-10 (8 formula
programs) July 1, 2009 Sept. 30, 2010 With
Tydings Amendment, Oct. 1, 2010 Sept. 30. 2011
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Regular and ARRA Title I

• USDE guidance these are two sources of funds
  for one Title I program
• ARRA Title I application will have some connected
  pages with the regular Title I application
• Targeting pages will be linked
• Only one set of data and funds for identifying
  and serving eligible buildings, set-asides,
  allocations among the building, etc.
• Need to apply Title I requirements like parent
  reservation if total allocation is 500,000 or
  more

28
ARRA Application

• Regular application with minor changes
• Program information will include the purposes of
  ARRA
• No scheduled payments for ARRA funded staff
• Must report names of ARRA staff for payment
• ARRA funds can be spent as soon as application is
  approved (but not before)

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ARRA Application

• Nonpublic Participation Forms were revised to
  include ARRA
• Must consult with nonpublic schools on use of
  ARRA funds
• Forms are due on May 1, 2009
• Must be submitted to have ARRA application
  approved
• Consortia membership
• Must be the same for regular and ARRA

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So Much , So Little Time

• Unprecedented transparency (scrutiny),
  accountability and reporting!
• Message is Spend quickly and spend wisely!
• NDE will help
• Seek all the waivers we need
• Provide as much flexibility as federal guidance
  allows
• Streamline applications and reporting

31
ARRA Title I Examples

• Accelerated timeline for Title I schools that are
  eligible and ready to become schoolwide projects
• Districts with eligible buildings are being
  notified
• Reasonable and necessary administrative costs
  allowed for the additional reporting
• Allowing 5 of ARRA funds for administrative costs

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Plan Ahead

• If expanding services, grade levels or buildings
  served, adding summer or intersession programs or
  after school services
• Now is the time to identify eligible students and
  services (needs assessment)
• New Rubric for Targeted Assistance Schools will
  help identify program needs and services
• Another telecast as soon as application is ready

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Other Reporting

• Title I requires each district to submit the
  2008-09 state and local expenditures by building
• Due to State by December 1, 2009
• Will need guidance from USDE for how to determine
  state and local expenditures by building

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Information

• www.ed.gov and www.recovery.gov
• Official sites for all ARRA reporting
• FAQ, Hot Topics, etc.
• Track the number of jobs, outcomes/results, etc.
• http//www.recovery.nebraska.gov/
• NDE homepage has links to all of the above at
  http//www.nde.state.ne.us/