Don’t Forget About Maintenance of Effort

As we approach the CARES ESSER funding period, along with one year extensions for spending FY19 and FY20 monies, and with FY21 carryover requirements waived, districts may find themselves with what is perceived to be extra funds.  The temptation may be to use schoolwide federal dollars to pay for personnel previously funded by district dollars.  Prior to the redefining of supplement not supplant, this would have been considered supplanting.  If your district is considering making these types of moves, I would suggest one look carefully at the pros and cons.  One of the ramifications of shifting personnel expenses to federal is that it could impact the district’s maintenance of effort (MOE) by reducing the amount of state and district funding to a school while federal funding increases.  I ran across the MOE FAQs found in the link below.  The FAQ applies to the CARES Act and to state funding, but as we know, what applies to the state eventually rolls down hill to the districts.  Just something to consider….

https://oese.ed.gov/files/2020/06/CARES-Act-Programs-Maintenance-of-Effort-FAQ.pdf?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=